A Very Long Beginning....

The kids and I saying good-bye to our apartment in London.

All great stories have beginnings that capture your interest, draw you in, and before you know it, you're hooked and you can't help but read until you see the adventure through.  I have decided to start this blog about my family's adventures as we leave our home in London, Ontario, and prepare to travel across Canada to our new home in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.  Furthermore, I would like to blog about our life up there, and post pictures so that all our friends and family can read and see about what our life will be like in Canada's most Northern mainland community.  Many people have told us we are crazy and that they could never live in the cold the way we are going to be, and I believe them.  I know it's going to be cold....darn cold, but for some reason, other than the obvious jobs we are going to, we feel we are being called there.

I spent a great deal of the spring and early summer wrestling with myself and God, about Greg's job offer in Tuktoyaktuk.  It was our 'back pocket' job - in case nothing worked out in Ontario.  As things turned out,  there were no jobs in Ontario for Greg at all and we came to the conclusion that time, and more importantly money, was running out.  In order to support our three great kids we had to leave not only London, the city we had come to love and call home for the past five years, but the province of Ontario, too!

I was angry and grieving the loss of our life in London.  I cried for our kids, who had to say good-bye to their BFFs and their fantastic school, St. Thomas More Roman Catholic School, and all the wonderful students and staff there.  They had to give up their extra curricular activities and everything familiar to them in order to move to some place they have only seen through pictures online.  Then we asked them to go through their belongings and take only what REALLY mattered, and we put the rest in storage.  That was a difficult to thing to ask of them, too.  I hated having to do that to them, and it made me angry to have to do so.

I felt bad for Greg.  He put his heart and soul into this position for the last 5 years.  There was a time when he loved going to work everyday, and he loved the responsibility and difference he was making in education at the time.  It broke his heart that one person's decision in Ottawa to discontinue federal funding to his organization, the funding that paid Greg's salary, could altar the fate of our entire family.

I cried for our beloved cats, Orlando and Florida, our furry grey kitties whom we love so dearly.  It was a terrible shock to realize that they would not be able to make the journey with us because the house to which we are moving has a strict no animals policy.  Who would want to foster two 7-year-old indoor cats when there are plenty of kittens without good homes?  Our wonderful cat sitter, who owns her own animal care and pet sitting service called Lonely Critters, came to our rescue and found us a great guy and fellow cat lover, who is looking after our kitties for us.

And, of course, I cried for me.  I had managed to make a few very dear friends in London, not to mention our amazing family doctor, Dr. Dorota Marczuk, our great dental team at Altima Oxford Dental, and our incredible Chiropractor, Dr. Julie Floyd, who kept me vertical for the last five years.  How were we just supposed to walk away from these professionals who care for me and my family so well and with such love and enthusiasm?  What about my role as Sunshine, the Unit Guider with the 45th London Sparks?  I love being a member of the Girl Guides of Canada and sometimes, when life is tough, the smiles on those girls' faces makes a tough week that much brighter.

When I reflect back on the last several months, I realize that's a lot of crying! Somehow or other, things  became clearer when I said to God, "Okay. You win. Thy will be done."  The cats were re-homed, Charlotte and I can continue Guiding, our move went smoothly, we found a nice home to rent, there are all kinds of kids in Tuk who are awaiting our kids' arrival so they can meet them and make friends, and our friends who truly matter will stay by our side and in our hearts no matter which remote part of the country we happen to roam.

There goes 2600 lbs of Wilson belongings!!

So, here we are.  We have moved out of our apartment in London, and we are in the 'In Between' time of our summer, where we are currently of no fixed address.  We are staying with Gramma and Grampa Wilson in Parry Sound, Ontario, and we are preparing for some fun family time, including our daughter and our niece's upcoming First Communions, before embarking on our 10 day journey across our country to our new home.  Now you know how we came to be where we are and the process involved. This wasn't a decision we took lightly or made easily.  The jobs are nice - but there is so much more to this, and I feel very strongly that we are on the verge of something pretty amazing, a new story in our family's adventures.  I hope that this first blog has captured your interest, hooked you, and made you want to read more.

So, God.  You win.  Thy will be done.