Discouraged (brace yourself, this one is long)

"Intimacy with another country is ripened by pleasures but also by loneliness and error... it is nurtured through long wet winters as well as radiant days."

-Shirley Hazzard, "Italian Hours"

January has been a month of discouragement. We have had our fair share of loneliness, error... and it sure does seem like a long, wet winter.

It began with our long trip back to France on December 26th... once again leaving family, friends, familiarity... not to mention sunshine.

The weather is discouraging... cold, gray, sunless skies... short days... rain, freezing rain, snow.

Transportation has been an issue for us this month with the snow, train line work, and strikes. We have a long and tiring commute.

With our contracts ending in April, we are beginning to feel very weighed down with the decisions we must make... do we extend? Do we renew? What if we can't find jobs in the US? What if Doug doesn't get into a PhD program? Where will we live?

But above all, the heaviest burden has been the sudden changes in our current living situation. Once school resumed, our "once a week roommate" started to show up unexpectedly at different times of day. It has been unsettling to not know when someone might pop in... including her parents (our landlady and her husband) who dropped by a few weeks ago and informed us that rather than their daughter staying once a week, their son would begin staying at the apartment at the beginning of February... not once a week, but permanently. Which means we can no longer use the "living room" area of the apartment because that will be his room. We will also not be able to use the coat closet (where we also store our luggage), because that is also in the living room. We also found out that he is a smoker. This was obviously NOT in our lease, and we have been very disappointed, but we also want to try to preserve the Hendrixes relationship with our landlady and family, especially since they are not (yet) Christians.

So the apartment search began... but it is not really the time of year to be looking for apartments as most are filled for the school year... and we got more scam responses than anything else. Otherwise the apartments were too small, too expensive, or too far.

From the beginning of our own little "housing crisis," the Hendrixes were so very generous to open their home to us. We feel like God is leading us in this direction (by pretty much shutting every other door!), so, we made the decision today to take them up on their offer. Sometime next week, we will be moving in. Not only will it save us from sharing an apartment with a smoking stranger, but it also makes sense because we will be gone for 2 weeks in February for winter break, and they will be gone for nearly 2 months in Guadeloupe and the US... they will have someone watching their house while they are gone, and we will save several months of rent.

So, our new address will be:

9, rue Paul Gauguin

69330 MEYZIEU

FRANCE

In all of our discouragement this month we have really enjoyed "escaping" in our travel to Alsace and Belgium. The Bundys were so good to us last weekend and our spirits were very lifted spending time with them.

Looking forward to more travel and praying for "radiant days" ahead!