Some Final Thoughts

I've been back in Canada for over four months now. Sadly, I did not arrive home in time to see Grandpa one last time. He died the day before I came home. I don't know why God took him home so suddenly. I probably won't ever know. But God knows, and that's all that matters. I do know that coming home was the right thing to do. The family had to be together, even though the first two weeks were some of the most difficult of my life so far. It was weird for the first few days. No more accents, people in the stores speak English right away. And Wal-Mart is gigantically huge. I'd forgotten how big and open and tall Canadian grocery stores are! I miss Dutch. Learning a second language has been a lifelong dream of mine. I wish I could have learned it better, but I'm happy that I had the opportunity I did. I could never speak with good grammar, but I could make myself understood. My speech is even more rusty now, but I can still understand it. Every time I hear Dutch I can't help but smile. I love that feeling of my brain switching into second language mode. It is good, though, to be back in a country where most people speak English as a first language. Even though I love Dutch, it wasn't easy to always have conversations where someone was speaking a second language. The only one who spoke true Canadian was Kim. We sure talked a lot. I think I'll always smile when I think of all our crazy adventures. Looking back, I realize that most of my posts are exactly that- crazy adventures. I would like to clarify that I'm not as wild as my blog may sound. Most days were fairly ordinary: biking, talking with Kim, going to the market, biking more, hiking the ski hill while reading a book. I didn't blog about those days because that would be boring. It was a bit weird at first getting back onto a Canadian schedule. Get-togethers start at 7:30 and end at 11:00. That's a much better time system than Holland's in my opinion. Home seemed pretty crazy and loud after living in such a quiet environment for four months. I quickly got used to noise again though. I need noise. When I study for university exams my favourite place to be is in a crowded room. People often question how I can possibly concentrate with so much going on around me. They usually have to ask two or three times before I notice that they're talking to me. I can drown pretty much anything out and go deeply into my concentration world. I can't go there if it's quiet. When I'm alone in an empty house I get so restless I can't concentrate on anything useful. I sure missed my family a lot while I was in Holland. It's great to be back home with siblings begging to play with me. I'm never lonely anymore. Loneliness was definitely the worst part of being in the Netherlands. The best part was... well I can't pick just one. Meeting new people, making friends, learning Dutch, seeing places I'd only imagined before, biking every day! (I still love to bike and sometimes I bike the 25km to university and back in Canada too). I learned so very much. I'm more independent now. I'm not as afraid of making phone calls. I used to be terrified to talk on the phone. I don't know why. I learned that I should study less and spend more time doing fun things. My studying is much more effective when I'm relaxed and happy. Although I think I still need to keep telling myself that. Sometimes I still study too much and then I don't feel so good. And most importantly God taught me a lot of important things about Himself, the world, the people in the world, and myself. Thankfully, though, He hasn't stopped teaching me things. I still learn more about those sorts of things almost every day as God guides me through life. I did just think of one good thing that came of me coming home early. Kim has a handsome Dutch boyfriend. She was pretty lonely after I left, and there was a young man from the church who was very interested in her the entire time. He came over quite a lot in my absence. Kim let him because she needed the company. And well... you can probably guess that they're dating now. I'm so happy for her. I hope God sends me a handsome prince charming someday. But although it's hard to be patient for that day to come, I definitely want it to be in God's time. Because God's plans are good and perfect, and worth being patient for. As far as I can think of, that's all I had to say. I've now been back from Holland for longer than I was there. I will always treasure the stories and memories of my time, and I will value the blessing of having a big, happy, busy family even more. And most of all, I am eternally grateful to be a covenant daughter of the Most High God.