Christmas in New Zealand

Only 5 days left till Christmas! 

To be completely honest, for a long time it didn't feel anything like Christmas here. Although I grew up in the desert and Christmas was usually warm and definitely never had snow, I've become accustom to snowy white Christmas's the past 5 years while living on the East Coast. New Zealand doesn't over commercialize Christmas either so in many places you don't even see many decorations or town Christmas trees. It definitely depend on the area and size of the city you are in though because when we were in Auckland it was VERY obvious that is was Christmas! All the department stores had beautiful window displays like Macy's back home and one of the corner building down town that a HUGE Santa with reindeer and presents on it. Obviously not what Christmas is about, but it was nice to see decorations that were a bit more familiar to home. We got our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago from a local tree farm and that has definitely helped to make it feel more like Christmas..although I am really missing our Willow Tree Nativity Scene that we left in storage in Cali. Last night was fun too! For our Tuesday night service, Heart for the House, we all went to the local retirement home and sang carols for them! Afterwards we went back to the church, played games and had treats. I'm looking forward to the Christmas services this weekend and from now through Saturday I have a whole list of Christmas food and treats I'm making. :) Today we will finish our sugar cookies and I'm making mini meringues for Torre's office. Tomorrow I'm making the Cheese Pierogi and Mince Pies for Christmas Eve and Day. Friday I'm making chocolate cupcakes for Christmas Eve after church. Saturday I'm making the Mushroom Soup for Christmas Day, EGGNOG!!! (I hope it works!), and more peppermint flavored mini meringues to use up the egg whites I'll have left over from the Eggnog. :) We are really thankful for the friends and church family God has given us so quickly here to be able to celebrate Christ and his love with!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL!!!

Every month we have an Over 50's Lunch at church that is open to the community! Here are some pics from our Christmas Lunch last week:

Torre and I FINALLY made Strufoli! My Nana used to send it to us in big Christmas tins when we were little. :)

Christmas Tree picking!!!

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*

T-46 days and counting!

since i last wrote, i kind feel like i did when i was about to get married. as soon as my beau proposed i was off like a flash of lighting doing everything i possibly could to get things rolling for the big day! then...i waited. there was a period of a few months between the big stuff and waiting to take care of the little stuff...which seemed like forever...where there just didn't seem to be much i could do. then of course it came down to the last few weeks when it felt like there wasn't enough time to do it all! *(cue final weeks till the move) after we submitted the paperwork for our visas and spent a weekend or two continuing to organize the apartment into "keep", "store", "give away", "good-will", "sold" and "i have no idea" piles, there just hasn't been much to talk about. probably the biggest news since is that torre was approved by the medical board of new zealand! yeah...i think that does constitute something to say. my bad. well now you know! we are still waiting for our visas to go through though. and while we wait we have a very busy few weeks ahead of us! only 19 days until we leave for the Dominican Republic to serve with G.O. Ministries for a week! We are so excited to see friends from last year and to be able to bring much needed medical supplies, love and encouragement to the Vargas family and all the nationals we have the opportunity to serve!!! that also means that we only have 19 days left in Boston. :( it's always sad to be moving away from a place and people you've come to love and share life with, but it's pretty exciting to be moving in a new direction anticipating all that God has in store. :) we will be traveling for the entire month of august so please keep us in your prayers as we go. we will be visiting family in several locations, celebrating a family wedding and wrapping it all up with the grand finale...our exit of the Americas! how am i feeling at this point? tired, eager, like i can't wait till every things packed and shipped to storage, praying that i don't rush through and miss one second of the time we have left in Boston with friends and my sister, and extremely exited for what's ahead. what's next? laundry. :)

adventure is out there

We recently read that life is full of high boards...places we stand where we realize that the altitude is higher than we expect. The place where their is no neutral-we either go forward or go backward. And at that moment you choose to advance or retreat. To choose to live out your Divine Adventure is to advance! Advance the Kingdom of God. Advance your faith. Advance your trust in God's plans and purposes for your life. Advance against the fear that keeps you bound from living the life God has created for you. We are passionate about sharing God's love and aligning our hearts, dreams, talents and lives with the work God has already begun in and around us.

Our Divine Adventure begins August 29, 2011, when we travel to New Zealand to live abroad for one year!


"When you seize divine moments, you instigate an atomic reaction. You become a human catalyst creating a divine impact."

"When we begin to seize our divine moment, we do not begin to live risk-free, but instead become free to risk." ~ Erwin Raphael McManus - 'Chasing Daylight'

God has had this in the works for years...many...and although it still feels kind of like a surprise party you REALLY didn't see coming, looking back it's all becoming very clear. One of our main goals over the past few years has been to become more available to local and international missions and disaster relief projects. Our missions trip to the DR last summer confirmed many God-given dreams and desires we've had to continue to align our lives in a way that would make us prepared to 'GO' whenever the call/chance/opportunity/need came. We began to pray and ask God what that looked like and a couple of months ago the answer came in the idea of temporary staffing positions both in the US and internationally. In both fear of being stretched beyond our current comfort zone and excitement of the possibilities beyond our comprehension we continued praying, looking into options, praying lots more and really trying to take a good, honest look at our hearts and how God had been aligning our lives. At some point along the way we realized that this was "our moment"...the freedom to choose to advance...to risk...to LIVE! So we have chosen to jump off our hypothetical high board and take a swim, pursue passion, adventure and our sincere desire to be God's love extended to all. Torre has accepted a one year contract at a clinic in Levin, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand! Along with his work in the clinic we are both very excited to get integrated into the community, make new friends, connect with a local church family, assist in local needs and share in the customs and culture of those around us! I will continue to pursue my passion for photography and a developing vision to use it as an act of worship and a tool to bring awareness and support to those in need.

We are absolutely thrilled...if you couldn't tell already...and look forward to all that God has in store! Come along with us!

Adventure is out there!