Housing Update

The fact that we have been homeless from the time we landed has been wearing on us. Even as we were enjoying our summer of travels to see friends and family across Europe and North America in the back of our minds we knew that we needed to work on housing. For better or worse we began looking in earnest in August and our target area has been Kitchener, Ontario.

After our daughters were given the green light to attend Rockway (after a wonderful afternoon visit with admissions person Tom Bileski and principal Betsy Petker) it became clear that Kitchener would be the focus of our attention over the next 6 years. Wanda has a job in the city and I hope to find work here as well. So now it was time to look for houses.

Those who have house hunted before know that it is hard work, physically and emotionally. We went through up to a dozen houses physically and hundreds online before Wanda found one in the classifieds in the local newspaper. It was a house in the Forest Heights area of town on McGarry Drive. We arranged through our realtor to go see it. The previous day had been a fiasco with the girls who were so disappointed with the houses we saw (us too) so Wanda and I went without them. When we arrived at 153 McGarry the thing that set this house apart on the outside was the well kept perennial garden and the arched frame to the door. A good beginning. Then the look inside.

Opening the front door I immediately noticed the staircase right in front. There were rooms on the left and right and a short hallway to the back of the house. Every room (except the kitchen) was carpeted, including the basement rooms. There were mirrors every where. And everything in the house was dated 30 to 40 years back. The house was built in 1971 so no surprise there but it was surprising that nothing had been updated.

However we were struck by the solid character of the house. Old but in good working order seemed to be the phrase we said over and over again. The carpets would need to go but there was solid hardwood under the carpets. The windows would need to be replaced but they still functioned. So did the sliding doors for the closet. I liked the idea of an ensuite bathroom and we knew that our daughters would like the idea of each having a bedroom. The basement was was listed as 'finished', a generous description but there was some liveable space. The bathrooms and kitchen most needed updating but it was all doable, hopefully by amateur home remodelers (like ourselves).

The backyard was also maintained as a garden space, again I was happy to see flowers, plants and trees in the small space. The garage acts as a storage shed which isn't so bad but unfortunately our vehicles will have to brave the cold Ontario winters (as will we).

There were some important upgrades to the house; a new furnace, new chimney, new roof; all good solid upgrades. Some leaks and cracks were fixed but we may have to get back to that.

We took the girls back the next day and as they toured the house they would circle back to say, I really like this house, I really want to live here. Abby has her own way of coping with things she really wishes for; she becomes grumpy and angry. I'm learning this. When I asked why she was so grumpy she said it was because she wanted the house so badly that she would be crushed if we didn't get it and so she was mad that she was caring so much for it! A new way to express desire.

We then told our realtor, Evelyn, that we would like to submit an offer to the seller. So we all went over to the realty office to draw up the papers. It was there we found out, from the realtor listing the property, that another party was planning on coming in that day for a second look. The owner (likely being counselled by her realtor) did not want to accept our offer until the next day. So we waited until Saturday.

We drove first to our realtor's office Saturday morning where several changes were made to the offer. We had initially planned to offer $12,000 less than the listing price because of the history of the neighbourhood (a number of homes had ended up being sold for less than the asking price) as well as the money we would have to put in the house after purchase. But with the other buyer we upped our bid by $10,000. Now we were close to the asking price. We also heard that the seller wanted until the end of September to stay in the house so we said ok. Finally our realtor advised us to drop as many conditions as we could so we dropped all of them but financing. Then we went to the other realtor's office.

To our surprise the seller was in the adjacent room. I got a glimpse of her but we didn't greet each other. We stayed with our realtor, Evelyn, in the room next door making small talk. Ian, the seller's realtor, wasn't there yet. Finally he arrived and invited Evelyn into the other room to meet the seller, then on the spur of the moment, he invited us in too. We were introduced to each other. Evelyn introduced us as returning missionaries with 3 daughters who loved the seller's home, especially the 3 bedrooms that they would each have! We all smiled at the impetuousness of youth. Then we began to review our offer.

After the review, Ian and the seller went upstairs to review the other offer while we waited again. By now we were pretty sure our offer was not going to make it in this hot housing market. Surely the other party would offer more. And when Ian came down again with the answer we found out that indeed the other party did offer $3000 more than us, just above the listing price. But what was significant was that the seller was willing to entertain a counteroffer from us. Perhaps $2000 more and a push back of the closing date to October 4? Also the appliances stay? Surprised and gratified, we quickly reviewed our position and agreed to the counteroffer. Shortly thereafter the seller accepted.

There was much rejoicing in the room with Wanda and Evelyn and myself. Wanda called her sister and our girls found out, more loud rejoicing. Now we need to get that funding squared away, a lawyer to transact our business for us and an insurance company that will insure our house. But for the moment we rejoiced.

The post-game analysis was fun because we won our home. One thing we have learned in bidding on houses is that if one can convey one's story to the selling party, it may help in the sale. Three times we believe it has done exactly that; our first house at 809 Market in Scottdale, our 2^nd house at 1 Woodcroft in St. Catharines and now at 153 McGarry. In each case our situation was conveyed either by letter or verbally by the realtor. I think that people would rather hear about a family coming in and loving the house to live in over some person wanting to simply 'flip' the house after major renovations. We wouldn't be able to prove that this method worked but anecdotally we heard evidence in all three cases that strongly suggested this was the case.

And so now we wait (im)patiently for October 4, making do until then with preparations and details.

Sights and Sounds of Summer

We are in Kitchener again after having been on the road for almost 2 months. Already, in the midst of our joy of seeing family and friends, we are ready to have a place we can call our home. But before we get to that allow me to give you a thumbnail sketch of what we have seen and heard this summer;

• weather – As the onset of the rainy season approached in Addis, I began to feel that same depressing feeling as in rainy seasons before, cool, clammy and muddy. No one finds it fun. Any weather in Europe and NA would be an improvement over this, I thought. We landed in Amsterdam to cool and rainy weather, sure felt familiar. But overnight the weather turned sunny and cool and since then we have experienced wonderful weather. What about the hot, humid weather you encountered that one day in Friesland or the weeks of oppressive heat in Canada and the U.S.? Yep, you are right, the heat was oppressive but I was just grateful to be here to enjoy it.

• Travel – living out of a suitcase for almost 2 months is hard and on our final long journey from Akron, PA to St. Catharines the other week the girls sorta melted down. We knew we need to stop being in motion and land somewhere, which we have finally done (at least the travel part). Travelling with lots of luggage is a royal pain but we survived both legs of the travel (see earlier blogs). Driving our 'new' minivan was fun, good thing that it has lots of room. We had to pick up 4 suitcases on this last swing through the states and even after doing some major shopping (twice!) at 2 large malls with great prices we still don't look like the Beverly Hillbillies!

• Room & Board – I won't tell you how much, or little, we spent in Europe or even as we spent 3 weeks travelling in NA but it couldn't have happened without, as the Beatles once said, a little help from our friends (and family). The generosity of folks in Europe meant that we not only could visit Holland and Switzerland but not break the bank (of our volunteer funds). Bob would fix up a large mug of coffee with frothed milk, almost breakfast unto itself. Miriam gave up her counselling room for the days we were there so the girls could sleep in it. They gave us their car to travel to places like Friesland and gave us invaluable advice on where to go and what to see. Our girls fell in love with 'stroopwafflen' and we all enjoyed the cheese. In Switzerland Heidi and Bruno opened their home to us, a large house where our girls could hang out in one room and us in another. They and our friends Andy and Manuela took us around Basel as well as day trips into the Emmental and the Lake district to Interlaken. What great days we had! We were hosted by Aschi and Mary Friesen Amstutz, Ernst and Ruth Sprunger and Daniel and Teresa Gerber. The food and fellowship were great, we will long remember.

• Wide, Open Spaces – It's hard to describe to folks who haven't lived in a compound all their lives, or even 4 years, what it feels like to be in the wide open spaces of North America. Sure there a fences between properties but nothing like the walls in Addis Ababa. Additionally our girls never ventured out alone in Addis nor did they want to go far into public anyhow. They stood out and were an instant attraction, much to their dislike. So to hop on a bike and ride up and down the streets of Kidron or Tavistock was such a freeing experience for them. I also loved the fact that houses, even in cities, were not closed away behind high walls. And of course the beautiful fields of grain were wonderful to behold, especially at night with a thousand points of light from the lightning bugs in the fields. The sound of the cicada on hot summer days, the chirping of crickets on warm summer evenings. The moon waxing and waning, the summer sun; relentless by day but a glorious ball at sunrise and sunset. Walking fields and pastures, on streets and along roadsides. No one ogling us when we walked, probably the most freeing.

• Home – No, I wasn't clicking my heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but there were times in the past month, after we landed, when I would say to myself, there's no place like home. To channel an old Paul Simon song, everything eastern North America, from Ohio to Pennsylvania to Ontario seemed like it was in Kodachrome, those nice bright colors, those greens of summers, makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah! A feeling of release, of freedom, of coming home, of seeing family and friends again. In some ways it feels like starting over; house, jobs, school for our daughters, new city. At the beginning it felt very freeing (now, not so much). But I still marvel at how it feels, at times, like living in a parallel universe between Africa and North America.

'Setting Up Shop' in North America

After 4 years out of circulation in North America we landed. Maybe not immigrants but certainly needing to establish ourselves again, almost like starting over. Where to start?

First of all we needed wheels. Without a vehicle life is very difficult in North America. But you don't want to buy the first vehicle you see, do you? Fortunately our good friends, Dianne and Fanosie, lent us their minivan until we could find something. This is a profoundly moving offer. You don't find folks who lend without expectations in return. Our friends did and we are grateful. We were able to visit Ohio and my family when my sister and her husband were in town and drive back to Ontario.

And we did find a minivan when we expected not to buy. We went shopping in Stratford one afternoon with Wanda's father. Strickland Motors runs 3 large car lots; new Toyotas, high quality used and heavily used. We looked at several used vehicles and nothing felt right. They suggested we look at a Toyota Sienna in the lower end lot so we drove over as a last resort for the day. The Sienna looked well used, a no go. We were ready to leave when the salesman got a call from our first salesman in the other lot, they just got a 2004 Nissan Quest SE minivan in, very clean. They had just unloaded it off the truck and were washing it, could they drive it over and show us? We were hot and tired but agreed to wait a couple of minutes.

When it came we looked at each other. It was indeed clean, inside and out. The engine was relatively clean and certainly sounded good (to a non-mechanic's untrained ear). It was loaded with everything we would never afford on a new vehicle; power everything including side door and hatch back, sun roofs, built in GPS, multi-disc CD system, heated seating, DVD player (this would be the clincher with our daughters). It had a funky dashboard; a circular console in the center but not weird enough to dismiss it. It had 146,000 kms and they set the price at $9,950. They would clean it up for us, would we want it?

After deliberation (rather short compared to other times we bought vehicles), we said yes. Wanda's father, Wanda and I all thought that it looked very good, in fact it almost sounded too good to be true. We needed a quality used minivan and this seemed like it was landing right in our laps. Yes, let's do it.

We ended up paying over $10,000 after taxes but it was in our 10-12,000 range. We scrambled to buy auto insurance but by Saturday morning we had both the insurance and the Nissan Quest. It was fully cleaned up inside and out. It looked new and even smelled somewhat new (leather seating will do that).

We did also buy a pay-as-you-go Nokia phone and signed up with Rogers. It is an 'unlocked' phone, not connected to any long term contract. I still have to get used to paying when I receive a call. A big rip off but what can one do? Us consumers have to rise up in protest, if they can get away with it the phone giants of the world will.

We also bought a computer; a cherry red Dell. We thought we wouldn't buy a Dell again after some problems with it in Ethiopia. But when we brought home a Toshiba Satellite and it started acting up from the get go, I immediately retreated to the only Dell that Future Shop sold. It's true that I would normally buy online but I decided to buy local so I could get it serviced locally. Like the phone this is a stop gap measure for the summer and short term until we get settled. It will work for now.

We also re-established our residency with the Province of Ontario by renewing our OHIP cards. This was a huge thing we did the first day we were in country. Having health insurance the moment we land and not having to worry about our medical future is a huge load off our minds. We both agreed that unless we had jobs to go to in Ohio we wouldn't land there. It made all the sense in the world to land in Ontario jobs or no jobs. Too bad more Americans push for this in the U.S. If the U.S. had had somehow passed national health care back when the Canadians did I guarantee that Americans would never allow any politician to touch this just like the vast majority of Americans won't let the politicians touch Medicare and Medicaid . . . or maybe they will. Over the next year we shall see.

We still have two big things on the 'to-do' list; finding a house to rent or buy and getting our daughters into a good school. Of course a job for me would also be helpful. So friends and family, hold these in your thoughts and prayers for us over the next month.

Jobs

So many of our friends and family have asked us about what we are doing next and we want to update them. Obviously what work we will be doing has been a prime topic of conversation in our family. Our daughters have asked us often until we told them, when we know you will know.

Wanda interviewed for an interim pastor position at Stirling Ave. Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ontario way back in June just before we left Addis Ababa. It was a Skype interview that was interrupted several times when the line dropped. However Wanda and the search committee seemed to hit it off very well in their short conversation. Then life got very busy again as we focused on final packing and leaving Addis.

We were in Europe when we received an email inviting Wanda to be the interim pastor for Stirling Ave. She was delighted and quickly responded yes. Since then both we and folks on the search committee have had busy summers. But Wanda expects to follow up as soon as we return to Kitchener (mid-August).

So now the question falls to me in some form, what will you do? I can say that I have actively pursued pastoral or church positions in both Ohio and Ontario, even a teaching position in a western state. I was invited to an interview at a church in Ontario and currently I am 'in the running'. I am hopeful although I will not despair if I am not invited to serve as pastor. Wanda and I have always talked about God opening doors in our professional lives. Some doors may close but others may open and I am optimistic about my opportunities. I feel good about my education and experience.

My daughters also need jobs; jobs as students. But where? We continue to hope that we can get them in Rockway Collegiate, a Mennonite 7-12 school in Kitchener. That will also have to be pursued in mid-August.

In this way our lives are unsettled but in other ways we feel fulfilled as we visit friends and family. The time will come when the doors will open.