Back in Lockdown- Level 3

Last Lord's Day, October 3rd, we were very thankful to be in church and able to have up to 100 people worshiping! The previous two weeks we had been in Level 2 but with gatherings restricted to 50 people, meaning we could only go to church every other week. Sadly though, it didn't last long; right after church we were told that Covid had escaped Auckland and there was 1 positive case in Hamilton and one in Raglan (on the west coast), where we were the week before. Bang! The premier announced Hamilton and some of the surrounding areas would be going back into level 3 at midnight. After we put Ralph to bed, Stephen went to get his laptop and extra monitor from work. Stephen was hoping to get into the lab this past week and so it has been disruptive for him to be working from home. Ralph and I had a few social outings planned and some new friends from church were going to watch Ralph so S&I could have a date night on Tuesday.. ah well. Instead Stephen has been working from home, which has been nice to have him home and we are very thankful he has an office. For almost 1.5 years in Corvallis he was working from our bedroom. Ralph and I have been taking three walks a day on average so i don't get too stir crazy Sometimes Stephen will go with us on 1 of them but he's also been enjoying biking around here. We're getting our tandem bike fixed (the back wheel got bent during shipping) so hopefully we can go for family bike rides soon too!

Saturday we went to Lake Kainui (just 10 minutes from our house) and had a picnic lunch and then walked the 3 miles around it. It was very pretty and nice to get out. Yesterday we watched church online and talked with some family which was encouraging. We made lemon cookies and brought them to some of our neighbors that we've met. They all seemed very grateful :) Stephen and I also did some alcohol ink painting in the afternoon for the first time in months, so that was really nice.

Before lockdown we were able to have a few friends over for dinner and a game night. We also bought some house plants which makes our house feel much more homey! Our lawn is nice and tidy (thanks to S) and we cleaned the outside and inside of our windows so they're sparkling now! We finally sold our crates and after a little tiding, we've been able to park our car in our garage now. Ralph got his first haircut from a friend at church on Sunday before lockdown, so he no longer has his mullet haha. He is running around, playing with his cars and balls, "reading" books, hugging his stuffed animals and getting so big! We also have enjoyed playing at parks, although in level 3 they're sadly closed :( I am still planning to start work in ED in two weeks and got fitted for my uniform on Thursday. It's exciting but also daunting as I haven't worked in 16 months and this will be my third country to work in as a nurse in the past 4.5 years. We have found a sweet little childcare center down the road from us to watch Ralph two days a week so we're thankful for that.

We found out this afternoon that we will stay in Level 3 until Thursday night and they will reevaluate Wednesday- we're hoping we will be back down to Level 2 by Friday but we'll see! It's been challenging being in another lock down, with the changing of routines and uncertainty, and we've definitely gone up and down emotionally over the past week, so we would appreciate your prayers.

Thanks,
-Tamara