Back in Action!

We're here!  We're in our home!  We have internet (finally)!  I am so woefully behind on telling our story that it almost isn't even worth doing a summary. But I'll try to make it very short, and maybe later come back with more details...

The past 2 months have been absolute chaos in my eyes.  I prefer to be a methodical, planning sort of person.  I don't like to be rushed, and if it means I get half as much done in a day as the average person, that's fine with me.  That was unfortunately not an option in the weeks leading up to our big move.  We inventoried our entire home - every possession with its own line item, monetary value, and destination (air freight, sea freight, or storage).  We requested and received visas.  We did copious immigration paperwork.  We took our dogs to numerous vet appointments and priority overnighted paperwork for their own immigration.  We made several improvements and repairs to our house to prepare it for sale.  There were a million other little things we did that have now faded from memory. We absolutely could not have done this without the help of our families; they were incredible and truly self-sacrificing!

In the midst of this craziness, we made it a priority to spend time with friends and almost every living relative we have, who all came down to Houston for Christmas.  We are so glad we made the time; it truly was a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and we felt truly special by our friends who sent us off with tons of love.

Fast-forward to Sunday, January 22nd - we arrived in London and hit the ground running.  We lived in a hotel for about 5 days while we took possession of the house, got rental furniture delivered, did the first grocery shopping, etc.  We had 9 suitcases between the two of us, and since we had no car (and few taxis are large enough to carry that haul), we took three trips on the city bus lugging our bags from our hotel to our new home.  I kept wondering if we ever got the same bus driver, and if he ever thought, "I could have sworn I've seen those two before carrying different suitcases...what the heck are they doing?!"  But it all worked out great, and we eventually got it all transferred to the house.

I got a new UK phone (technically a new SIM card for my semi-legal unlocked iPhone, which I did myself - pretty proud of my hacking abilities), so we finally had a phone number we could provide to the numerous local groups who needed one - electric company, internet provider, air freight delivery, etc.  Really funny observation related to that - there is no consistency (that I can see) to how phone numbers are written.  The UK has an 11-number phone number (basically same as the US except with a 0 at the beginning instead of a 1).  In various places, I've seen the numbers written all these ways: xxxx xxx xxxx, xx xxx xxxxxx, xxxxx xxxxxx, xxx xxxx xxxx, and more.  Literally every combination you can think of.

On Sunday we tried a new church just down the street from us in Richmond.  It was very different from The Waters, but not in a bad way!  Churches tend to be smaller here (except for a few American-style megachurches in central London), and as we learned, tend not to have a full-time pastor.  This particular church has five leaders/elders who all have full-time jobs outside the church and take turns preaching.  In addition, if any church member (I think male only) feels led to preach, he can petition the elders, they pray about it, and most likely that member will get his own Sunday to preach.  The church had about 50 in attendance and met in an 18th century manor house that they had come to own by some amazing story we have yet to hear.  Despite the small size, they had quite a large group of young adults, maybe 15-20 out of the 50.  One couple invited us to lunch at their home, which was so wonderful, and then we came back Sunday evening for their young adult Bible study.  We felt incredibly welcome, really learned a lot (the study was just great), and we are definitely going back this Sunday!  It was funny; everyone we met just loved that we were American, said they always had one American couple in attendance and the last one had just moved away, and basically gave the impression that they wanted to adopt us as their token Americans.  That's fine with us!

Lots of progress happened this week.  Adam started work on Monday and has already established some friendships there.  I continued to work on setting up the house, searching out recipes for which I can actually find all the ingredients, learning to do laundry in tiny tiny machines, only shopping for what I can carry home, etc.  It feels more natural every day.  I too have made some connections.  I joined a Bible study in central London at Westminster Chapel and had an awesome time.  The wife of Adam's boss invited me to her expat ladies wine club on Wednesday.  Wow.  It was about 15 ladies my mother's age, all quite saucy and boisterous.  We met at a pub, and I'm pretty sure we cleared out the place for being so loud.  It really was a lot of fun, though! They all joked that I can set my mom at ease for me being over here, because I now have 15 moms to watch over me.  :o)

Our air freight arrived Wednesday, we got internet set up yesterday (now I no longer have to be that uncomfortable-looking girl sitting alone in a pub using their wifi!), and our dogs arrive today!  We absolutely cannot wait to see them; I think it will really start to feel like home when they get here.

Okay seriously, that was my "short" summary of the last several weeks.  Now that I'm all set up with internet, I'll try to make these blogs shorter and more frequent!

Love to all of you, we miss you dearly and hope all is well in the States!

Erin

Forward Progress

What do my recent Target purchases signify?

...we booked our house-hunting trip!

That's right, things are really starting to happen around here.  Since Monday, we've gotten our housing allowance numbers, initiated immigration paperwork, been briefed on everything from bank accounts to driving lessons, been put in touch with a relocation specialist (a.k.a. realtor) and sent him our list of housing preferences, and booked the flights and hotel for the reconnaissance trip.  Whew, I get tired just looking at that list!

We are leaving in a week and will be gone for 8 days.  We're hoping the house-hunting part doesn't take too long, and we'll have some time to relax and explore the area.  One very nice way we'll be able to relax is on the flight - Adam's company is flying us business class!  This will be a first for both of us on an international flight.  Of course we had to research what it will be like.  Seriously, you have to see this to believe it.

(Click here for more photos if you're interested.  Seriously, it's awesome.)

I hope it's as nice as it looks - I'll definitely write about our flight when we get back.  I have a whole plan worked out on how not to end up jet-lagged, involving Dramamine, a sleep mask, ear plugs, and if I'm feeling crazy, a glass of wine.  We'll see - I may be having too much fun in my high-tech seat to get a full night's sleep!

Baby Steps

Well, we have finally received a little more information from Adam's company on the big move.  Unfortunately, it was a list of things we have to do that we previously didn't know about!  Who knew moving across the world would be so complicated?

Here are a few of the random tasks we must complete for the move:

• Get medical and dental assessments
• Get Adam's work permit
• Open a UK bank account
• Obtain permission to leave USA from British Consulate
• Meet with tax advisors to understand how to pay both US and UK taxes
• Rent furniture in the UK to have while we wait the 4-6 weeks for our furniture to arrive
• Take UK driving courses
• Register with a doctor in our new local area (part of socialized medicine, I guess)

There's probably more, but that's all I remember off the top of my head.  I'm so grateful that Adam's company is walking us through most of this and initiating a lot of it for us.  Just the list is overwhelming enough; figuring out how to do all this stuff on our own would be crazy!

Patience is a Virtue

...and I am being given a great opportunity to practice it right now!

We are moving in a little less than two months, and we haven't taken a house-hunting trip, haven't found a place to rent, haven't spoken to a realtor, haven't booked any flights.  In fact, we don't even know yet how much money we'll have to spend on rent.  You might think, "Wow, that's pretty soon.  Shouldn't you guys be getting some of that going?"

Yeah.  That's what I think, too.

You also might have observed that those two months between now and our move include two major holidays.

Yeah.  I observed that, too.

But alas, as we had been warned, the cogs of HR turn slowly, and we are still waiting for financial approval to move forward with any logistics.  So, in the meantime, we've been doing everything we can think of to prepare without actually spending any money:

• We've researched online real estate websites and narrowed down our search to our favorite few areas.
• We've looked into train, tube and bus passes and formed a tentative plan of how best to cover our transportation in London.
• We've looked up bed-and-breakfasts in the most gorgeous parts of the UK and driving times to get there from London.  (Okay, so that wasn't exactly necessary.  But it is fun!) :o)
• We've set up the shipping for our dogs.  (See last post.)
• We've donated tons of extra stuff from our home in preparation for the down-size.
• We've researched churches, grocery stores, parks, train and tube maps, Bible studies, pubs, local points of interest, and so much more, to get a feel for what daily life might look like once we arrive.

I know that we'll get our approval before we know it, and everything will somehow get done when we need it.  I know that if all else fails, we can live in a hotel for a while in London while we find a flat.  I know that not everything with this move is going to go perfectly, and that's part of the adventure.  And I know that no matter what, we are in this together, and we are going to have rich stories and memories to hold onto!

But really, HR.  You could hurry up a little.  :o)

The Business of Dog-Shipping

Hi, we're Brinkley and Buster!  Will you let us into England, please?

When Adam and I first found out about the possibility of moving to London, we immediately thought of our dogs.  We are both total dog people, both grew up with dogs, and those two cutie pies in the picture are our best buddies.  We had heard horror stories about trying to get dogs into the UK -- months of quarantine, shots, endless paperwork, and the sobering truth that many owners simply choose to give away their dogs rather than face the hassle of moving with them.

There was no way we were going to do that; our dogs are part of the family!  So we set to work figuring out how to make this happen.

First of all, we discovered that the mandatory six-month quarantine was a thing of the past.  The whole point of these crazy regulations is that England is an island and has no rabies, so they are very careful to make sure no dogs coming into the country have any symptoms of rabies.  A couple of years ago they changed the rules so that the six months of waiting between rabies shot and England could happen in the home country INSTEAD of quarantine.  So the process would look like this: rabies shot, wait six months, blood test confirming negative for rabies, Welcome to the UK!

Well, we just found out for sure that we're moving to London about a week ago, and we have to be there in January!  Oh no!  THANKFULLY, the regulations are changing again in January - no six-month wait if you're coming from an approved country, one of which is the U.S.  Whew!  So we'll be able to bring them immediately!

Oh, I wish that were the only concern.  The biggest hurdle now is the paperwork -- the confusing, extensive paperwork to get them through UK customs.  If you get there, and any of the paperwork is missing or wrongly worded, they end up in quarantine.  If the airport microchip reader can't find their microchips, they end up in quarantine.  If they lick the customs agent, they end up in quarantine.  (Okay, I made that last part up.  But seriously, it seems that ridiculous at times.)

After mildly freaking out about this for several hours, we decided to enlist the help of a pet relocation service.  Didn't know those existed till a few days ago!  For a (quite hefty) fee, they arrange all the vet appointments and approvals prior to shipping, book the flights for our dogs, pick them up at our house in Katy, get them through customs on both the U.S. and UK side, take care of all the paperwork, and deliver them to our new flat in London.  Is it pricey?  Yes.  Do I feel a little silly for not being able to handle this myself?  Oh yes.  Worth it?  Definitely!

We are just starting the process of making all the arrangements for their big move.  Brinkley and Buster, you sure are high-maintenance and expensive, but we love you!!

Big Changes

In the past 9 months since I've blogged, there have been some big changes to our lives, and obviously some big changes to the blog!  Yes, folks, it's true - in a couple of months we are being transferred to London.  After a long, tough year, what better way to start off with a clean slate and a new adventure?

Because of these big changes coming in our lives, I've been re-inspired to begin blogging again.  I figure I'll mostly blog about the move and cultural changes, but I'll probably throw in some other random topics when I feel like it.

So how do I feel about moving across the world? Right now I am thrilled, terrified, ecstatic, sad, nervous and a whole lot of other emotions.  In some ways, I feel like we are only baby ex-pats, since the differences between the UK and the US are not that great.  But the worry of the unknown creeps in, and I begin to wonder how difficult this will be.

One thing that comforts me is knowing we are doing this the easy way.  Adam's company is taking care of practically everything; we basically only have to direct which stuff goes to London and which goes to storage, pick out a house, and voila, move accomplished.  I know there's more to it than that, but really, it could be much worse.

Well I don't want this to be too long, so I'll save specific topics for other posts.  Long time no see, blog world!

Hello friends and family,

Please read the following updates from Adam of our journey the last couple of weeks. I am so happy you've all helped me chronicle the miraculous lives of our two precious sons on this blog. We are overjoyed that they are having a blast in Heaven hanging out with their namesakes. What a wonderful God we serve.

Love, Erin

January 24, 2011

Hi Everyone.

First and foremost, both of us want to thank ALL of you from the bottom of our hearts for your overwhelming outpouring of support and generosity. We are truly blessed with fantastic friends, family, and co-workers. We've felt incredibly loved and are so very grateful for your continued prayers and encouragement! So thank you, thank you, thank you all!

But, on with the updates...

After 8 days in the hospital, we got to come home today!! Since about noon we've been back at the house, busily building a nest for Erin to enjoy for the next 4 1/2 weeks. Although we were a little bit nervous to leave the comfort of constant supervision at the hospital, within the first few hours back we're now appreciating just how mentally relaxing it is to be back in familiar surroundings. Having our own food, our own bed and, last but not least, our puppy dogs has really been uplifting and comforting all around. There's obviously a bit more work to do now that we're not getting every meal & snack delivered, beds changed, bathrooms cleaned, etc, but it's all very worth it :)

Erin is still feeling just great. Our prayers continue for no infections, no labor, and big happy healthy boys many many weeks from now! And on that note, now's as good a time as any to let you all know we've decided on names for the boys. We'd had a pretty good idea for a few weeks, but this last week's events have solidified our choices. They'll be Elijah ("Eli") Walter Bortka and Ezekiel ("Zeke") Wade Bortka. I've always been inspired by both (the Biblical) Elijah and Ezekiel for their outrageously strong and outspoken faith in God. And we've matched them specifically now according to their roles in this new chapter of our pregnancy: Baby A, who lost his fluid, will be Zeke. Ezekiel was called upon to go through incredible personal hardship, preach God's word, and live out his faith in a very hostile environment. We like to think that the same can be said already for Baby Zeke! Elijah, although also living and prophesying in some dicey situations, was called to be a fierce leader and inspire those around him. We also love that one of his very first recorded acts was imploring God to heal a sick child. We know that our Baby Eli can be the leader and protector his brother needs right now. The middle names, Walter and Wade, are our paternal grandparents, and we are excited to carry some family traditions & names down with the next Bortka generation.

We're so grateful for 8 miraculously uneventful days under our belts, and we continue to pray for weeks and weeks of more miracles. But for now, each hour that passes is a blessing :)

Thank you all again for your incredible support. May God Bless you all.

With much love,

The Bortka Family

January 28, 2011

Hi Everyone.

Again, I'd like to start by thanking each of you for the incredible and overwhelming support we've received these last few weeks. I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but we count ourselves as so blessed to have such amazing friends & family to walk and pray with us on this journey; I really don't have words to express our gratitude. So thank you, and praise God for the wonders He works through support of a community.

Our journey has now entered a 3rd chapter: Back at the Hospital. We were so happy to go home on Monday afternoon, and were able to relax a bit and soak up some peaceful time in familiar surroundings, sleeping in our own bed and petting the dogs :) Late Tuesday night however, we had some changes with the babies that caused us to call and come back to St. Luke's. It all felt very surreal, because we went through the same routine on being admitted, being told we were probably going to deliver that night, but in the end (Praise God!) settling into a stable waiting state, where we remain today. Although the risk for both Zeke & Eli's life and Erin's health has gone up, we've been praying continuously for God to speak to us through the doctors' wisdom. And for the moment, we are so thankful that the doctors are still comfortable with letting us choose to wait and pray. So with each hour that passes, we give thanks for health and continuation of those 2 strong little heartbeats, but pray above all that no matter how light or dark the journey gets, that we can walk completely in God's will. We can agree with Paul that:

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." (2 Corinthians 1:3)

So we know we can trust that when we walk in His will He will give us comfort that only our Father can give. It is through His strength alone that we can walk this journey we never anticipated. So for now we wait, and are truly thankful for each minute, hour, and day that passes. We're now up to 19 weeks and 2 days (12 days of it on bedrest!) of experiencing the miracle that is the growth of two little souls, and are so privileged to so intimately and privately know our beautiful boys.

Again, I can't thank you all enough for your unflinching support and prayers. Know that they are heard and felt.

On a practical details note, we're back at that same ward at St. Luke's, but for now emotionally it's been best to keep visitors to just immediate family. I thank you all for understanding, but please know that we are blessed by the emails, texts, posts, and all kinds of support we've received. It lifts our spirits every time and helps make each day a little brighter. I've loved adding more and more people to our contact list :)

God bless you all!

The Bortka Family

January 31, 2011

Dearest Friends & Family,

Words continue to fail to express how grateful we will always be for the tremendous love and encouragement you all have shown during these last weeks. So again, I’ll say “Thank You” from the bottom of our hearts, but know your support has made an impossible situation so much easier to bear, and that our “Thank You” falls woefully short of our true gratitude.

We count ourselves so blessed to have spent 3 years hoping for, and 19 weeks and 5 days witnessing the unequalled miracle that is the creation of two precious lives.

After so long, it broke our hearts when our precious boys spent their last minutes in this world with us this weekend.

It is a situation that if you asked objectively how it should go, we should feel not only devastated, but more intensely angry, feel like victims, and feel like statistics. We should be overcome with the “Why?”s. We should feel inconsolable. In a word, we should feel lost.

But though we are grieving, though we are heartbroken, WE ARE NOT LOST! For we know:

“The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:4-5)

And:

“Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”. (John 16:33)

We have shed more tears in the last few weeks than we could have ever imagined. And we know beyond any doubt that’s ok and is critical and needed to deal with our grief. But, just as importantly, we have been lit with a passion and fierce confidence in the word of God unprecedented in either of our lives. We have also seen what we believed was a strong marriage blossom into a more beautiful and steadfast relationship than either of us ever thought was possible.

Zeke and Eli will always be our sons, and dwell deep within our hearts for the rest of our lives. And though we wished so badly to watch them grow up and know them here on Earth, we know that their perfect unblemished selves are living now with their heavenly Father, helping prepare a place for our whole family to spend eternity knowing each other.

I got to share earlier what I think we will remember as the most important verse we’ve embraced during this time: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3)

We have felt that comfort wrapped around us so tightly the last few days, and we know we could not be functioning right now without that supreme comfort. However, as we now enter a new chapter of our lives, we also take heart in the continuation of those words from Paul:

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

We will never forget this time in our lives. We will spend the rest of our days simultaneously grieving for and celebrating the new eternal life of our precious perfect angels. But while Erin and I are still walking and talking in this world, our prayer will be that through all of this, we can fulfill God’s will in that we can accept his comfort and, through benefit of our experience, share it freely and liberally with everyone around us!

So we thank you for your prayers, we thank you for your sympathy and grief. It helps us bear this load to know we have so many other shoulders pitching in. But although I never wish it for anyone, I do hope that if you find yourself in a time of grief, you take comfort first in God’s strength, and know that you have ears to listen and shoulders to cry on in the Bortka house :)

A thousand blessings for all of you,

Adam, Erin, Zeke, & Eli

P.S. The gifts, notes, acts of kindness, and prayers from all of you have been more than enough to bless us many lifetimes over! But, because some folks have asked… we’re still working out details on some funds/causes that would be grateful to accept donations or gifts in memory of our boys (although those that feel compelled to send flowers, know that Erin loves them oh so much!). We will probably be going home tomorrow (for now we’re still at St. Luke’s).

When she’s finished recuperating, we will be happy to host visitors. But we appreciate your help in keeping things quiet around the house for the first few days back. I’ll certainly let everyone know when we’re up for it. Again, we love you all more than you ever imagined!