Settling in the UK

Hi everyone!

We are finally here in the UK, finally here in Birmingham. It’s been a long journey, leaving Vancouver on September 1st and embarking on an 18-day journey here to Birmingham. God has been very good to Alex and myself. He has blessed us with so many wonderful memories that we will treasure forever with the friends and family with whom we met up with along the way. Of course, we remember and treasure the dear friends and family we left in Vancouver too!

So how does it feel to finally be here in Birmingham? I can only speak for myself, Alex will have to share his thoughts in his blog entry. I have already been asked many a times why I would return to such a country as England, always so wet and so dark in the winter and so gloomy here. I have been quite surprised actually by all the negative comments I hear about this island. Perhaps many people are fed up, for whatever reason. The only thing I want to say is that grass is not always greener on the other side.

It’s true that I left a country and a continent with an abundance of riches… in natural resources, in material goods, in choices of many excellent eateries and many other things. But along with all this abundance of “stuff”, I found myself yearning for more connection with people around me. Perhaps I did not use my opportunities wisely, but for example: I was physically close to my family. But I felt like I was not communicating as well with them as I can now, from afar. And though it’s only been a few days, I do feel like the skype conversations that I’ve had with my parents since arriving here have been more substantial than many conversations I had with them when I was at home. 

So upon arriving here in Birmingham, it’s been really lovely staying at my friends’ Ros and Bok’s home and re-connecting with many old friends from church and work as well as making new friends too. The thing I’ve felt most blessed by is that I feel the same welcome and sense of community from my BCEC church family here as I did from my past years.

With any place, there’s always good and bad. At present, my struggle has been about securing a job. I’m trying to get work back in the lab where I used to work at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital. Though I had been communicating via email with my old boss here in the UK, I’m still going through an interview process at present. I know that God will provide something good for me and Alex here. I just need more faith in really believing that and trusting with all my heart, without worrying too much. Easier said than done though. 

That’s all for now from me. Hopefully, I’ll have more news soon to share with everyone. Until the next time… love, betty