In November I travelled to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi with my good friend Rob for a  scouting trip that we did for our families. The purpose of the trip was to investigate Hope Africa University and to see what kind of ways our skill sets could fit in with what they are trying to accomplish.  I…

The week before my mom left in December we drove up into the Chartreuse mountains to go for a hike up by the monastery of the Carthusian monks (the ones who make the Chartreuse liquor) – la Grande Chartreuse -up by the town of St Pierre de Chartreuse.  (Detecting a pattern?)   It’s not the…

So this is the shirt I got from my kids last father’s day. Impressive, no?   I thought so. It’s me being declared “Papa de l’année” by someone with as much authority as Darth Vader.  It is a feared and respected Jedi Knight telling people that I – am the Father of the Year. On…

It’s true that living far from family is often most noticeable around those times of the year that tend to be most full of family.  Holidays are the most obvious, and Christmas – at least for us – is the most extreme. When we lived in Edmonton, we lived close enough to both our families…

In October, Heather and baby Desmond travelled to France to spend 2 weeks with us.  We had never met Desmond before, and they had never met Alma….so this was a very special trip.       Almost every afternoon, George worked from home and watched over our two sleeping babies, and Heather and I took…