In late September 2013 Wendy and I returned to Canada from Lesotho. It was great to be home. Weddings, connecting with family and friends, and adapting to snow again. Maybe it was the early snow, as another thing that happened was that I went into hibernation relative to our blog, Step by Step. In an attempt to catch up a bit I will provide a brief overview of the past months; a summary of our journey and God's faithfulness to us and others during our time in Canada since September 2012.
First on our agenda upon returning to Canada was the wedding of our middle son, Dylan. Wendy is especially delighted that there is another woman in the Fath family. Me, I think I am finally over my slight disorientation at seeing the surname "Fath" appended to "Breanna", our daughter-in-law's name.
The following weekend there was another wedding, one of Wendy's nieces. This wedding included hosting Wendy's three sisters who were in Alberta for the wedding. Ahh, God is so good. About a week before our return to Canada a gracious woman from our church offered us her home to stay in while she was away for a few weeks. I am not sure she anticipated her graciousness would extend to us hosting Wendy's sisters and husbands for about a week. There was even one day when Wendy's brother and family visited, swelling the number of those present to over twenty for that day. Thank-you to Shirley for her kindness and graciousness in providing her home, and thank-you to one of the sisters and her husband who were there to restore the house to the condition it was when we arrived.
Our next stop was at my mother's, where we intended to stay briefly until we found a place of our own. But, as Wendy so often quotes, "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails," (Prov. 19:2). My 81 year old mother promptly asked if we would stay and look after her house as she was thinking it was time to downsize her life and move into something smaller. We looked into some options with her and she decided on an apartment, in a seniors complex. There were vacancies in the complex, she had her choice of units, and within ten days she was getting settled in a new home.
What worked so well for her in the transition was that she was able to wrap up her "old life" in a relaxed pace. It was a early and cold winter, but seldom a day went by when we would hear her coming up the outside stairs, having walked the fifteen minutes from her new 'home'. Each day is was this closet, that cupboard, or some corner that she worked through, setting aside what would join her in her new home, what would be offered to others, or what was to go the thrift store or even to the rubbish pile. There was also what to leave for the moment so that Wendy and I had what we needed to live in the house.
Besides assisting my mother, Wendy and I (mostly Wendy) did what was needed to get the house prepared to sell. Not all was clear sailing, but less than four months after moving into Mom's house, we moved out and new owners moved in. The possession day was the very same day that Wendy and I left Canada for a return visit to Lesotho. Could it have worked out any better?
Wendy had felt we needed to reconnect with family in Canada, so we had left Lesotho. Two weddings and my mother happily settled in a new home has confirmed that God had a purpose for us being back in Canada for that season. The neighbor lady across the street from Mom's, for whom I shovelled snow, added her different perspective. She told me that God knew she needed someone to help shovel the snow from her drive, and that God brought us back from Africa just for that purpose. :-)
Yes, we were still without a place of our own, but we had been in Canada for some things equally important. In February we left on an eight week visit back to Lesotho.
~ Benno ~
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