Waking Up

These last two days have been interesting. We left home on Sunday to go to Auckland to pick-up my Mom and her friend. But our car had other plans for us. We had just spent about $1200 having the car inspected, tuned up, new front brakes, new front tires and a tow hitch installed. Our plan was to tow the church trailer to Auckland to pick-up the girls so that we could take the kids with us and all of their stuff. We were spending the night in a hotel and it was going to be an adventure.

It was. The car broke down about 40 minutes from home. We had to get towed back to a small town about 30 minutes from home. So DH, Bubba, Cupcake, Kitty and myself all rode in the front of the tow truck. With me trying to keep Cupcake from pushing any buttons. Then DH and the tow guy went back for the trailer. Our car had started to blow smoke and we were fearful we were burning up the engine. The ordeal took about 4 hours from beginning to end. The kids were so good while it was happening. In the end DH borrowed a car and got up about 3 am to go down and pick-up Mom and her friend.

We have had a nice start to our visit, except that Cupcake and I are so sick with chesty colds. This morning I didn't think I could get out of bed. Cupcake is getting better thank goodness. Monday she ran a fever all day and night.

Yesterday I took the girls to town basin, a nice little scenic touristy spot. The kids were pretty good, but they only last about 3 hours max. DH is of course working through most it.

Here is the most amazing part of my Mom's visit so far...I am waking up. What I have realised is that I am now more Kiwi, more English, than I am American. I don't think I really miss Texas or America at all. I think I have adopted my new homeland far more than I ever thought I would. Do you want to know how I know this? Because the more my Mom talks about home and my crazy family--the more I remember why it was so appealing to move away. I do miss my mother and I hate missing out on time with her at the end of her life (not that it's ending any time soon, but she is 71 and I know she won't live forever, although I am hoping for 30 more years). I miss my girlfriend back home. But I don't miss the family drama. I don't miss feeling like an outsider in my own family.

Mom's friend that she brought with her is a woman I had never met before. She is a nice lady. But the more she talks about all of the things that are different or better at home--the more fiercely I protect NZ. Isn't that funny? Because don't I spend a lot of time griping about such things? I took her to the grocery store yesterday and when we got home she told a story about a grocery store close to her house (the HEB at Blanco and West Avenue in case Susan is reading this). She calls it "ghetto HEB." She said that it was better than the Countdown close to our house (Susan has been there too). I was really offended because we love this Countdown. Anyway, it's just little things like that. Having to explain that if we can't find cilantro in the store it is likely off season and we won't find it anywhere (I probably could if I really tried, but I hate cilantro).

Anyway--it's been funny. Suddenly I feel very at home in NZ. I LOVE IT! I don't want Americans coming over here and making fun of anything. Suddenly, I am waking up to the fact that I am proud to be (even if only in a small way) Kiwi.

Didn't see that one coming. Very interesting.

By-the-way, we prayed for healing for the car (I know, weird). And guess what? It was healed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. They think the transmission might have overheated from pulling the trailer, but that everything is working fine now. Amazing!