USA to Canada

Well, it's been a long day.  I woke up this morning at 12:30am (went to bed at 8:30).  I had asked God again to grant me double portion of sleep and to keep me awake and focused as I drove today.  He granted me my wish.  Though I've been up since 12:30am (with less than 4 hours of actual physical sleep), I am only getting really tired now, at 8:00pm.  I've had no naps throughout the day nor anything of the sort.  God has blessed me in yet another handful of ways.  

I left grandma's house at about 1:20am.  I've found that I can much easier stay awake in the wee hours vs. the afternoon and evening of a day.   I crossed the border into Canada at 8:20am.  At the border the guy seemed a bit skeptical, but let me through - praise God.  I told him that I am living with relatives and will be volunteering at their church till Christmas.   He had lots of questions, he saw I had lots of stuff with me and I had a really shaky (and nervous) leg.  All these things probably made him all the more suspicious.   But God didn't want me to have to be searched, so he let me pass through, thank goodness.  I was making good time and I didn't want to stop.  During the 10 hour drive, I only stopped 3 times.   To my surprise, diesel was cheaper than gas as soon as I crossed the border.   I hope it stays that way for the next ten months :).  

To stay awake I had copied a set of "Bible On CD" Cd's to my iPod (NT only).  I listened to the New Testament for the first five or so hours, then as it started getting light, I switched over to "Blessed Child" by Ted Dekker, an audio book my dad and I had started on our trip down to Texas.   I was about an hour away from the Baxter's when the book ended, so I started one of Steven Furtick's podcasts, but due to pausing it often for lots of direction changes (with the GPS), I didn't get very far into it.  

Now I've mostly unpacked. Mostly, yes it may seem like I still have a bit to do, but I'm mostly unpacked.  I'm thankful that the road here in Crosshill has been repaved and nice side walk's have been added.  I took a quick walk on them this evening.  

Another thing I'm pumped about being here in Canada is that I can easily go on a walk without the super hot temperatures of Texas (around 100*F/38*C every day) nor the ridiculous humidity of Illinois (at times nearly 90% humidity).  I really enjoy my walks.  I've set a goal that I really wanted to do last year, but I never got around to doing.  I want to be able to walk to church and back (it's about a 30 minute drive each way) by the end of the year.

Also, some trouble I had once I crossed the border was with my phone.  Over the summer I switched my flip phone to my grandma's old on - a lot newer (my 3rd flip phone).  However I had some trouble with it and worked with Verizon to fix it, and good thing I did to, because it turns out they've changed they're rules and my "new" phone won't work in Canada.  So I called them to figure out if they had any that would.  They said that they have two flip phones that will work in Canada.  So I bought one of them.  I really like it, it has a ton of cool features, is water proof, heat proof, drop proof and is set to military standards.  It has a larger screen and is able to hold a 32GB micro SD card (I have now put all 12 hours of the Extended Edition of Lord of the Rings on it plus one of the Extended Editions of The Hobbit).   Anyways, I crossed the border and tried to text some friends and family to tell them that I safely made it and everything.  The problem was my phone kept telling me "No Service" or "Unable to find Service".

So when I got back to the Baxter's house, I started live chatting with them via their Live Chat on their website.  Come to find out that it should of been shipped out with a SIM card, but it apparently wasn't.  The didn't know why.  Yes I bought it on Amazon, but I bought it straight from the company.   The lady said they could ship one to someone in the states and they could ship it to me.  I fought them a bit on it with the argument, they said it would work, it doesn't so they should send a new one directly to me up here in Canada.  They said something about company policy that they can't ship international.    But I didn't give up.  

After a lot of back and forth between me and the Verizon agent, it seemed there was nothing she could do.  So I asked to talk to a manager.  After going though a similar, though shorter, thing with the Manager, we worked out a deal.    He paid a little over $23 to overnight ship it to my grandma's house in Illinois, and then he credited my account $30 to cover the cost for my grandma to overnight ship it (or whatever is fastest with $30) to me up in Canada.  I'd say I'm impressed with how they handled the situation.  No I'm not too thrilled that I'll be without a phone for a few days, but it's life and were all humans.   I'm thankful that I didn't give up when it seemed that the first agent couldn't do any thing.  She kept trying to get me to get a new plan up here in Canada until I get back (all of which are a lot more expensive).  

God is Good all the time, and ALL the time, God is Good!