Welcome to AUCKLAND!

Hi!!! We arrived in Auckland a few hours ago and were greeted by our first New Zealand sunrise, went to Torre's meeting and now we are back at the airport waiting for our next flight to Palmerston North at 12:45pm. Palmerston is about 45min from Levin so we will get a rental car and drive to Levin. The flight here was really good...we slept prob 6ish hours and they fed us dinner and breakfast. :) Our taxi driver, Peter, took us on a short city tour to the "One Tree Hill" Monument in the center of town. Apparently there used to be one lone tree atop this huge volcanic mountain in the middle of Auckland and a Islander chopped it down in protest. He must have been really upset! One Tree Hill is on a reserve that was donated to the city and it's actually farming land! There were tons of sheep and lambs all over the place as well as cattle. Auckland is a city of approximately one million people and Levin, where we are going to be living, has a population of approximately 23,000. Big difference! Peter laughed when he heard we were going there because he said it's very rural. We are getting ready to get some lunch so we will be in touch as soon as we can find internet again. We asked Peter what we should know about New Zealand as new comers and he said one of the most important things was for us to make sure we look both ways before we cross the street but to make sure we revers the order of direction that we normally look! He was really nice. :)

Our first sunrise in Auckland, NZ

View of downtown Auckland from One Tree Hill

Goodbye from LAX! See you on the other side! :D

T-22 hours!

wow folks! we leave for New Zealand in less than 24 hours! i can't believe it! our flight leaves from LAX tomorrow night at 9:30pm so please keep us and all our travels in your prayers...it's going to be a long journey. :) today will consist of last minute errands in Cali., packing and a BBQ with family. thank you Father God for this new adventure and for all that you have in mind for us. Help us to think BIG and expect more than we could ever imagine!

FedEx is on their way-take 2 & more!

hey all! i can't believe it but it's already been almost a month since FedEx came to collect our belongings and this is the first real opportunity i've had to follow up. Mr. FedEx did come and willing took and approved the photo below for our blog. :) since July 29 we moved out of our Boston apartment, spent a week in the DR on a missions trip (LOTS more to come on this!!!), moved away from Boston, flew to California where we had a family wedding (CONGRATS COCO & ALEX!), spent an afternoon at Laguna Beach with the Aguilar family, opened a new POBox in Whittier, my hubby surprised me Wednesday morning with breakfast in bed (waffles with vanilla bean ice cream and fresh peaches! thanks Love for remembering a fond childhood memory and blessing me so much!) and took me to DISNEYLAND!, then we were off to Denver, CO, where we spent a few great days with more of Torre's family and now we are finishing up our family visit to Lake Havasu and heading back to Cali tomorrow. Our departure day is quickly approaching!!! ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!!! We have been so busy enjoying our time with family we haven't had much time to think about New Zealand, but as it is becoming more of a reality we are getting more and more excited about what God has in mind and what it will all look like once we get there!

Goodbye Boston...we'll miss you. *hugs*