Happy New Year 2012

The demolition process
2011 ended in a rush, and to be quite honest I was quite happy to see the end of it.  It has been a good but hard year adjusting to life here in New Zealand again & working through different situations, ideas & thoughts.

New doors from inside lounge
Moving into our own house at the end of September has been good & given us a space to call our own & work on as we get the chance.  We have already taken out a wall to make our lounge bigger & put doors in where there was a window to give us access onto the existing deck.  It is a huge improvement &  makes it great for indoor/outdoor flow & enjoying the summer evenings.  We are in the process of discussing the other projects/renovating we will do with the rest of the house.

New doors onto deck
Our last camp in the October holidays went well, (click here for the report) we had a great team of adult helpers & leaders, but not as many children this time.  It was awesome to see more people buy into the vision we have & we feel excited as to how God is going to grow this.  We are in the middle of preparing for our summer camp, and again it is a roller coaster ride of getting the enough people to help out (still desperately need a cook – any takers?) and other decisions that need to be made, things to be bought etc.  Registrations are looking good at the moment & we are hopeful for a full camp.  It is amazing the different children who are coming to camp and the positive influence and difference it makes in their lives.  It is great to have positive feedback and hear their testimonies.

The rest of the school year & term ended in a blur, with extra work, exams, school Gala’s end of year break-ups, prizegivings, Christmas etc.  We were looking forward to the holidays with great expectation, and it has now been nice to potter around our place gardening and settling in properly to our house.  We head away tomorrow for a few nights break to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary – the years have flown!

My Dad playing Wii







We have had our follow-up appointment at the Fertility clinic which kick-started our IVF cycle which begins for real at the end of February.  It is with some excitement but also anxiousness/trepidation that we look forward to this process.  No doubt it will be a trying time, but whatever the outcome we are confident that God is in control and we can trust Him.

New nephew -- Isaac
The rest of the year for us looks similar to last year, although as we have now shifted into town we will not be going to the church in Pukenui that we have been attending, which also means we will no longer be  running the youth group & after-school club there.  We are not sure which church we will be going to yet, but one that is a bit closer.  We aim to make camps our focus this year, and not be involved so much in other church activities.  It is our intention to keep volunteering for Girl Guides and St Johns though.

We wish you all the best for 2012 and would love for our paths to cross this year in some way shape or form.

PS  And we are pretty thankful NZ won the rugby world cup :-)

Tonga v Canada