The Waiting Room

Is it too cliché to say, “Now that was another term that didn’t quite turn out like we planned!”?

February was a great month of catching up with family and friends in the Waikato and enjoying being back in our own space and place after a long time away. It was nice to have our own beds and possessions again, the kids particularly enjoyed having their lego and duplo. 

We celebrated Caleb turning six with good friends back at Lake Arapuni. He is now officially a homeschooler, as you don’t legally need to be at school until six years old. This kid is fun, confident, crazy, smart, determined, extroverted and pretty much talks all day long. 

The smile of satisfaction from rainbow jelly on your 6th birthday

We shared in our last blog that we had flights booked for March 30 to Fiji but that all changed pretty quickly. First Air NZ had a change in flight times, so they shifted our flight until April 2 and then we had a new hurdle to jump. 

If you have been reading our blog a while you may remember in October 2020 I had unplanned surgery for a hernia repair. If you missed that one, you can read about it here. About early March it was discovered that I had another small umbilical hernia, nothing too serious but not something ideal to go to Fiji with. However, it was going to take a while within the public health system to get sorted. Fortunately, there is a very generous private surgeon in Hamilton who offered to do the operation for free. So that put us two steps back, one step forward.

Our family has not had COVID yet, so we went into self-isolation in early March to ensure our pre-departure test was negative. This turned into isolating so I could meet the appointments with the surgeon and be ready for a surgery whenever it became available. 

A shout out to Katie (Rachael's sister), one of many visitors we were thankful to have while we've been isolating

I was given the date of April 4 for surgery, the first business day after our booked flight. It felt like such a relief to get to this day without having COVID as so many people we know have had it. Thankfully, Air NZ were once again (they have been amazing) willing to honour the free tickets for our family by delaying our flight until May 16 which was ideal, as the surgeon recommended six weeks recovery after the surgery.

The surgery turned out to be bigger than we had imagined, with a more intense recovery needed, so it is perfect that we get the full six week recovery period before flying to Fiji. They did a great job to future proof me by treating the cause (separated abdominal muscles) as well as the problem (the hernia), so there shouldn’t be any more issues. It just means a little more sitting around for now while my body heals. It is also great that our kids will do any jobs with the right incentive at the moment, whether it be dishes, vacuuming, washing or picking things up off the floor that I can’t bend over to reach. 

So we seem to be living in the never ending self isolation zone! Now I am in healing mode, we are taking life slowly as COVID-induced coughing fits after abdominal surgery is not something I need in my life. This extended time in NZ has at least given us the time to rest and relax after a bit of a crazy year of travel last year. We still managed to do a few cool walks, bike rides and adventures before my operation. Our kids are well settled in isolation; Gabby and Caleb play together well and Josh quite likes the quiet life. One new thing we are doing is the kids take turns making fresh bread for lunch each day. We were given a recipe for Vienna bread from our time in Tairua in 2020 when someone had made it for lunch on the worksite, it continues to be a favourite.

Smells good, tastes good, our daily bread

Since our flight dates have changed, there have also been changes to Fiji’s arrival criteria which came into effect after our original flights. Supervised RAT tests are now accepted ($30 each), meaning we don’t have to do PCR tests ($250 each), both pre-departure and on arrival. We also no longer have to stay for three days in a hotel on arrival. That has saved us close to $1000, so we are grateful and reassured that God is in this and got us covered.

It has been a blessing to have the space here at the MMM Centre in Pirongia for this time. Despite isolating, Roy has been able to safely work around the property, helping with an upgrade in one of the accommodation units on site, mowing the lawns and other jobs. He has also been moving some of our household items into a storage space available for us onsite and preparing for our shipping to Fiji, making four large boxes for his tools which the other staff have lovingly dubbed ‘coffins’! We have also spent some time learning the ropes of the MMM Fiji administration roles, taking a crash course in MYOB and also creating a new MMM Fiji website.

We all took turns washing the house and water blasting the paths and gutters

We have been grateful to have lots of friends and family visit us over the fence here in Pirongia. My mum who had recently recovered from COVID was able to come and help for a week after my operation too. It has been so nice to the visitors, so if that was you, thank you so much.

Life continues to be a crazy rollercoaster of change. We never quite know what might happen next. This term has been full of a whole lot of waiting, rest and slowing down. Who knows, the next update might just come to you from Fiji. We are certainly feeling more confident about it this time around.

If you want to read some of our old updates and hear our story of the last couple of years, you can do that here

Thanks again for all your love, support, encouragement and prayers. We really do appreciate you all,


Rachael, Roy, Josh, Gabrielle and Caleb/Kelepi


Some Bonus Photos

We decided to update our family photo...

...but you couldn't see all the shenanigans it took to get everyone lining up

On one of our cruises around Pirongia

Rachael's mum came to help out, her teaching experience coming in handy for home schooling

It was April Fool's and it seemed like the right thing to do

Caleb came to help get the dust off the walls after they had been sanded

Exploring Pirongia Forest Park, this also doubles as a snapshot of their personalities

Navigating through a 30 metre cave found in Pirongia Forest Park

He was the pro, the only one in the family to go through five times

The kids working out their Easter egg hunt clues

Arts and crafts with embossing stamps

There has been lots of backyard cricket

We do what we can to get the kids excited about packing their things away

Putting things in perspective for us...


...but this is how it feels along the way




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventure Continues

Crazy Day, Crazy Week, Crazy Life

Wrapping up a great year