A Weekend in a HOUSE.

Me, Barbara and Garth outside their house

This weekend was exactly what I needed.  I spent the weekend in grandparent style with my aunt’s aunt and uncle, Barbara and Garth, who live about an hour or so north of Hamilton.  Here’s how it went…

the view from "my room"

They picked me up at the bus stop and took me to downtown Auckland where we walk around the waterfront and then caught the ferry over to a little town called Devonport.  After some lunch at a café and walking around a bit, we headed back to their house in Clark’s Beach.  I think they thought they should show me some sights and all that jazz, but I was totally more than fine with just laying low for the weekend and being in a HOUSE.  I was relieved when we finally got to their house, which Barbara had described as... “We don’t really have any neighbors”.  Indeed their house was out in the country among pastures.  Barbara showed me to “my room” (!) and we ate dinner with one of their sons and 2 of their grandchildren, Josh and Holly, who live next door.  And when I say dinner, I mean HOME-COOKED MEAL.  Roast, veggies, gravy, rice, and lemon-meringue pie.  It was delicious!  We cheered the All Blacks on to rugby victory over the Japanese “Blossoms” 82-7.  Ouch.  Japan, maybe you should get a more intimidating name.

a storm coming in over Auckland

Saturday, after I woke up to cows moo-ing, Josh and Holly took me to the Auckland Zoo!  I was totally fine doing whatever they wanted to do, so that’s what we settled for.  We ate “haystacks” aka nachos for dinner and watched Ireland beat Australia that night! 

It was SO refreshing to be at their house for the weekend, especially because Barbara reminded me SO much of my Grandma aka Mamaw, which probably explains why I would’ve been totally okay with just hanging out and talking with her for the WHOLE weekend.  This morning, she got out a cookbook that Mamaw had given her when she and my Grandpa stayed with Barbara and Garth here in NZ once.  I almost cried when I saw Mamaw’s handwriting on the inside cover.  This probably sounds stupid, but amidst the mild homesickness that I had felt last week, it was comforting to see something so familiar... HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD.

Mamaw's beautiful writing!

I was so blessed to get to spend the weekend in a house, a real HOUSE, with a family, and home-cooked meals.  It was so nice of Barbara and Garth to open up their home to me, practically a complete stranger.  This weekend was such a testament to God’s all-knowingness (yes, that is a word).  He knew exactly what I needed and fulfilled my desires by giving me a loving and genuine family to be around and some adopted grandparents for the weekend.  It is SO cool how God continues to reveal His unfailing faithfulness, which I don’t deserve at all, through everything that He continues to provide for me over here and at just the right times!

And to make it even better... I came back to a letter in my mail slot that my WHOLE family- cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone-  had joined in on and written at our 30^th annual reunion at Montreat a few weeks ago!  Yall ROCK!  That seriously put a smile on my face for the next 48 days (especially your drawing on the back, Uncle Wayne!). 

Gotta go conquer some papers now! But before that…

Interesting Observations:

-“prize winning” = “banquet”

-The NakedBus that I rode had over 500,000 miles on it. 

-Some NZ people call dinner time “tea time”

-The size of this “small” coffee I got at the McDonalds near the bus stop.  I seriously felt like I was at a 3 rd old’s tea party:

that quiche is NOT big, that cup is MINIATURE

"And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus"

Phil. 4:19