Settling into life in Alice Springs

Well, we made it.
Thank you to all the people who have contacted us already and emailed or chatted to us over the last 2 months. We have appreciated the contact and yes, it has made us homesick!!
I don’t know whether this newsletter thing will take off, but it might be a very simple way of letting you know how we are going and what we are doing. It might even be a subtle way of encouraging you to visit us in the red centre.
It was a very smooth transition leaving Brisbane. Everything went too well. Once we arrived, we spent 3 days in a hotel waiting for our rental property and gear to arrive. We moved in, but the furniture did not arrive for another week, so we slept on mattresses on the floor and ate out for a week. The gear arrived, but not all of it. The rest of the gear arrived 4 weeks later. Hence, we now cover the inadequacies of service, mail arriving late, lack of fresh food, petrol prices (156.9) and the quirky way things are done out here by just muttering “T.I.A” (This is Alice); with apologies to Leonardo de Caprio in “Blood Diamond”.
We have found a great church (Christian Community Centre) and Belinda has been busy making coffee friends and becoming a very good (unpaid) teacher aide to me.
Unfortunately with only one car, she has spent a large amount of time in the car. Drop off Russell, then drop off Kurtis, home or out to coffee, drop off Elijah, home to sleep, pick up Kurtis, pick up Elijah, pick up Russell.
She is glowing through all this and things will have to change once another Modlin is brought into the world.
While the first few weeks were tough, through it all we knew we had to rely on each other and God. This has definitely brought the family close together and has made us stronger.