Our Christmas letter 2005

Christmas letters…. I have been putting off writing this for far too long, we’ve had several letters already from Canada, and I know this will be late. Maarten and I have been married 1626 days today.

One of the reasons that this has been so difficult for me is, on August 7, I heard that my Aunt Lorraine was very sick. She had a whipple operation in January 2004, and seemed to recover from it. I guess in March this year she started having pain, and has been in the hospital since June. She is in her last days, and I find myself wishing God would take her, if only to relieve me of my suffering, grieving for her. I know life isn’t fair, but here was a woman who spent her life working so hard to provide for others and care for others. She was my biggest fan. Maarten and I received many cards, and little surprise packages since I have been married and living here. I think one of my favorite presents, was a sign for our garden (I am sure it was meant for Maarten!) It reads, "Don’t just stand there, WEED!" My aunt was an avid gardener. I bought a willow tree angel called Angel of the Garden, to remember her by. It is sitting on my table. My heart still mourns the loss of her, and I have had such a difficult time asking God why does it have to be this way? I know he can heal her….

Our year has been one of ups and downs. Maarten’s year began with 2 operations, the second only because the first was not done properly enough. This required a hospital stay, which he hated. He has had a couple trips abroad, one to America again for a ship, his last trip was 11 days in Spain. He got an MP3 player for his birthday in April and he loves it! Going back and forth to work on his bike (even in wet and windy weather) takes quite some time and is made pleasurable with music. He has been busy with making websites. He made one for a mission organization called Children Asking and you can look at the site, http://www.childrenasking.org/ the Dutch site is only working at the moment and the English site is in the works, hopefully it can be done in the new year. The other site he did was for a friend of ours from church. She started a breakfast service, so now people can look online and see what she offers, the cost and of course they can order breakfast to be delivered for a special occaision! I was feeling a bit like a widow during the months that Maarten worked on these sites, it was 2 and a half months on the one for Children Asking. The breakfast site took him 35-40 hours. But when you are working full-time, and then you come home, eat supper and sit at your computer till 1:00 am there is not much left over for the mrs. (ME!)

My year has been spent with Dutch lessons, phsyio (and lots of it), I lost 8.6 kilos and found them again sometime after Easter. I’m feeling a failure these days, especially with this never ending battle over what is good for me, and what isn’t. The doctor is suggesting a "magband" which doesn’t make me very happy at all. I have been enjoying doing scrapbooking, although it makes me sad when I see all the photos and feel very homesick for home and family.

I made a friend, she came to the Netherlands from the Dominican Republic on April 30 to marry a Dutchman on May 18, and I crashed her wedding just so I could meet her. She is a lovely Christian girl named Minerva, and we have become good friends in her short stay here. She speaks 5 languages already, and now is hard at work learning Dutch. We pray together every Tuesday morning and that has been a special answer to prayer for me. We have seen some amazing things already… One friend of ours became a Christian when I was still in Canada this summer, anyway, he was baptized last Sunday, December 4th, and he wanted his parents to attend. They are the type of people who never darken the door of a church. We were praying for them, and the evening before the service, they changed their minds and they were in church on the Sunday. It was so amazing!

Our visitors this year…. Angie in March, a friend from England! She came to visit and keep me company while Maarten was away overseas. It snowed that week, and we had fun biking in the snow!
Audrey in April – she came from Ladysmith, British Columbia and we enjoyed her visit so much.
Theresa & Meghan in May – two Canadian girls out to see the world! We felt a bit like parents worrying over our children… they pitched in and helped with gardening and dishes. They were great houseguests and would be welcome anytime!
Dr. & Mrs. Kati in November – It was less than 24 hours and was just too short…. Although the shortest visit has to be from my youngest brother Mark. Mark came in July, we picked him up at the airport, which is 100 km from our house. He then had a shower, ate some breakfast with us, we went for a bike ride to see a little of Ambacht, and 2 hours and 45 minutes later, a friend was here to drive us back to the airport to see him off again. We wish people would come and stay a little longer….

Well, I have one happy thing to tell you…. I won a toaster this year, actually I won two things. The toaster was from Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The other thing I won was a "wijn proeverij avond." That was a very interesting evening. A lady came with 9 bottles of wine, and I had invited guests, and we tasted the wine with things she brought to eat, like strawberries, cheese, pate & bread. I had made a pumpkin cheese cake for the evening too. It was a lovely evening and before it happened we had no idea what to expect – it was a learning experience. Just for your information, she also brought buckets for spitting in, so no one left walking funny!
Our summer vacation this year started with an 11-hour wait at the Toronto airport to catch our next flight to Halifax, that was horrible. (Especially having already flown into TO from Amsterdam!) We had a lovely tour of the East Coast with a tour company called Salty Bear Adventure Travel. We got to go canoeing, and we saw a beaver dam – we had raspberry pancakes with chocolate inside…. So yummy! We visited Peggy’s Cove and then the memorial site for Swissair flight 111. We visited Mahone Bay, Lunenberg and other little places up the South Shore. We stayed the night at an old farmhouse in Annapolis Royal. They say it is the oldest permanent settlement in Canada.

On our 6-day tour we went 2 different directions, the first 2 days we went to the aforementioned places, we returned to Halifax and then with a different tour driver, we went to Cape Breton Island along the Cabot Trail. We went whale watching, then from Pictou, NS by ferry we went to PEI, and Charlottetown, saw Province House, where Canada was born, stayed the night at University of PEI, the following day we visited Cavendish, the home of Anne of Green Gables. When leaving PEI we crossed the Confederation Bridge, opened in 1997, spans 12.9 km across the Northumberland Strait. It connects with New Brunswick and then within a half-hour, you are back in Nova Scotia.

We also enjoyed our time touring Halifax, although I had previously visited the city, I forgot that they had hills – boy do they have hills! Poor Maarten had to hold on tight to my wheelchair going downhill, and going up, well that was a struggle too. We spent most evenings in an Irish Pub for supper, the music was live and mostly excellent. We stayed at a Hostile for most nights in Halifax, that was a new experience for us – but it worked out well. We visited the Maritime Museum, which was a great place! We had a ride on the Harbor Hopper, a great big green amphibious vehicle, which not only goes through the streets of Halifax telling about the city, but also drives down into the harbor to give us a view from the water! Was very exciting for us! I suppose Maarten’s favorite place was visiting Alexander Keith’s Brewery, the tour was done as if we were there 142 years ago, they dressed in period costumes, sang period songs, and danced whatever jig was hot at the time! It was very impressive and well worth the time and effort to see this part of history.

All in all our 10 days on the East Coast was the highlight of our year. It was on our last day that I found out how sick my aunt was, and then all joy left me. I’ve been told it will return… but it is difficult to be joyous when someone I love dearly is in such a state, and I am so far away. When I heard the news, I wanted to go right away to her, but Maarten is not so fond of hospitals, so instead we went to Thompson and spent our time with family. We returned to Winnipeg for Maarten to fly back to Holland, and then I went with my mom’s youngest sister, to Saskatchewan where we visited my aunt on a daily basis, but even then she was in so much pain, you couldn’t sit and visit. I returned to Thompson by VIA rail, which was a 14-hour trip. I stayed 9 more days, returning to Winnipeg, and then flying back to the Netherlands. It was so hard to leave. Even now I wish I were in Canada, even though there is nothing I can do to help.

Thankfully we know that one day, when death separates us here on earth, we will be together again. That is the hope that we as Christians have. Thankfully Jesus was willing to come to earth as a little baby, during this time of Christmas we celebrate that coming! What a world we would live in if he hadn’t chosen to come! This world seems to be getting worse and worse with so many things happening effecting countless numbers… One day, when the rapture happens…. What a day that will be!

Yes, I know in Philippians 4:4 it says, "Rejoice in the Lord, always, and again, I say, Rejoice!" Sounds like a command to me, and not a, "If everything’s going well, and you feel like it, Rejoice…" I don’t feel like it, but I must!

Blessings on you this Christmas, and always. Linda for us both….. (I hogged all the space!)