Blessed.

It's been nine months since we moved to Cambridge. This time last year we were excited about moving but we had no idea what life would look like here - we were leaving our friends, church and home behind. Would we feel at home in the house we looked at for all of 15 minutes? Would we meet people we 'clicked' with? Where would I work? Could we cope without hills? (Okay the last one was only a minor consideration, but wow the excitement whenever I visit a hilly place now!)

When we first visited the college on Andrew's interview day, there was one major thing that struck us. The warmth and love of the people there. People welcomed us, chatted with us, cared about us - even though they had only met us for 5 minutes and might not even see us again. The whole experience felt so...personal. In each interview the tutors prayed with us, that we would know where was right for us. They never 'sold' the college but each person we spoke with had their own hand in indeed selling it to us.

And now Andrew's first year is coming to an end, and on Thursday we had an amazing Midsummer's night dream-themed bash and said goodbye to a number of our friends as they and their families move on to curacies. It is a strange time of transition for us and also the college as we see our friends off and get ready to welcome a new set of people to the college.

But I am blessed. I am blessed that the warmth we felt when we first visited wasn't just put on for visitors, but a genuine and deep undercurrent of love to life here. We have met wonderful friends and have shared so much laughter and tears in just one year. Knowing this is only temporary somehow makes it seem even sweeter, I want to savour every moment we have at this wonderful place we get to call home.

So please excuse my absence from this little blog of mine over the last couple of weeks. I have been busy partying at all the leaver do's! But I have been crafting away so I have some fun projects to share with you, including some pretty gift bags we put together for one of the parties!