niques is going on a mission!

oh. my. gosh. it is finally happening!! after over a year of preparing and trying her butt off to get there, niques got her mission call today!

dear sister kendall... you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, labouring in the hamilton, new zealand mission, reporting to the auckland missionary training centre, april 23rd 2015.

new zealand! how exciting. we are stoked, she is excited... and it's all go go go.

good things come to those who do!

final farewell

our main reason for the trip to new zealand was to attend the unveiling of mama and papa's headstone. on friday morning we all went to the manakau memorial gardens and met with all of doug's family that had travelled from all over the world to be there 

doug's uncle sale spoke at the ceremony about families being together forever and even though i couldn't understand a word - i know that everyone around me could feel the beauty in what he was saying. doug's mum told me that the words on the top slab meant something along the lines of the words in the hymn 300 - families can be together forever... they pulled the tapa cloth off to show the headstones and that was it. a few hymns were sung, and again i didn't understand, but feeling it was enough.

it's been a whole year now since mama and papa passed away and as i said in previous posts it is tradition in the samoan culture that the family gather together as the headstone is unveiled. it is the last thing that we do for them, so it is a big deal, and being that i couldn't be at the funerals cause i was too far pregnant, we made a special effort to be there and most of all for maddie to be there with all the family that she'd not yet met. 

at the end of the ceremony balloons were released heavenward with messages attached for mama and papa. i have no doubt that the two of them sat with maddie before she came to us and got to know her - and again i take comfort in knowing that we are indeed part of a forever family and we will one day see them again.

maddie with her mama & papa 

♥♥♥

hamilton

on december 9th 1977 my parents - with my two oldest brothers (who at the time were just 4 and 2!) finished a hugely long trek from perth all the way to hamilton to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. i now appreciate this so much more - after flying from perth to brisbane, brisbane to auckland and then driving the hour and a half up to hamilton. it was a long way. even more so in the days when they had to drive across australia, then fly from sydney and then drive some more. back when cars didn't have air conditioning and money was tight. but they did it. they did it for our family. and i am so grateful that it hurts. i stood there in absolute wonder of my beautiful parents that put our family first - and managed it. it makes me feel like i didn't put in enough effort! for us the temple is not only a simple 10 minute drive away - but in the back yard of our chapel! i see it every sunday. one more thing to be grateful for!

it was for that reason that while we were in new zealand i felt like i had to take madeline to the temple. it may be the only opportunity that i have to take her to see the temple that my parents (and coincidentally doug's too!) were sealed in all those years ago. it was so special taking her around the grounds and telling her that.

we also had a look in the visitors centre while we were there - and when i sat madeline down on the bench in there - she just couldn't take her eyes off the christ statue. it was so sweet. i am sure it's cause she still remembers who he is, i mean it hasn't been that long after all.

i love to see the temple. regardless of how many times i see it, i still love it. i love to walk in the grounds and feel the sweet spirit within. i am so blessed to have the gospel in my life and to know that i am part of

a forever family

new zealand

last week doug, maddie and i went to new zealand! no jokes. it was touch and go for a while, but we managed to make it work and left last tuesday to spend the next 5 days with his family. believe it or not, it's been a year since doug's grandparents passed away, and as per samoan tradition, the unveiling of the headstone happened that week. we flew to queensland and spent the weekend there before flying out with his mum. maddie was very excited for her second plane ride, i have a feeling she wasn't too thrilled about the first one being the red eye from perth - i think she was just far too tired but this time she was gorgeous. we flew air china and it was great! movies, tv, music, food... and heaps of empty seats. definitely flying with them again!

our little girl had a sleep on the plane and then we propped her up in the spare seat in our row with the pillows. she had a great old time chatting with grandma oli as we flew on. it's so nice to see her with her queensland grandparents finally getting the chance to get to know them. it was nice for oli too while we were over there, maddie was overwhelmed a few times by all doug's little cousins all wanting to hold her at once and when she cried she would only go to me or her. i bet she loved it. ♥

we hired a car and stayed at a local hotel that was not only convenient but very reasonably priced. very helpful - considering the freaking price of fuel. omgsh. i could not believe it. insanity. but we did have a good time in our very short stay...

i dragged doug and his aunty off to one tree hill - i just could not help myself, after so many years of watching the show and knowing the there was actually somewhere called that in downtown auckland? it had to be done. without question.

it seemed all too soon that we were back at the airport with miss maddie ready to board our flight back to brisbane - i'll be sure to report in posts (soon!) about our adventures, but i couldn't resist posting these two adorable photos of her hamming it up for the camera right before we checked in... in the traditional new zealand buzzy bee ride and in the little airplane ride we found next to the mcdonalds playground. i am almost certain that she thought she could fly herself home if she tried hard enough.

more soon xx