The Whittaker Life...

How is Adelaide? Simple.
Our life here is simple, for the moment. Since we have had few opportunities to make friends in our time here (one hardly sparks a lifelong friendship in the Bi-Lo express lane or whilst discussing home and contents insurance to someone at the end of a 1300 number). We’ve been in Adelaide for three weeks now. In retrospect (though we realized at the time also…what ‘spect’ is that called?), the events of our first week here were incredible and, to us, very God:
Monday:
Arrived in Adelaide at Rikki and Kristin’s house at 3.30pm
Tuesday:
Found a public library, searched for houses. (At 9am somewhere in Adelaide a real estate agent places a three bedroom near new house in Plympton on the internet). At 9:30pm we found a three bedroom near new place in Plympton on the internet, we rang the real estate agent and asked what needed to be done to ensure we’d get the place. Visited real estate agent, filled out relevant forms, arranged inspection for the following day.
Wednesday:
Went to the inspection, along with three other people keen to rent the very same place. Left feeling skeptical about our chances and being told we’d find out the following day.
Thursday:
Got messages from our references telling us they’ve been contacted. Think that is good news but still wait for hours to hear. At 4pm we hear from our real estate agent. We ‘got’ the house.
Friday:
We raced to Capt’n Snooze to get a mattress we’d been eyeing off, got the mattress at 4:30 (just before close) and moved into our three bedroom, near-new house in Plympton. Rikki, Kristin, Joshua and Simeon came over for dinner, bringing with them camp chairs and a card table for a pizza dinner in our empty house. We celebrated with a red wine…God is good!
Our furniture and boxes and boxes of wonderful gifts didn’t arrive until the following Wednesday, so we ‘camped’ out for the first few days, cooking porridge in a sunbeam cooker and leaving the milk outside to keep it cold. That Wednesday I had such fun unpacking all of our brand new ‘things’ and making our house more of a home…
Now we’ve been here for two weeks. We had Rikki and Kristin over for dinner again last night, this time eating off around our beautiful eight-seater table off of our very cool Villeroy and Boch set. We also had Tyson visit a few days after we moved in, which was so wonderful (we miss you all so much…it was so nice to have a familiar face around), and the other day my cousin Brooke came around for dinner and chats. Simeon’s baptism was also a highlight and we were glad that we could be here for that. We thank God for family, without whom we’d be exceptionally lonely!
Elmo came to visit for a few nights before deciding that he just didn’t like it here. He walked around crying for seemingly no reason and woke us up early in the morning with the same tune. We decided it would be best for him to go and live with Nanna in Barmera, which is where he is now and apparently much happier. I miss him heaps, the house is lonelier without him here, but it was best for him to be with Nanna.
I started work yesterday at Faith. ‘Work’ consisted of quite a few hours talking to Pastor Mark about what’s been done in the past with the youth there and what he envisions for the future. Since I am only 0.5 I have today off and will go back again tomorrow to start brainstorming with Mark and the Chairperson about ‘what to do’ with the Youth in our church.
As I said earlier, our life at the moment is simple. Jordan works 9 – 5, I clean and hang out at home, we spend the nights together trying filling our time with DVDs and reading. It’s the kind of simplicity some people only dream of, and we know it’s only temporary; that life will soon get interesting, so we’re trying to make the most of it and this alone time. Still, the quiet makes the ‘void’ so much more obvious. We miss the family and friends that used to fill up our time, but we know this is where we’re meant to be and so we try and focus on that and God’s plan for us here. We don’t quite understand yet, and perhaps never will, but are comforted in the knowledge that we are here for a reason.
We finally have internet, but I’m unable to use it because we couldn’t get it set up this morning. So I’m writing this in Word and will post it tonight when it is set up. Sorry for being out of contact for so long...if you’ve sent me and email, thank you and I’ll try reply soon :) If not, why not?!!!! :P Miss Hypocritical….
Talk soon!
Ellie