I have been staring at my screen now for at least 15 minutes trying to figure out where to start. It’s really quite overwhelming trying to fit 6 months of life into 1 blog post. Especially when the first part of the period was so so bad, and to get to the good stuff I have to relive that first. I contemplated just skipping forward a few months and starting with only the good bits, but that didn’t seem very truthful. I’ve always prided myself on keeping it real here, and telling it like it is, so I don’t want to just tell the good bits. After all, the hard bits are the bits that build character, and they help you value the amazing bits. So… *deep breath. Here goes…

December 2015:

We hosted my extended family over to our house this year, which was a huge novelty for me. It was the smallest Christmas gathering we’ve had in a while, because there were quite a few families away, but we had about 35 over for dinner. That was made up of my immediate family; my parents, 2 of my brothers, Mr F and my children, my Nana, a few of my Aunts and Uncles, and a selection of my Cousins, their partners and their children.

We hosted all day – from hosting my immediate family for breakfast and lunch, followed by my extended family for dinner. It was a long but very very satisfying day.

Luckily, our Christmas present to ourselves had been some lovely new deck furniture, and after 18 months of having a completely empty deck, we finally had somewhere for all our guests to sit. The furniture has already proven its worth hosting many get-togethers in the sunshine…

 

Then came December 26th, Boxing Day. A month to the day before our 13th wedding anniversary.
I hope that I’ll always remember this Christmas period as the worst Christmas ever. – What I really mean by that statement is that I hope I never have a worse one!
Basically on December 26th my world came crashing down, and it appeared that my marriage was over.
– The dividing assets and child custody, down to the nitty gritty kind of over.
Obviously this is the paraphrased version, but it all came down to the fact that it is impossible to have a thriving marriage when you live in a different country to your husband. By this stage Mr F and I had lived apart for 6 1/2 years of our marriage, and we had had a long time to drift apart, grow complacent and then despondent.
It was truly the worst week of my life, as we worked through all possible scenarios and solutions.

I’m incredibly relieved to tell you though that today our marriage is not over. In fact it’s stronger than ever, and I know it will stay that way. 
How did it turn around you ask?
Well, I prayed with all my heart, soul and might for a miracle, and a miracle was what we experienced…
Within 6 weeks we went from not wearing our wedding rings and talking divorce, to Mr F proposing to me again and me saying yes.

And the best part about this news – after 6 1/2 years of working away, Mr F has FINALLY got a job where he comes home every night.

Boy do we feel blessed!
Living together as a family again, and knowing it’s now permanent, is life changing.

Mr F got the first job in NZ that he applied for, which happens to be the perfect job for him.
What was I saying about miracles?! We sure have been experiencing them in abundance!

Since the 1st of January 2015, the day we decided to stay together, it has been a little crazy here.
Crazy in a good, life changing, live-life-to-it’s-absolute-fullest way.

In January Mr F flew back to finish his last 3 weeks at his job in Australia. He arrived back in New Zealand just in time for us to take a weekend away and celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. We rented a beautiful apartment and spent 4 days reminding ourselves how great life is when we live in the same country and get to spend time together.

We also hosted Mr F’s Mum to stay for 6 weeks.

In February one of my  favourite people got married to her partner of 10 years, and the father of her children. We had friends come from around the globe to share in the celebrations, and I enjoyed 2 weeks of having my best school friends in the same country!

It was so awesome!

The weekend either side of my friend’s wedding, my Mum and her identical twin celebrated their 60th birthdays. All my family came from afar; my brother and his wife came over from Brisbane, one brother down from Auckland and one brother up from Christchurch for the occasion. We had family come from Perth, Melbourne, Auckland, Gisbourne and so on for the event. The twins shared their party with one of my other Aunts who was also turning 60. For those crazy 2 weeks we opened our home to family and friends to stay and hosted dinner on their actual birthday.

Toward the end of March the visitors all dispersed home, just in time for me to have a crazy few weeks at work. Who am I kidding, my work is always crazy, but that few weeks was crazier than most as I had to train someone to take over my clients for a few weeks.

Then at the beginning of April I took a little over 2 weeks off work and we took a family vacation to Fiji.

It.was.breathtaking.

Fiji definitely deserves a blog post (or 2) all to itself!

So that my friends is where I will leave it for today. Then when I resume I can tell you all about our amazing trip to Fiji.
And the fact we sold a house.
And the fact we sold 2 cars and bought another.

Did I mention it’s been crazy?

Thanks for listening.