Showered Indeed!

Showered with kind words, well wishes, gifts, hugs, food, and loads and loads of love! Yesterday I was indeed showered at my bridal shower. What an amazing day it was. I will let the pictures tell the story.

A relaxing drink before the guests arrive

Nikki is a super star. She did such an amazing job helping to put this stuff together. She isn't the most eloquent public speaker but she did an amazing job.

So many amazing gifts!

 Louise brought me to Africa for the first time in 2005.  I don't think either of us thought I would stay there forever. 

Such amazing friends!

Baba made my favourite lemon poppy seed cakes and decorated them so beautifully. 

The day was an absolute blessing! thanks for everyone who came and made me feel so special. Now on the wedding!

Morning Thoughts

I was up at 6am this morning. Lately I have been getting up this early, or earlier, after sinking into sleep around 9:30pm and getting a solid eight and a half hours of sleep. On weekdays, I usually find my parents sipping coffee and watching the news at this time. However, today is a Sunday which means that my parents try to sleep in just a wee bit more than the rest of the week.

 I quickly grabbed my computer to check what was happening in my life, my friend's lives, and the rest of the world. Yesterday, I had got news that a large ferry sank between Zanzibar and Pemba Island.

You are probably wondering why I would even know that or care about it.

Well, good friends of mine live on Pemba Island. And I have a couple other acquaintances on Zanzibar too. The two islands are less than an hour flight from Mombasa. They also have a similar people group as the people in Mombasa, who I mingle amongst everyday. Recently, the Zanzibar ferry had been coming up in a lot of my conversations (mostly because I heard that is one of the roughest ferry rides and that they actually give people puke bags before they board the ferry) so I was appalled when I saw the news that it had capsized. The boat was heading to Pemba after large Eid celebrations. The boat was 300-400 people over capacity and hit some shaking waters in the middle of the night. The boat is now at the bottom of the ocean, possibly trapping hundreds of lost lives.

I looked at pictures of the tragedy this morning. My heart hurt watching people line the shores waiting to see if their loved ones were the ones jumping off the boats or the ones being carried off wrapped up in fabric, ready to be buried. UGH.

I noticed that the dead bodies were wrapped up in a local fabric called a khanga. It's a common fabric that is used all along the coast of east africa. I have many of them myself. I use them for curtains, towels, bed sheets, etc. I am acutally going to wear one today. Ironic? crazy.

On to today....

Today is my bridal shower! Yes, and I  made a beautiful dress from the khanga material before I left Mombasa (Kelvin was delighted when he saw me in it - his african queen). I am just thrilled to have so many close friends and family come to see me today and celebrate with me. I have been overwhelmed with everyone's generosity. I forgot how giving we can be over here. People's main questions are, "where is your gift registry? what should we give that you can take home? Should I give the wedding and bridal shower gift together?" I guess I didn't realize there was so much giving involved with weddings. I honestly just wanted ya'll to come hang out with me for a couple hours, eat good food, chat, laugh, play some games. The gift giving has blown my mind. I am grateful though.

My mom has gone all out for the party. I think that's a mom thing; something she dreams of for her daughter. Yesterday we picked up two dozen baby yellow gerbra daisies for the party plus a bouquet and a corsage. My dad spent the day getting the yard in order. I cleaned the inside of the house. I am looking forward to an amazing day celebrating me getting married!

Speaking of getting married...I am so excited! I miss the kelvinator....big time. We chatted this morning on the phone, like we always do, and I realized how much I miss him and my life in Africa. I will definitely be ready to go back in a couple weeks. Ah dreamy....

Finally my parents woke up. I went to join them on the couch with a cup of coffee. We got a call from an auntie who couldn't make it. I welled-up listening to her beautiful words to me. Family is so good.

Then we turned on the morning news just in time to hear an amazing ending to a heartbreaking story that has been on everyone's mind in our province for the last few days. A  young 3 year old boy went missing about a week ago. The police sent out an amber alert for the whole province and hundreds (possibly thousands) of people searched for him day and night for the last week. This morning he was found and reunited with his family. I can only imagine the relief.

Now it is 8:45 and my precious, loving kitty cat is walking all over my computer trying to get my attention (so if there is any spelling mistakes, blame the cat).  I am grateful for her affection.

Hope you all have a blessed Sunday! I know I am going to.

Counting Coins

Yesterday my mom casually mentioned to me that she had found a couple of buckets that were full of loose change. She told me that if I wanted to separate and roll them, that I could have the money. 

My parents do this to me often. 

They know that I value little bits of money. For me, even a small bit of money goes really far. So my parents will use that to get me to do things for them. For example, when the recycling is full, my dad graciously offers that, if I go down to the depot and sort all the cans and bottles, I could keep the earnings. The profit is small, usually around the $10 mark, but I do it. Because ten bucks goes a long way where I live. 

First thing this morning, as I drank my coffee and watched the morning news, I started counting up all the coins. 

By noon I had made more money than both my parents did today.

From pennies to toonies, I raked in a whopping two hundred and forty dollars!

I look forward to depositing my riches in the bank tomorrow...

My Best Friend's Wedding

I am not the only one in wedding season right now. Quite a number of people in my sphere of friends are getting married within the next year or so. Danika, one of my best friend's since Gr.7, became Mrs. Jamie Cominotto this weekend! What a beautiful, lovely, heartwarming day it was to see my dear friend, who I have watched grow into a beautiful woman, become 1 with a great man. 

I teared up watching her walk down the aisle so elegantly with her Daddy.

They did a neat ceremony that blended her traditional Doukhobour culture with his Catholic roots. 

I loved seeing so many old friends. Jenna (right), Nikki and I used to play basketball together in gr.9 on a regional team. 

Bubbles for the Bride!!

Simply Stunning...

Congrats to my beautiful friend Danika!

Family Time at the Salmon Spawning

When we were little, it was a tradition that, the weekend before school started, mom and dad would take us to Kokanee Creek to watch the red bodied salmon spawn. Since my brother is leaving back to university tomorrow, we decided to take a family day and relive an old tradition. 

I guess there isn't much to see but a whole bunch of red fish trying to swim upstream. 

Then we found the playground...and became like little kids again. 

 Mark slayed me on the teeter-totter. He is just a wee bit heavier than I am now.

Mark has this incredible core strength that none of  us can understand. He love playgrounds and training himself on them. 

We have an old picture of the 3 of us in this exact same spot so we tried to recreate it. It didn't work as well now that mark and I are both giants and can't snuggle on mom's lap anymore. 

I adore my family. 

Soakin' up the last bit of summer

The last few days have been a bit sketchy. They start off beautiful but mid-morning they cloud over. Just as you put your bathing suit on and head to the beach, the clouds roll over the mountains. Then you get to the beach and just pray that the sun will break through the clouds. God hears your prayers and the sun pops through the clouds for a couple hours before disappearing behind the clouds that threaten to rain. 

Well that's what happened to us yesterday. 

In the morning, an old high school friend surprised me and showed up for breakfast at my house. We chatted for a couple hours and decided to pack up and go to the beach. Despite the sketchy weather, we totally enjoyed relaxing at the beach for a couple hours. 

Alex, my high school friend, and his buddy blew up some floaties for Nikki and I to float down the river in. 

Alex enjoying sitting in the water and catching any rays that bounce off that water. 

My brother even motorcycled out and joined us for a few hours. Him and Alex giggled like little girls playing in the water and making jokes. 

I was pretty impressed with the sweet rides we all drove. A huge diesel truck, a mercedes convertible, and a slick motorcycle. Not too shabby. 

Alex and I actually go all the way back to Kindergarten. I spent kindergarten and gr. 1 at an elementary school out of town before moving to Robson where my dad was the principal. Alex and I were in the same class. In gr. 10 Alex moved to my high school and we got to reconnect and become friends all over again. 

Just days after posting this, I was digging through some pictures and found this one from Kindergarten. There I am (the one with the boyish, wavy haircut), and to my left is Mr. Alex himself. So precious!

Pass Creek, Wedding Dress Shopping, and Old Friends

Today has been the coldest day since I got home to Castlegar. The clouds rolled in early this morning covering the blue sky and making way for some cool breezes. It's the perfect day to stay inside, enjoy some coffee, and work on the computer. With such beautiful sun, you almost feel guilty staying inside. Now, I have a great excuse to continue plugging away on my computer. 

A couple days ago, a few friends and I went to Pass Creek Falls, a place we used to go all the time when we were growing up. It's the best summer, friends, rope-swing, secret in the forest. It looks like it should be in a movie. I am just so amazed that I got to grow up in a place like this. 

The water fall is a bit dangerous but the pool at the bottom is pretty harmless. Doesn't that rope swing just scream 'Come try me!'. 

My childhood friend, Nikki, trying to be playful like we used to be.

On Monday I got to go wedding dress shopping!! It's one of those days that you always dream about and then when it gets here, it's just not as wonderful as you think it is. Ok, maybe that's just my opinion. 

The whole process was a lot more exhausting, emotional, and tiring than I thought it would be. It was definitely FUN! I don't want to sounds proud but, to be completely honest, almost every dress I tried on looked awesome on me. I was the perfect wedding dress size and shape. The ladies I worked with thought I was one of the easiest brides to dress. I kept getting dresses thrown at me to try on because they all looked good on me (with the exception of a couple). The only problem was that now I had so many to chose from. I didn't try one on and go, "yes that's the one!"I had to really think and decide between so many beautiful dresses. One of the biggest things to consider was lightness and movability. It will be crazy hot in December in Kenya so I didn't want anything I was going to die in. Also, I really want to dance up a storm so I have to be able to move (and pee) in it. In the end, I think we did find the perfect dress for my Kenyan wedding.

Mom and I exhausted after a long day of trying on dresses. 

Nikki and I have been best friends since Gr. 2. Mom dug up this photo of us at a school ski day. I think we were in gr. 4 or 5 in this picture. 13 years later and we are still best friends!

Picking up a Stranger

I used to work across town during the summers. Every morning I would drive to work secretly hoping that I would get a chance to pick up a hitch hiker. For some reason, I had this heart to pick some person up and give them a lift while pouring out some love on to them in my car. I wasn't going to pick up just anyone. It had to be a girl and I preferred if she was alone. I wasn't willing to drive them past where I worked so I would have had to drop them off there and then they would have had to find a ride further.

After two summers, I didn't get the chance to pick up any one.

After my failed mission, I was driving up to Pemberton, on the coast of British Columbia, with a friend of mine when I started telling her my desire to one day pick up a hitch hiker. She laughed at me and promised that if we saw one along the way, we would pick her up.

To our surprise, we turned the corner and there was a cute girl with high heel shoes and a classy pea coat sticking her thumb out at us. We burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of the situation and pulled over to let her in. She definitely wasn't the grungy, torn jeans, dreaded hair, smoke in one hand kind of girl I had imagined picking up. Instead she had a suitcase with wheels and a short mini skirt with J.Lo style sunglasses holding back her hair. We gave her a ride till Whistler (we learned she was a professional snowboarder) and then continued our journey.

However, yesterday I got the chance that I had been waiting for for two summers.

I was driving home last night and passed two ladies on the other side of the road of me. They were trying to get a ride to the direction I was just coming from. As I looked in my rear view mirror, I recognized the girl's face. She was a girl that I went to elementary school with and who I hadn't seen in probably 10 years.

Then my stomach dropped realizing that this was my chance. And now I actually have to do it. I kept driving trying to convince myself that it was not a good idea but God kept nagging at my spirit. I put on my blinker and turned around.

I drove passed her and parked in a near by parking lot. I called out her name and she looked at me puzzled. She came closer and said, "Oh my God! Nikole MacGregor?!!" We gave each other a big hug and started chatting about life. I asked where they were headed. It was a town about 20km away (and where I had just come from). I hesitated again not really wanting to drive all the way back (and I had a massive headache and just wanted to get home to some painkillers) but God kept nudging me to take them home.

So that's what I did.

And it was delightful.

They were so grateful for the ride and I was so grateful to catch up with this precious girl. I drove back home (still with a gigantic headache) happy that I obeyed God's nudging, stepped out of my comfort zone, and helped a sister out.

Wedding Bliss!

It's the day so many girls dream of, me included.

I always had this idea of how I thought my wedding would be. I knew the type of dress I wanted, what the cake looked like, who my bridesmaids would be, where I would go on honeymoon, where the wedding would take place, what my engagement ring would look like, etc, etc.

Now that I am actually at that stage in my life, I really don't care so much about all that stuff.

Nothing I had imagined has actually come true (although later on in life I said that I would love to get married in Africa). I never thought I would actually marry an african. My ring looks much different than I thought it would but now that I have it, I realize it's perfect. None of the bridesmaids I thought would be standing next to me will be there. My colours are navy blue and baby yellow which doesn't quite match the red rose pedals on my cake that I dreamt of having. I don't think I wanted to get married on the beach (I actually wanted a village wedding).

I am in the middle of doing all the planning. It's been tons of fun. My bridal shower is coming up in a couple weeks. Invitations are ready. Venue is booked. Wedding dress shopping will be done next week. Honeymoon is still to be decided.

But can I tell you what I am really excited for?

Getting married.

I am so excited to be a wife! To share life with my best friend, to have a constant companion to do life with, to watch God use our relationship for His glory, to hang out with the Kelvinator all the time.

As much as the wedding is going to be an amazing day of celebration, I am really excited for the marriage.

Glorious High Speed, Unlimited, Wireless Internet

Today I am totally lovin' my high speed, unlimited, wireless internet. Before I left Mombasa, I made a whole list of things I want to do on the internet while I am home. In Kenya, I have to pay per megabyte that I download so I try to avoid downloading videos, large files, pictures, or Skype. Plus, my internet is quite slow so even if I wanted to watch a video off of YouTube, I would have to wait half an hour for it to download.

But today I have had my eyes glued to my computer screen (ok not quite all day but whenever I had a little extra time). I have watched a few episodes of my favourite TV show, Modern Family. I have written countless emails and redesigned my blog (what do you think of the new look?). I have creeped on old high school friends on Facebook.

While I am home I want to download movies, music, and podcasts off iTunes (and I am thinking about getting a Kindle). I want to do some research on some business ideas I have for Mombasa. I also want to update the Rehma Boys website (I will be sharing some exciting news about that soon!) and look at possible funding options for our projects. I need to catch up with some friends across the country on Skype. I might upload some of the video clips I have to YouTube and then share them on my blog. I will try to figure out how to use twitter and finish my online travel writing course.  And then I plan to just watch funny videos or useless stuff that my brother sends to me and thinks is hilarious.

I am thanking God for a whole 6 weeks of fantastic internet!



I love that I can take my computer outside on our deck and watching the ferocious river pass by!

Summer in the Kootenays

One of the main reasons I decided to come home was to enjoy summer in Castlegar.  Summer in the Kootenays is to die for! Since I have been home, we have had endless sunshine. Today, my family and I had a little impromptu family bonding when we pulled out some chairs in the back yard, made a pot of coffee, and chatted as we looked out over the gorgeous columbia river. I have spent hours on my deck friends and family catching up on life and all that it entails. I got to see many precious friends and share in lots of laughs. It's been so joyful! (although I am missing the Kelvinator big time). 

My mom bought me my favourite flowers and had them waiting for me in the house when I stepped in. Love the gerbra daisies! 

My brother also acquired possibly the cutest, most fun loving, playful cats while I was away. The brilliant brother that I have named them fish and sue. Yup, a cat named fish. Try figure that one out.

They love to snuggle and play with each other. 

My parents have been really involved in the BC Senior Games this past week. Dad and I went to Nelson to check out the dragon boat racing. 

Nelson's signature orange bridge.

I spent all of last night with ear plugs stuck in my ears. Nikki took me to the drag races in spokane. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Nikki didn't tell me that my arm hairs would vibrate from all the noise. They even had cars that had a jet engine on them. They only went about 350 mph....no biggy.  

And I am totally lovin' hanging out with my BFF, Nikki. I love that she is only a quick 5 mins down the road. We are getting a good dose of cards and tea! 

I got news today that our new captain, Kadenge, was accepted into an awesome agricultural program! Kelvin called my parents this morning with so much joy and pride to tell them that his 'son' got in. This agricultural program is put on by one of my favourite organizations, Empowering Live International. I know that he will be in good hands for the next year. 

I am looking forward to another great week in the sun! 

Feet Firmly on the Ground

I made it! I landed early this morning in my hometown of Castlegar. My parents anxiously stood inside as I walked off the plane. Big hugs and a couple tears followed that. My brother stayed up after working a night shift just to come and say hi to me. We quickly grabbed my bags and went home to sit on the deck as a family, drink a cup of coffee, and catch up. My heart is glad. 

The trip was good. My stomach took a day or so to settle once I landed in Vancouver. I stayed a couple days with my grandma and then hopped on a plane this morning to Castlegar. I praised God the entire flight home! I plugged my iPod in and sang praises to him (silently, of course) as I soared in the skies. What an amazing country I was born in! 

We had a visitor from Canada just before I left. He was so kind to bring Kelvin a team Canada soccer jersey. Kelvin screeched like a little girl when he saw it. He loves it! I am proud of my Kenyan/Canadian man.

My grandma has to be one of my favourite people on earth. When I went to college, she became one of my best friends. I love drinking tea, eating chocolate covered digest cookies, and watching a movie in the afternoon with her. The last couple days were a blessing.

In Vancouver I got to catch up with a few friends. Patrick and I went to high school together and were grad dates. He live in Vancouver now. My mom offered up her season tickets to the BC lions football game and I invited Patrick along knowing he loved football. We had an amazing dinner and a great time at the game.

The game was terrible. The BC lions were awful to watch. People actually started leaving half way through the 3rd quarter. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience for me. 

Thanks for your prayers. I am happy to have my feet firmly on the ground again. 

On flying and my stomach

My stomach does not do well with flying.

I don't get nauseas with the turbulence or anything.

I get anxious.

I dislike planes greatly. It is not a comfortable feeling at all. Thousands of meters in the air being held up by a man-made machine? Yup, awful.

I have read up on the safety of planes. They truly are one of the safest modes of travel. But that still doesn't calm my anxiety.

I had hoped to sleep on my flight to amsterdam but my mind was wide awake knowing that we are going 500kph miles above ground. I didn't eat anything except some fruit, crackers and water.

Now, I am waiting for my flight to Vancouver, anxious as can be. It's been almost 18 hours since I have eaten anything substantial.

Phillipians 4:6-7 keeps running through my head ... be anxious about nothing, be anxious about nothing, be anxious about nothing. 


Pray with me would ya? Pray that I would  start to enjoy flying. Pray I would find it relaxing rather than nerve wracking. I know God can do that for me. Pray that my feet land in Vancouver safely in the next 12 hours with a sound tummy.