New Zealand Update

Well all the medical checks, xrays, FBI checks, birth certificates and paperwork is done. We sent the package to the New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC. Feels weird to send stuff to an embassy! Silly little thing I know, but seems so official.

The embassy says they'll look at the application next week. We're hoping for a pretty quick turn around just to have the step completed. They we can focus on the next steps... House and Packing...

Wife has been sick for a week. The youngest 2 kiddos are great. Oldest is having some school issues. Cat is great.

Parenting gone Wild

Have you ever gotten a simple question from the kiddo that just ended up going completely wrong in the answer? Somewhere on the way to explaining politics or religion you end up suddenly talking about penis's?

My wife, bless her truthful earnest heart, has recently walked in to the most amazing verbal mine fields I have ever witnessed...

Fatal Knee Surgery

Some family friends probably 1 or 2 circles removed from us recently had the most awful luck with simple knee surgery where through a bizarre chain of mistakes she ended up in a coma and is now pretty lucky to be alive and even now is not out of the woods with recovery. A scarey reminder that all surgery is surgery and can be risky. But of course the reality of statistics is hard to convey to a 7 year old... They don't really play the odds. So when my wife casually mentioned that her knees hurt a lot and some day she'd probably need surgery the first thing our boy said was "That's okay momma, nothing goes wrong in the hospital." To which my wife felt obligated to honestly reply, "Oh no, sometimes things go wrong..." and proceeded to tell the tragic story of folks we knew. Now this was right at bedtime... and immediately I see where this train wreck is heading... MOMMA IS GOING TO DIE FROM KNEE SURGERY. I start giving the "oh please stop" signal to Amy who is apparently convinced I am only shewing a fly... and I can see the 7 year old panic set in. Where finally Amy sees where this is going and tries to wrap up "so she may die... but nothing would ever happen to Mommy."

In case you wondered... Don't tell your kids that mom is going go die from knee surgery... hehehe.

Boy Scouts

Well as you may have read, the Boy Scouts are publicly stating they don't want to have gay scout leaders... something about pedaphiles and all that. Of course any person who knows gay men or women also knows that "gay"means you like the same sex... not sex with children. So the notion is pretty foolish, but religion and politics rarely make sense. So when the boy announced that the Boy Scouts were forming up in school and he wanted to join... again my wife was there to field the questions. So after about 45 minutes I go to check in on the conversation to catch my very confused and flustered wife saying "... and so we just don't let other people touch our penis's..." I just giggled and walked away. Interestingly enough Amy tried to relate her dilemma to another Mom who simply said "We just told our boys that the Boy Scouts don't believe in the same things we do and we were not going to support them."

The Risen Christ

My favorite story... For a time, due to the extreme shortfalls of the public school system, we considered a private school. Well the only private school around was a Catholic school. So we thought we better start talking more about Jesus and the ideology of the Catholic church and what we believed and what we didn't and why we'd send the boy to a Catholic school without being Catholic.

Some of the conversations went rather well if a little humorous. When we told him that Moses talked to God as a burning bush the kid fell over laughing. We had to explain that Catholic people typically don't react well to bursts of laughter over momentous religious events... hehe... even if it is pretty funny.

But again at bed time, the perplexing question of Jesus came up. Nobly, my wife tried to jump in to the theory of Jesus and the whole new testament in about 10 minutes... at bed time... "So Christ was killed by the Romans and then was put in his grave for 3 days where he rose from the dead and spoke to his diciples about heaven." Throughout the story the small 7 year old boy is looking more and more distressed and the wife is somewhat confused about why this story of salvation and life isn't having the calm effect she expected. Finally at the conclusion the boy bursts out crying... "Jesus is a zombie raised from the dead and he's still walking the Earth looking over us!" Much re-disscussion was necessary...

I'm hoping the therapy bills will be covered by insurance...

General Update

Hello friends, admirers, family and random guests... KC is finally beautiful. We're hitting a high of 67 today which is just about perfect for me. I am most pleased as I think this is exactly what I imagine the weather to be in Wellington virtually every day.

Today is Wednesday and that meant there was a staff meeting this morning... woo. Last weekend I had the extra kiddos and we mostly played around the house. We packed up all their clothes to send home with their mom. We decided we will start purging our regular stuff in preparation for our move. While it was just a few clothes, it was really one of the first real actions we have taken to leave. And so it really begins... We will now really start getting rid of things we won't move and making all those permanent decisions that will lead up to our move in January.

This list seems pretty endless. But the most important detail is the completion of our immigration paperwork. That secures my offer and make the whole shabang very real. So we have all the forms and most of them filled out. It turns out we'll need to apply for a "Talent visa" with TNZ as an "Accreditted Employer" to get approval in 10 days. I have to be approved by November 1st to accept the offer. So that's the big deal now.

Chandler's birthday is tomorrow. He'll be 10. I can hardly believe it. For some reason, for many weeks now I have been remembering the moment of his birth over and over. I remember the way he looked and carrying him in to the weigh room. He didn't look like a newborn at all. He was 9 pounds after all. He looked like a normal baby. Probably the most perfect baby I'd ever seen. 10 years... There is so much I'd like to explain to him. But even at 10 he's still just a kid. There is no way I could tell him how that day felt. No way to begin to describe all the feelings I've had watching him grow up. How I feel even right now would be hard to explain another adult. This makes me think of my own folks and how for years they must have felt the same inexpressable feelings. I bet they just looked down and thought the same thing... someday you'll know. And I do... I know now. 37 mom... Sorry it took so long!

Chandler shares his birthday with my mother-in-law and one of Amy's aunts. So while he celebrates at his house, we'll be in Lawrence celebrating with Amy's folks. But Chandler won't miss out. Sabrina's birthday is the 20th and we'll have them that weekend for a double birthday event.

Gabe's big event is Halloween. I think he ranked it as his favorite holiday even before Christmas. We picked out a good ninja costume after much deliberation. I came through with an awesome one-handle cickle that has a secret dagger. Sure to be all the rage with the stylish ninjas.

The ever beautiful and desirable, Amy is doing very well and helping out with all the immigration stuff. She and Gabe are both immediately granted access once I am. Amy will be able to seek employment anywhere in NZ. Which we will need. I will be paying taxes in both countries and with the exchange rate we'll be living on a little bit less income. We are hoping to be able to skip owning cars and cheaper over all healthcare. Even so, a whole new 2nd income would rock!

That's about all the news that is news... cya around!