Aberdeen, Scotland At First Glance

Our first two days in Aberdeen, Scotland have been marked mostly by our search for a home.  However, we have been taking it all in as we have wandered about and so here are our first glimpses of our new home town.

Aberdeen, Scotland At First Glance

At the moment, we are staying with a precious gal who lives really near The North Sea.  So upon arriving and throwing off all our mounds of luggage, we almost immediately set out to lay our eyes upon it.

Up a grassy hill and through a park full of clever signs we went.

When you reach the top of the hill, there are views in one direction of the city of Aberdeen and in the other direction, The North Sea stretches as far out as you can see.

After a long journey and all the unknowns of arriving to live in a new place, I can’t describe how wonderful it was to sit and breathe in the sea air, listen to the seagulls and watch the children run and play.

On our second day here, we wandered into the Aberdeen City Center.

Ben keeps saying he feels like we are on vacation, and it does seem strange to be trying to figure out a cell phone plan instead of making lists of the sights we don’t want to miss.

As we walked yesterday, I wanted to stop at the parks and the buildings and museums, but we were headed to the kids’ schools to fill out paperwork and purchase uniforms.

I know there will be plenty of time for sightseeing in the three years we are here, so I am putting it off in favor of going to the supermarket, where we bought mini pies full of chicken curry and other assorted flavors.  And leeks.  Loads of leeks because they are much less expensive here than in the US.  They might be the only thing that is less expensive, so I plan to eat pots and pots of them.

We ended our second day much as we did the first, back at the sea.  Taking deep breaths and whispering prayers.

Being grateful for the small things like leeks and big things like The North Sea is how I’m keeping my chin up in a strange new world.

And of course, emails, texts, comments and love from home are a special kind of mercy.

They are reminders that we are not alone, that we can do this crazy thing, and that in Aberdeen as in Arkansas, the Lord’s mercies are new every morning.