New Zealand Road Trip, Home, and Jobs

Hello friends! Sorry for the long absence from the blog.  Your reward for your patiences is (FINALLY!) some photos in this update!  

We're in the USA, as you might know/have gathered, and we're back in the land of high speed (we mean REALLY high speed!!!) internet.  And we have a repaired computer track pad, so we can click-and-drag again.  This combination of fabulous features mean, like, a whole new world is opened with blogging!

So, where did we leave off?  We came back to New Zealand from outreach at the end of November.  The last week of DTS was a flurry of final hang outs and packing and cleaning and preparing for departure.

We had graduation - an energy-filled night of praise, worship, and honoring God for all he had done.  I think we all sang ourselves hoarse.  It was memorable - and great!

All dressed up for graduation!

After graduation, thanks to our awesome friend Emily, we had access to a car for a week, so we got to do a little touring around NZ.  We had some great adventures - meeting up with our friend Vince in Auckland,  eating granola for a week straight, sleeping in (first) a leaky tent on a single, tiny, blow-up camp pad, and then in the car, and then finally in a friend's gracious mother's spare room (Thanks again to our New Zealand Mother!!!).  We learned almond milk lasts a ridiculously long time without being refrigerated, it really is OK to trespass through people's sheep fields to reach amazing clifftop viewpoints, and morning coffee at a coffee shop after a long night in a tent just REALLY improves the day!

Gabe, on the cliff top, climbing over the sheep fence.
(Our guidebook, literally, directed us to this climb-over spot!)

Gabe's bed one rainy night. I curled up in the back seat...
Not the most comfortable, but definitely cheap!

With Sacha, our friend we made in Thailand.  We stayed with her
Mum for 4 nights and then got to road trip through the North Island.

And then, the day before our 4th wedding anniversary, we caught a bus, then a plane, then another plane, and then started the day over again as we crossed the international date line, and landed in Portland 4 hours BEFORE we left New Zealand - go us!

Here we are in the airport, so excited to go home - and so tan! ;)

We landed, and as we descended down through the clouds, we broke through to a beautiful dusting of white snow that had freshly fallen the night before.  I was SO excited to emerge into a winter wonderland!

Driving home!

We had a beautiful Christmas with our families - a full 2 weeks with Gabe's siblings from the East Coast, and a beach trip, and then a delightful weekend with my family.

The Kirkwood family out at the beach on a beautiful winter day.

 Gabe had a job lined up before we left New Zealand to work for the tax preparer's office, which started up a week after we said goodbye to all the family.  I, meanwhile, met with a local school district, was offered a full-time teaching job (I'd gone in to see if I could pick up a couple days subbing every so often), was conditionally certified to teach, and started my job the week after Gabe did.  

As if that wasn't enough amazing, providential blessings, Gabe's boss generously adjusted Gabe's work hours so that we can commute together to work and be on the same schedule!  

Whew!  So, it's been a whirlwind of 2 months, but so memory-filled and sweet.  And God continues to just go before us and provide all we need and so much more - it's really incredible to just continue to be a recipient of His grace, His kindness, His generosity!  We continually find ourselves just amazed by all that He does for us.