language barriers

Who would have thought that people who speak the same language would have a hard time speaking the same language? This has been a bit of a problem, albeit a minor one for the most part. We are learning quickly that a cookie is not a cookie, but a biscuit. A diaper is a nappie, a binky is a dummy. A sucker is a really dumb person and a lolly pop is a sucker. A bench is not a seat, but a countertop. The trash is the bin. Full of rubbish, not garbage. Any kind of candy is a lolly. The list goes on and on. So generally our conversations include a lot of, “Do you want a cookie, er, biscuit?” (as Sari is imagining in her mind a buttermilk biscuit…)

For some reason Keith is having a bit more of a struggle than the rest of us.  He’s had some pretty funny episodes trying to decipher comments so that he can respond appropriately. Out of compassion for him, I’ll only share a couple. On our first Sunday here, a really nice guy came up to us and shook Keith’s hand and introduced himself. Keith said, “Sorry, but could you repeat your last name again? Shawn who?” The man looked a little confused, then repeated, “Shawn the ward clerk?” (Shoan, the woad clark) We got a good laugh about that one. Thankfully Shawn laughed along with us. Last week we were visiting my cousin and they were telling us about some of their favorite movies. He told Keith that he needed to watch ‘One Good Man.’ Not one of us can still figure out how Keith got ‘Uncle Vinnie’ out of that.  So guess who has a new forever nickname… We about wet ourselves over that one.

On Sari’s first Sunday at her young adult Sunday school class, she was surprised and excited to find that there is another young adult from America, a young man from Mississippi. She was horrified to find, though, when he started to speak, she had a harder time understanding him than the Aussies.

We downloaded the Aussie voice on Shawnie’s ipad before we came. For some reason, though, she prefers to be an American. :)

Aaaaannnddd….we are crossing our fingers that Z catches on to that Aussie accent. There is NOTHING cuter than a little kid with that Aussie voice.

families

As we prepared to leave our home, we felt such a love and gained such an appreciation for families.  For our little family and the opportunity we had to steal away and spend this time together, really, really together. (Sometimes too together…) We feel so blessed that the timing worked out so perfectly that we could snatch Sari away and keep her for one more really awesome year and really awesome experience instead of sending her off to grow up. That Shawnie is at a point (cross our fingers) to make it a whole year without any medical procedures. That our sweet and crazy little Z is miraculously even with us for this adventure and we are able to experience it through his eyes, giving us a completely different perspective. There have definitely been some pretty great moments of tension getting ready to come as well as since arriving as we’ve each personally had to make adjustments to make our new situation work.  But we are working together and helping each other and I think we are figuring it out. And it is going to be awesome.

We are also grateful for the love and support of our big family. We squeezed in an awful lot of summer before we left, and we enjoyed every single opportunity we had to spend time with our big family. We wouldn’t be here without their help and support. My mom and dad and Steph and Shane spent hours during multiple trips helping me make arrangements, babysitting, cleaning, and packing up my house to leave. They talked me through the worries that come with leaving when they could, and worried with me when they couldn’t. Meanwhile, our big family over here was making preparations, picking stuff up, making phone calls, checking out potential homes, storing large white kidnapper vans, etc… We felt such love and appreciation and indebtedness to them before we even arrived. We feel so blessed to have the love of our big family to make our lives so much fuller and better. And easier.

We also have thought much on the love we have for our ward and neighborhood family.  Saying good bye to friends and neighbors was surprisingly just as hard as saying goodbye to our families. We have it pretty good, in our little neighborhood filled with wonderful friends and examples there in North Logan. We have been blessed more than we could share by the service and love and prayers of our friends and neighbors during some of the hardest moments of our lives. We are so grateful to know that we will return to our beautiful home in our beautiful community of beautiful people. 

And now, we have a great appreciation for and even testimony of, our gospel family.  Before arriving, all we had hoped to have waiting for us were a house, a queen sized mattress, a washing machine and a refrigerator. We figured that would get us through a week or so while we (sparsely) furnished our home for the year. When we were finally able to get into our house about 5 hours after arriving, stuff started coming. And coming. Microwave, vacuum, dishes, utensils, glasses, bakeware, beds, pillows, dunas (feather quilts), 3 tables (2 with sets of 6 chairs!), 3 couches, loveseats, recliners, desks, seriously anything you could think of. For FREEEEEE!!! And they didn’t even know us! My head has been just completely spinning over it.   My cousin and my aunt both put out a call to their wards for help, and between my family and their wards, this is what we ended up with. Almost everything we could possibly need. Our move here would have been a completely different experience without it. We have definitely seen the Lord’s hand and watchful eye through the wonderful members of our gospel family here on the other side of the world. We have been absolutely touched by the blessings that our family has received during this difficult transition because we have the gospel in our lives.

the flight

Leaving home was hard. SO hard. Shawnie and I both bawled our eyes out all the way out the door and out of the neighborhood. (Although I blamed my tears on the fact that Z had just completely jumped in the bucket of mop water as we were mopping our way out the door...) My sweet sister and her husband followed us to the airport to help with all our luggage and to take our van to store it. At the airport, we did the curbside drop off and suddenly they were gone and we were standing there with 9 suitcases, 5 carry-ons, 5 loaded backpacks, and a toilet chair. (no kidding, we did put it in a box. We thought about making Sari push it through the airports, hehehe) OH, AND a carseat!! Zachary was riding in Shawnie’s manual chair as a “stroller” so we could get it here as well. You should have seen the looks we were getting. Talk about standing out in a crowd, that was us. We were beyond comical. The check in line was enormous, and security was a bit challenging to negotiate everyone through, Shawnie always gets a good pat-down, and Keith and I tried to go back and forth between her and Zachary, who was still riding (quite grumpily…) in her manual chair. At this point, we had ditched the 9 suitcases and the toilet seat, but still had everything else. I have to admit, I was freaking out. Seriously more than ever before in my life. I kept making myself breathe deeply to try to regulate my heart and my lungs but I was a serious, freaking out mess inside. Because we have an individual with a disability AND a child under 5, we were ALWAYS the first ones to load the plane. And the last to exit. The flight attendants were very helpful and kind, and as we were in the front row on the first leg, we spent this short flight laughing and joking with them.  I was still freaking out inside, knowing that the worst was still yet to come. Shawnie was very comfortable though, and Zachary actually enjoyed the take off. (Not so much the landing…) Before we even blinked, we were landing in L.A. where, in order to save what Keith swears was a substantial amount of money, we gathered up ALL of our luggage and walked to a different terminal with ALL our luggage, stood in a line for 2 hours with ALL of our luggage to check in for our next flight, went through security again, and barely had time to once again be the very first passengers to load the flight from L.A. to New Zealand.  We flew on Air New Zealand and it was a pretty good experience. I was bummed at first that Keith split the flight up like he did, making it longer than flying straight to Melbourne, (once again, to save money) but I have to say, Z was VERY ready to get off that plane after 13 hours instead of 16. We all were. But then we had to navigate the Auckland airport with all of our stuff, minus the 9 suitcases. There was a wonderful man  there, though, that helped us off the airplane, helped us navigate the airport, pushing our luggage for us, helped us get through security, helped us check our carry-on’s, so we wouldn’t have to deal with them until the baggage claim in Melbourne, and helped us check in for the next flight, walking us right to the door of the plane, which, would you believe, was the VERY SAME airplane that we just took all our stuff from and carried to another terminal in the airport. The next stretch was 4 hours and it felt like 13. Thank goodness that Z slept for half of it because we never would have made it without making mortal enemies of every single passenger on that very full flight. When we arrived at Melbourne we were tired, stinky, and pretty grumpy. We were the last ones off the plane, waiting for Shawnie’s chair, only to find out that they had sent her power chair to baggage claim and only left her manual chair. We took turns carrying Z and all the bags and the car seat, and after making it half way to customs, realized we had left Shawnie’s power chair cushions on her seat on the airplane, so Keith booked it back to get them, while we waited. Last time I went through customs, the line was huge and lasted forever. Z was absolutely finished and I was so worried about him being patient as we would have to wait. Well, because it took us so very long to get there, there was not a soul in line. We walked straight up to the desk, and the lady whisked us right through.  We headed to the baggage claim where instead of fighting off crowds while we found our 15 checked bags, we found that ours were the only bags still circulating. We walked through to the lobby, and as we turned around to see my uncle and cousin, we realized we were suddenly, really truly there.

The flight was long and hard, but our prayers were definitely answered, as all along the way, we recognized angels watching over us and we, and all of our belongings, including miraculously enough, Shawnie’s wheelchair, were protected and traveled well.

Sari’s friends waved us off with hankies as we pulled out. I sure love these girls. I’ll probably miss them as much as she will.

Yup. This is us. Plus Shawnie and Z in the wheelchairs. You can go ahead and laugh. Everyone else did!

       

I love family dinner!- by sari

Put that camera away missy!

Shawnie is just a pea in a pod.

Mom's favorite picture (every picture we have of her she is doing this!)

HA, HA, HA, you still have to eat your veggies!

Sari's way of 'peace out'.

Can I get a 'what, what!'

I repeat never give a guy a camera!
(if you don't get it see my blog, on the EFY video)

*note from mom: I can't believe I let her post that picture of Keith as he is at this moment completely and totally fixing dinner for our family. He's even cooked zucchini!!

slipping through my fingers all the time

This is just a little bit of memory that came from browsing through old photos again.  I never get tired of it.  I have the most precious family that there ever was and I'm grateful that even though they seem to be slipping through my fingers, they're mine forever. 

2009 family talent night

This will be worth a lot of money someday, I'm sure. Stick around until the end for a special treat.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 was incredible. I was so sad when it was over. It was so fun to get together with pretty much the whole family on both sides and spend some quality "close" time. Definitely close, I imagine some of the family were sure that it was a little too close! Mom and Dad were so patient for like 2 weeks while we all bombarded their space, I think they spent as much on groceries during that time as I spend in a year! I love you all! I wasn't very good at taking photos, good thing Sari got a new camera...
I always love Christmas morning to see, even as my girls get older, the joy they find in giving more so than receiving. Don't get me wrong, they are quite happy about receiving, but the light in their eyes is there in such a profound way as they share the precious gifts they have created or purchased for each of us. I hope that lasts forever.

Another favorite of mine, one of the slides shows Keith with Shawnie. She gave him "All the Money in the World" for Christmas. (A book she found at the Dollar Store.) :o)

gary morris with mom and dad

On Nov. 13, mom and dad came down to go to the Gary Morris concert. I wish I could describe how much fun I had hanging out on a "date" with them. We ate at the Indian Oven, which, I must admit, I was not so thrilled about. (Last time I went there I thought my taste buds would never grow back after being completely fried off from the spicy.) It was to die for yummy, though and is now one of my top two favorite places to eat here in Cache Valley. Then we walked over to the theater and really quite enjoyed the concert. It was so fun to hear some of the songs I remember listening to when we were growing up. Dad bought all of the cd's they were selling and Gary Morris even signed one. My one regret of the evening is that we didn't ask him for a better photo with dad. The night was one of my favorites of the whole year and I hope that we'll get the chance to do it again really soon.

halloween

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween.
Especially when it falls on the weekend, then the family all comes because we have the best trick or treating neighborhood in the world.
This year was so fun! I should have taken more photos. I've decided if everyone ever stops coming I'll get depressed, my girls just don't appreciate the traditions anymore like everyone else does...

the little things

I doubt that my mom knew it this morning when I talked to her, but she was definitely the Lord's hands in our life today. I have a quote in my kitchen that says "the little things mean so much" (I know, I'm a quote FREAK!) Well, this little thing meant more than she'd know. As I've complained about already (sorry), Shawnie's mouth is SO SORE. Well, we discovered the other day that it's because she has GINORMOUS cankers on her cheeks where they were trying to get the expander in. This explains the swollen, fevered cheeks and the inability to eat and the constant pain... But we'd tried everything to help it to no avail... Chloraseptic (she gagged on the taste), ice packs (she can't keep them on), ibuprofen, yogurt... I've spoon fed her EVERYTHING for the last several days, Sari has doted over her so sweetly, Keith has taken her on outings to get her mind off of it, so I was whining to my mom about it and she suggested (bless her forever) drinking 7-up! Apparently she's used it in the past so I tried it and what do you know, it was fabulous! Whenever it started to hurt again, she'd just ask for more and was able to make it a little bit longer. That is how we made it through the day. She actually smiled a little bit this afternoon and tonight she even giggled at me. I'm sure my mom didn't think twice about it when she suggested it, but she blessed our life today in a VERY major way.