And on it goes

It's been almost a month since our last post, and that's been because there hasn't been a lot to report. Since our last post, every week or so, the government has reviewed the lockdown in our region (the Waikato) and decided to renew it for another week. So our lockdown continues...they just moved us to level 3 step 2, which means retail services can open for in-person shopping and groups up to 25 people can meet outside. As vaccination rates inch towards the government's goal of 90%, hopefully restrictions will continue to ease, but we'll see...

Several things have helped us through the last few weeks. First, we joined "bubbles" with a family from church that we've become friends with; they have a son and daughter, 13 and 10. We've had a couple picnics outside at parks (including at the local arboretum, which we discovered is known for the wild chickens that inhabit its grounds!), a board game night, and a birthday lunch for their daughter. The weather has also been getting quite nice, with highs most days in the 70's. It's starting to feel more and more like summer is just around the corner. We've also started a garden in our backyard! We found a guy on FB marketplace who makes planter boxes out of wooden pallets for $20 each (MUCH cheaper than the similarly sized $80 boxes in stores!). So far we have tomatoes planted, with beet, radish, lettuce, spinach, dill, and sweet pea seeds still to be planted in the next day or two.

Tamara has officially started work - last week was her first week. She has to work 4 (8 hour) shifts/week for the first 4 weeks while she gets trained, afterwards she'll only be working 2 shifts/week. Last week was all AM shifts (7 AM - 3:30 PM) and this week is all PM shifts (3 PM - 11:30 PM). It's been challenging to get used to working in a new hospital in a new country; a lot of things are similar to what she remembers from her time working in Australia, but that was ~5 years ago, so a lot of things are fuzzy. The hospital here is also quite busy and has higher ratios of patients to nurses than she's used to, so it will be challenging. Ralph has missed having his mommy around; he's been going to the daycare down the street 2 days/week and our friends have been watching him the other two days while Tamara works (either bubble friends or other friends who live close by). He is still getting used to the daycare and often cries when we leave him there, but quickly calms down once he starts playing. During Tamara's first PM shift, she video called with us before Ralph went to bed and he clearly recognized his mommy on the phone and was hugging the phone and kissing it - very sweet but also sad that she couldn't be there in person!

Ralph has been enjoying watching the big diggers out behind our house (we think they're building a footpath to connect our street with a new housing development behind us, but we're not sure). He's also taken a liking to playing in the car, including bonking his head on the steering wheel to make it honk! He also loves snuggling with his favorite stuffed animals and makes his "cute" face whenever he sees pictures of cats and dogs.

My work is plodding along; it's hard to prepare for a field season in NZ this summer when I can't get access to the lab and we don't know when the lockdown will be lifted so we can actually do the field work! I've been finding things to do, but will be glad when I can get back into the lab again.

Please be continuing to pray for us, for joy on the hard days, for the lockdown to end soon, and for patience and contentment as we try to make the most of what we've been given.

-Stephen