A Month in Kitchener

My friend Christa who has a wonderful blog has inspired me to update my blog again. So exactly one month after leaving LA I suppose I should write an update on how it's all going.

We left LA when Béibhinn was 2 and a half weeks old. Now she is seven weeks old and in that short time seems to have grown and changed so much! The Friday before we left LA she weighed in at 8lbs 4oz. Two weeks after we arrived in Kitchener she weighed in at 11lbs! I'm pretty sure she's even heavier now-my arms are about to break!



















We arrived in Kitchener, Ontario on Sunday evening January 15th and went straight to our temporary accommodations. We stayed here for two weeks. I spent the first week indoors, taking care of Béibhinn and resting as much as possible. This was the first time since she was born that I was able to do this, it seemed like every day while we were in Los Angeles there was somewhere to go and something to do, so it was a real treat to be able to stay home. Andrew, however, was ridiculously busy running to and fro, opening bank accounts, exchanging money, signing mortgage papers and signing up for provincial health care, he never seemed to stop. My parents were there to help out and after getting a chance to have a walk through our new home, my dad left to fly back to Ireland on the Thursday.

My mum stayed for another week and a bit. The next week was just as busy. I was desparately trying to find a family doctor for both myself and Béibhinn so that I could get a prescription for my diabetes supplies and Béibhinn could have health care and receive her vaccinations. This proved to be impossible. Getting connected with a family doctor here seems like a mammoth task and it was disheartening to get rejection after rejection. We finally decided that we just needed to go to an urgent care clinic and get a prescription for me and at least get Béibhinn checked out by a Canadian doctor.

































Sunday January 29th we moved once again to a guest house near the University of Waterloo. We would stay here for a few days before we finally closed on our house and moved in. We stayed at the Sugarbush Guesthouse which was a lovely family run bed and breakfast. Mum left on Monday and I had my first day all alone with Béibhinn. Béibhinn is the sweetest baby and is just so much fun to take care of and she is so engaging she keeps me entertained and working hard all day. Never a dull moment with little Béibhinn Fung! Wednesday February 1st we finally closed on the house and moved in. Our amazing real estate agent Julie Martin had the house cleaned for us and brought over a mattress and bedding so that we could spend our first night in our new home before all of our belongings arrived from Los Angeles the next morning.

We had a great moving team arrive early the next morning. I really enjoyed listening to their thick Newfoundland and Nova Scotian accents as they moved our stuff in. It was so nice that night to sleep in our own bed and to finally have Béibhinn back in her bassinet. We felt like we had finally landed!

The past few weeks have been spent getting into a semi normal routine with Béibhinn, Andrew adjusting to new job, setting up the home, getting to know our neighbourhood, getting paperwork together for my permanent residence application and visiting churches. We were so blessed to have our dear friends Martin and Dale visit from Ottawa this weekend. They helped us to set up our kitchen and give it a good clean! Next week my buddy Guinevere is visiting from LA. We'll hopefully get Béibhinn's room organised and painted while she's here. We are so thankful at the moment for the help we're receiving from friends. It's amazing how little gets done with a tiny baby in our midst. It's also amazing how much joy she's brought to our lives so it's all worth it.

So, have we settled into life in Kitchener Waterloo? Practically speaking we have. Andrew has a job, we have a home, Andrew's parents are providing us with a car, we're getting all our paperwork sorted bit by bit. So yes, we're settling in pretty well here in that sense. It is lonely for us here at the moment though, especially for me. I love being home with Béibhinn and taking care of her, she's the best kind of company a girl could ask for, I do miss adult company however and I miss LA. Sometimes I feel a wave of sadness as I think of all our friends in Los Angeles, especially those that I spent time with regularly in the past year when I wasn't working. We also REALLY miss our church and the family it provided for us there. We really hope, I really hope, that we can find a church like that and that make friends like that here in Kitchener. If not we're just going to have to insist that you all move over here to us :D We have room in our house. When we ask you to visit us we really mean it, please come visit us any time you can, this is a beautiful part of the world and the weather ain't so bad!

 

Don't forget to check out:

Béibhinn's first year