I haven’t written a blog post in months. I kept thinking, I should write something some time soon but then life kept me busy and suddenly, it was two sleeps to Christmas. I don’t even know how time has passed so quickly this year. Though somehow it has and our lovely landlord just dropped off a whole bag of Christmas gifts for us!

This last year has been absolutely crazy. So much has happned and yet it still feels surreal. I have to stop every now and then and look around me. I still can’t believe this is my life. I still wake up every day and feel so appreciative for the life I live.

This year some notable things happened;

My son cut his beautiful long hair all away. I had NOTHING to do with the decision. I respected his choice and now he’s growing it again. WHEW! Follow me on INSTGRAM to see photos!

I was promoted in my job – watch this space for more news on that. ( I LOVE my job to the point that people think it’s weird).

My husband got a really good job.

We are in the process of applying for residency – which means buying a house and DOGS finally getting to come over!

We sold our house in Cape Town!! WOOP WOOP!! I thought this would never happen, I thought I’d be sad if it did but actually, it feels like closure and I feel okay with that.

My mom moved here! YAY!! Literally the best thing EVER!

We continue to make wonderful friends and we are thankful for the people in our lives. We honestly have the most wonderful people surrounding us.

Some not so great stuff happened too…

Oden’s kindy (pre school) is a mess – he was bullied for a bit of the year. WE really struggled with the decision to leave him in the school. He’s leaving for primary school in September next year (how is that happening already?) and he’s not good at handling change so we didn’t want to disrupt him. It was a hard choice to make. I’m still not sure it’s the right choice but I will see how things go in the new year.

MY BEST FRIENDS had babies. Seriously. TWO of them and I didn’t ge to be there – this isn’t bad news of course, I am ecstatic for them but I’m so sad that I didn’t get to experience it and it happened in the year right after I left. Then Maz moved countries and I wasn’t there to support her through that. Her life in Ireland looks freaking amazing though and I can’t wait to visit her and stay in her HUGE old definitely haunted house.

My high school bestie got married in Swaziland to her prince charming and I couldn’t be at the wedding. I’m so sad about that. I wish so much I could have been there. She looked like a princess and she deserves all the happiness in the world.

My dog suddenly had to find a new place to live because Maz had him and like crazy people they managed to pull off an international move in 26 days and so now he lives in Swaziland – On a farm with my brother’s mother. He really is living his best life. I’m happy for him and I’m sad for me. I miss him so much. Okay but for real, who manages to successfully move across the world in under a month? I’ve done this moving thing with only one child and it was HARD. Respect for Maz and Cole peeps.

It has been hard being away from everyone when these moments are happening! Missing out on the life you leave behind is hard!

Life in New Zealand

I worried about the life we would have here but it continues to be everything we dreamed of. I’m scared to wake up sometimes, from this life and discover it wasn’t real. I have never been this happy. Of course, like anywhere, there are things that happen that aren’t great but I love it here. Oden loves it here and as a family, we are thriving. I still love visiting playgrounds and I work with the guy who designs them so i even get insights into HOW they get designed. Pretty cool.

I’m never homesick for Cape Town as a city. It’s weird, when I think of home, I miss Swaziland. I haven’t lived there in a very very long time but that’s the place my heart misses. I think it’s because this country and that country are so similar in so many ways and the green rolling hills remind me of home. I do however miss the people I left behind in Cape Town. I miss my friends and our family in South Africa.

He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata – it’s the people, it’s the people, it’s the people!

I know there’s so much of this that we could not do without them. A special thank you to Maz and Cole for keeping Jax and loving him and all of his loudness and now Zoe and to Nico and Jake for loving my baby girl Jessie like their own. I am fairly certain she won’t want to leave.

Every single day I am thankful to these people who saved us and continue to be the best friends we could have asked for. I miss the people!