Welcome to Maine

So back on a warm day in August we took this trip to New Brunswick via Maine, USA. We crossed the border from Quebec side after sleeping over in Sherbrooke, nearby Montreal. Maine is a beautiful state filled with trees, rivers and lakes. I especially loved the small towns amidst every patch of woods, the US flags waving in the air. New England scenery loomed all around us. It was a couple more hours to the border of Calais, ME. Calais is a small bordertown at the edge of Maine. A river stands between Maine and New Brunswick dividing Canada from USA. Across from Calais is a small coastal town of St. Stephen which is also the point of our destination, a place that unbeknownst to us will soon become our new home.

We stopped off in Bangor to have lunch at our favorite restaurant, the Olive Garden. We went to Olive Garden when the kids were little and the restaurant was near us but since then it has disappeared and the only place we can go to is in the USA.

White

This was a few days before Christmas. The snow fell and bathed everything in white. It didn't stay long though and by Christmas Eve there was no snow at all. On Christmas Day it tried and tried to fall but it never accumulated to much. Temperatures were not too cold either and the day might have been a chilly day in the two months before December. I remember some fifteen or twenty years back when the kids were little there was so much snow, they built tunnels inside snow banks that were knee deep and more. Lots and lots of snowmen were built and lots of fun had. That had changed so much since then that now a little bit of snow is better than no snow at all.

This pretty candle with the Nativity scene we found at a Croatian store and knew we had to get it to put it at the foot of a grave of a young boy taken from us too soon. His name was Simon, a son of friends, he's gone now two years. His passing was in July, two days shy of turning seventeen, much too young to leave this earth but he's with us in spirit every day of our lives.

Christmas Eve

Just wanted to wish my Family and Friends a Happy Christmas. Hope everyone had a great evening tonight and wishing you a wonderful day tomorrow on Christmas Day. The most important thing is not the presents, though the little ones might argue that, but being together.  We spent the evening at Sherie and John's place and it was a good time. All the family was there and the kids had lots of fun opening presents but more presents are awaiting them tomorrow. Can't wait to see their faces light up again.

My present from Sherie and John, this hoody in support of Dummy Boy album by 6ix9ine  who unfortunately is not home with his family this Christmas.

Unexpected Trip

Sometimes at the end of August of this year we began to think more seriously about what our future might look like. We had some plans but nothing permanent. We were hoping to adopt once more but that became a difficult situation at the time. We had more visions but nothing was quite right. We also wanted to help the four children we already had so our minds were all over the place on how to do that. Besides where we lived had become so unstable, dangerous even. We did not feel as comfortable in our home and our community as we once did.

Somewhere along the way my ex-boss said to me why don't you look in New Brunswick because she was moving there. I kind of laughed at it, thinking wow that's far. Though through the years working so closely with many people across Canada I heard a lot about the West and the East coasts and it seemed the East Coast had it good. So I thought why not, what can it hurt, right?

We looked at many homes for sale on the Net and came up with three that perhaps fit our needs, a large home with a bit of land so we can breathe at last. Next thing we know we're off to New Brunswick on a whim to see these three homes, not really thinking that anything was going to come of it.

We drove a few hours toward Napanee where we've been a time or two in the past but we had quite a few hours to go as it takes about 12 or 13 hours to get to New Brunswick. The evening sky and sun were incredible.

We were travelling towards Quebec where we would eventually cross the border into USA to cut on some time. We overnighted aat a hotel in Sherbrooke and then continued on to cross into Maine. Next morning the sky was overcast and a thick fog covered the highway.