Wedding day fast approaches

Two weeks tomorrow is the day we plan to get married! Life is hurtling past at speed and the day is fast approaching - and it is exciting and scary at the same time....

The EFG graduated from Aberdeen in June and did well enough that she is now doing postgraduate studies at Edinburgh uni - still in Scotland, bless her! The YFG has just started at Newcastle uni to do Geography. Once I get to Carlisle at the end of the month, we will all be within a reasonable distance of one another. 

Graduation was a special day in June when the chap and I went up to Aberdeen to share it with the EFG. We arrived the day before and took her out for a meal that night as she was going to the graduation ball the night of the graduation, and the chap had to hike back to Cumbria on the train to go to work again the next day. I was able to stay and bring her and all her stuff back home - the Yeti was packed to the maximum capacity! It has been great to have her here all summer and to have some precious time together.... although my dad did very generously send them off on a cruise in July - they saw some of the coastline of Croatia and Italy, embarking the boat at Malta so the trip included their first experiences of flying. They did very well and enjoyed every minute.

I had a more sedate holiday in Northumberland in a cottage at Belford with the chap and his son, and the YFG joined us for most of the time.

The house has just about sold - God's been teaching me a valuable lesson about trusting him for the times that things happen so He has brought us to this point before the right buyer came along! I had three couples all wanting to buy the house but all subject to selling their own properties - and then a young first time buying couple came along so that there is absolutely no chain: it is just them buying this house.  I do suspect that they may be getting some parental support with the purchase, but as long as they come up with the money, I will be happy - and it is such a weight off my mind to know that I don't have to rent it out or leave it on the market once I am gone from here.

And I shall be gone from here in about three and half weeks - a man and a van are booked and we head north on the 31st.  I shan't be growing in the fens any longer, but I'm certain I still have a lot of learning and growing to do.  Cogitating in Cumbria? Maturing in the mountains? From Fens to Fells? We'll have to think of something!

I have officially stopped working here now and my time is focused on the candidating procedure for the ministry, packing, organising last minute things about the wedding and wondering how to fit it all in. I was quite stressed at the beginning of the week but I seem to have calmed down a little bit now, thank goodness. The YFG is nipping home tomorrow until Tuesday due to some cancelled lectures, so I am looking forward to hearing more about her first two weeks in Newcastle - she has already connected with a gymnastics club there so she clearly has her priorities straight!

Updates from the Fens

You wouldn't believe the procrastination I have had to overcome to work out how to get back in here after so long! I had forgotten so many passwords..BUT I'm here now - and glad to be able to catch up.

Thanks for the gentle nudges which have come my way in the last few weeks - lovely to know that you are still here and interested.  Life has moved on significantly here and there is lots to tell! Weird to realise that I haven't been here since last August....

The EFG went back to uni in September and has just today had her final exam. She should get the results on the 25th May and then graduates in June - and I have to fetch her and all her stuff home! She's looking at post grad courses in Edinburgh or Bristol at the moment, depending on the results.

The YFG has had quite a year: she's continued working at the cathedral six days a week and then she has got jobs in two different gymnastics clubs to work to gain experience for doing a Level 2 coaching qualification - and she passed the final assessment for that about two weeks ago! She works in one capacity or another 7 days a week and has not had much time to herself at all. She has applied herself to it all very well and done herself credit. She has also applied to uni again and has accepted an unconditional offer to go to Newcastle to read Geography in September.

And me? I'm working hard in the church, full time now - 37 hours a week. The Superintendent is currently off sick for a long period so I am holding the fort with three supernumerary ministers [retired] and today an acting Superintendent has been appointed to work with us from a distance - he will advise by telephone and email and come over for big meetings but not be here on a day to day basis.

I'm pursuing the process to candidate for the Methodist ministry as a Deacon - this is an Order of ministry which is permanent - we do not have Deacons who are on their way to becoming presbyters. This is the calling I have and I feel very settled on it so I hope that the selection committees affirm it and put me forward. I have a long process to get through and won't know whether they are accepting me until next March.

By that time, [drum roll] I will be married and living in Cumbria!

The chap and I are getting married here in the Fens in October in my big church and the house is on the market so that I aim to move up there to be with him permanently after we are married. If God wills it, the house will sell at the right time and all will work out. Let's pray that it all comes together!

2018 is turning out to be one heck of a year - marriage, candidating, moving house, YFG off to uni, EFG graduating!!  It won't be a year to forget in a hurry....

I shall attempt to come back more often now that I have sorted the password out - and wish you all very well!