Back in Canada, after Australian Adventures

Hello all! Just a quick note to say we have safely arrived back in Canada, and it is lovely to be here. We are staying in Abbotsford for a couple of weeks, then will head to Alberta to see loved ones there (MIA!!!) We are being graciously hosted (once again) by our friends Tim and Sylvia Smith in their lovely new home, up here on the mountain, with a beautiful view of the valley. Trampoline and (cool) pool in the backyard AND their dog Snickers (Golden retriever) is a highlight for all. THanks guys, for getting everything so ready for us when you're busy with year end things at work!

We have been blessed by our trip to, and the country of, Australia. IT was more than beautiful there, as we saw as much of the coastline and ocean as we possibly could. We rented cars and drove in MElbourne and Sydney, and surrounding areas; stayed with two hosts, the Bartch's (in Shellharbour, just outside of MElbourne) and the Weisses (Dean's cousin Tom, Janelle and boys Tristin and Aaron) in Gold Coast, just before departing out of the airport.) Great times to see those two families and enjoyed the visits VERY much.
We also rented a campervan and `camped` along the 1700 km drive from Cairns to Brisbane, after snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns. Talk about life highlights! That tour was remarkable. The boat ride out to the reef was an hour and a half of human torture as the winds were 20-30 knots, as the boat was being thrown around like a soccer ball on a fous ball table! NEedless to say, many stomachs were not too happy about it, and the crew on board spent all their time attending to the about 30% of the entire boat that got violently seasick! It was horrible! Amazingly our family was fine--our kids sure endured this intense battle with nausea unbelievably! The girls traveled so well and hardy this whole trip. They are troopers, thats for sure. The snorkeling, however, was worth it, and the trip back was not near as bad, so all in all, it was something to remember.

Finally, we have a tremendous thank you to make to a kind australian names Geoff Teitzel and the police officer Gavin Oats from the Bowen police station. On one of our campervan traveling days, we enjoyed a morning stop at a beautiful beach in Bowen, swam and played in the water and had nice warm sunshine. On leaving the parking lot, we inadvertently left behind a piece of luggage, as it sat outside the van as we pulled away. (Picture the Amazing Race cameran panning to the suitcase as the van drives off without it.) Needless to say, as all the luggage was usually stored overhead, no one noticed it missing until late that night, when we wanted to get clothes out of it to change for bed. Realizing it was not with us, I considered it`s value--it had some clothing, my only umbrella, a few crossword books--nothing worth worrying about or going back for. Just cut our losses and move on, until I remebered......
OUR PASSPORTS!
All 5 of our passports were in the top pocket of that luggage!

Oh My Word!

I`ll make a long story as short as possible here. We left our dark campsite immedately at about 10 pm that night, to make it to the nearest large town (Mackay) to report the luggage either lost or stolen (missing for sure, but we were not totally sure it wasn`t stolen as windows had been left open in the van and Dean was suspicious.) The police station over there helped us until midnight as we filed a report, left e-mail addresses, and described the contents of the luggage. The officer was certain that if it was a theft, the passports would be long gone, as Canadian passports are very valuable on the black market (People travel on them!)

We slept about 5 hours that night, then headed early the next morning on to the next big town, (Rockhampton) as the police station there was expecting us so they could fingerprint our window on the van. Did that, (Think CSI and that was us!!!) and headed to the nearest McDonalds (every McDs in Australia has free WIFI and it was our lifeline to the outside world!) to check e-mails and start the process of getting ahold of the embassy to find out if we needed emergency passports.

By the way, as we were starting to find out, the emergency passport process would not be easy. We would have to appear in person in SYDNEY or CANBERRA (where the offices were) which would mean an IMMEDIATE end to our holidays, purchasing flights for 5 people back to Sydney, and with offices not open until Monday (this was a friday night that all this happened) it would take 2-3 days to complete emergency passports, and we were leavning Wed morning out of GOld COast! If you do the math, youll find out just how scary, and potentially expensive, this reality was becoming.

But from the very get go, I was really at peace, very hopeful they would be found and we could track them. Didnt panic, but rather followed the proper chanels of registering with the police. (There would be enough time to panic later!) After finding all the info from the embassy clerk, Dean decided to check his e-mails for any info, and wouldnt you believe it, there was an e-mail from the Bowen police stating, *Property that belongs to you has been turned into the police station.* We continued with contacting this officer to find out that no, our luggage had not been stolen from the van (Praise God) but rather, it had been found in the beach parking lot, was turned in once the finder saw the passports, and eventually worked it out so that it would be sent to Brisbane to meet us there, via Greyhound, WHO actually offered to ship it, considering the circumstances, for FREE!

Can you believe it!!!
When all was said and done, we hardly even had a GLITCH in our travels. We ended up continuing on pace to Brisbane, seeing everything we wanted to see, and the day before we had to get to the GOld Coast, we picked up our luggage, safely zip tied, and COMPLETELY INTACT (not a thing missing!) at the Greyhound station. We were so incredibly thankful for all the details that went into making this potentially disastrous story a huge blessing for us! Amazing that God can continue to help us out and use kind people to spare us disaster!

Well, its 11 am in the morning. Older girls are still sleeping (hope they will for a long time, they were sure tired after all the flying and traveling to get here--39 hours or so of flights and layovers, without beds, make for pretty sporadic sleep!) Dean is off trying to register our car. Im doing laundry and making lists of things we need to get done. Such is returned life to North America.

Hope you are all well, and will talk to you all soon. GOd Bless! HE is VERY Good!!!
L
:)