My Backstory: New Zealand (Part 2 of 3) The Highlights

We lived in NZ for 15 months from the end of 2010 to the beginning of 2012. During this short time, we had a few memorable events.

The first major event in our life in NZ was buying a car. It was a blue Daihatsu Charade. I forget the year of the car, but I think it was less than ten years old. We were so excited about our new purchase. We hopped on the train to head to downtown Wellington to sign the loan papers. We were able to pay for and pick up our car the next day from the previous owner. We were finally going to be able to get up and go. Our happiness quickly depleted once we realized the cost of gas and inspection fees. However, we had a good thirty minutes worth of joy before reality hit. And we had some good times in our little car; going back and forth between Wellington, Levin, Upper Hut, Lower Hut, and Palmerston North.

And let's not forget our trips to the beach! In the following pictures Baby Girl had a rash. So we decided to take her to the beach. We stripped her down and put her in the water. The next day, her rash was gone.

The second most memorable event was our daughters first birthday. She turned one while we were living on Chapel Street, Porirua. We planned for months for her birthday. We spent money we didn't have one fancy cake. And her granddad purchased food for our guest. We had a few guest over and celebrated our baby turning one.

As I mentioned above, we lived on Chapel Street. The area we lived in, is historically Mormon. All of our neighbors were Mormon. We were the odd couple out. One day two young elder Mormons came to the house. To be fair, they came often. I think they knew I was a bit lonely. I was a housewife in a foreign country, with my only close family being my husband. One week, we had a ton of unexpected bills pile up.

Light bill was due; it was around 1000 dollars. We had to pay more money on our housing deposit because Greg's salary payment schedule changed. Which also meant that we had to change the due date of our rent. Which meant that we had to pay more money for the deposit on the house we were renting. The car needed gas, Baby Girl needed nappies and formula, and there was no food in the house.

The elders came by and asked if I was okay. I just busted into tears with baby girl in my arms. At this moment I was at the end of my rope, and I didn't know who to turn to for help. The elders went back to talk to their bishop. They invited us back to their church to speak with their bishop. We explained to him what was going on, and he cut us a check for 200 dollars to pay for groceries. He didn't ask us for anything in return. I'll never forget their kindness.