India is in England!!

Hello loved ones! It has been way too long since I have written a blog, so I think its about time I do so. We are pretty much settled in England now. All the boxes are gone, all our rooms are put together, and we feel much more comfortable in our home. It is still pretty crazy to us that we have the opportunity to live in England for three years. Wow!
As I mentioned in previous blogs, it was quite the challenge to bring my dog from California to England. It seems like whoever you ask for help for pet travel usually gives you incorrect information. It appears that the animal transport system is not the most helpful nor distinct in directions. Thanks to my wonderful mother, Leslie Zegan, India is here and slowly adjusting to this new environment. It was quite expensive and time consuming, but she is here and we are loving it! In some ways, I feel like we are training a puppy all over again, even though she is 3 years old. She was very traumatized by the plane rides and being transported all over the world. I will tell you all about picking her up another time because I'm waiting to get the pictures off of Carsten's phone. =)
Instead, I wanted to include some pictures of Carsten's wonderful master piece that he is so proud of: India's dog house built by Carsten himself. First of all, finding lumber/wood in this country was quite the challenge. Actually finding much of anything is a challenge when you do not know what words they use for different items. For example, sidewalk is where we walk in america and pavement is what we usually drive on. Well, in England you walk on the pavement and drive on the road. Might seem logical after thinking about it, but it can cause much confusion if someone tells you to walk on the pavement if you do not know the English meaning. In the states, you would get hit by a car real quick. =/ So we faced the challenge of discovering what the English call wood or lumber. I am not even kidding, it took me about 3 days to find this information out. I kept typing into Google, "what is lumber or wood called in England?" and the search results said, "Lumber is a word commonly used in the United States when describing wood or building material." Really!?! Finally, I was able to discover the word the Brits call wood....Timber. Duh! haah! Makes sense now, but it wasn't easy to find this. Before we came to England, people kept saying to Carsten and I that at least we are going to a country that speaks the same language. hahahahahahahahahahahah! Yeah, right!!!! I cannot even begin to describe the difference in vocabulary and word usage between english in America and english in England. It can be quite comical at times, but we just blame it on us being naive americans and then the Brits are more understanding.

Any way, when I finally discovered the word, Timber, I was able to find a nearby store that sold timber. Well, selling timber is a broad term in england. It can mean anything between, they sell small pieces of wood or they sell all types of wood for all purposes. This is when Home Depot or Menards (for all your Nebraskans) seem like luxuries. We went to the store and found it very difficult to find much of anything. We found 2x4's, but no 4x4's. We found particle board with limited sizes (SMALL!). I think we spent over two hours in the store trying to figure out ways to improvise for what we could not find.

Eventually, we made it home and Carsten began his plan. Im so proud of him! He was able to make a plan and carry it out all by himself (well, besides my small effort in helping)! I tried to help, but he did such a great job with the whole project! You would think he was the son of a carpenter or better yet someone who moves & restores houses for a living. hahah! (We love you Bruce and you taught your son well!) Carsten did such a GRrrrrEAT job!!We completely finished the building of the house in one day, but it took me a few days to stain the wood and make a sign with India's name on it. We introduced India to her doghouse when she arrived, but she was not thrilled. India is still quite afraid of any closed in areas like her kennel and the new dog house, but we are showing her (prompting with treats) that if she does not use her doghouse she will be sopping wet whenever we are not home. She will figure it out! Well, as I said before here are some pictures of Carsten's masterpiece:

You cannot tell in the pictures, but Carsten designed it so that the top lifts open on hinges. This way I can open it up and easily clean it out from time to time. It is a law here in England that dogs have some sort of shelter when left outside due to all the rain. Plus, the shelter has to be elevate atleats 4 inches off of the ground. Carsten made sure that this house would keep india warm and dry! Now, if only she would use it! =)

Any who, Thanks for reading our blog again! There are so many stories we want to share because living in a foreign country is constantly an adventure! I will make sure to keep our blogs updated with more stories! And I'm still determined to get Carsten on here to write a blog, but he is such a busy guy. 

We love and miss all of our loved ones very very very much! With the holiday season approaching, it is becoming more and more difficult to be so far away from all our family and friends. Please continue to pray for us and email us! We would love to hear from all of you!

God bless you all!!