I was very excited to finally finish the paperwork and do what it takes to become a New Zealand citizen. After being sworn in with the mayor we hosted a party - hard to believe we've only been here 8 years and made so many lovely dear friends. The party would have been even bigger but unfortunately my running friends, of which there are many, couldn't join us because they also had a celebration on that same evening. We are so grateful to our little community for welcoming us in and being so supportive all these years. At the end of this post I've included the speech I gave at the party.
Thank
you so much for coming to celebrate this momentous occasion with me. You lovely
people have been so welcoming from the minute we arrived here in New Zealand a
little over eight years ago.
I
remember meeting Fleur for the first time and realizing just how small
Wellington/Karori really is. We had met Alison and Pippa at ballet and Alison was
graciously helping us by being a friend in what was a tough transition to our
new lives. She mentioned that Fleur lived up the street and had girls about the
same age as mine and that we should meet. Very soon after that Fleur herself
approached us while we were at Ben Burn park and introduced herself and said
“You must be Dawn”. At the time I was gobsmacked that she had worked that out
so easily - but now I see how much
we probably stood out being loud American homeschoolers! And here I thought I
was blending in. Fleur immediately invited us over for afternoon tea and from there
we hit the ground running thanks to the Sheppard and Hogg families.
I
soon became a part of Fleur and Alison’s swimming group, the “Monday Morning
Ladies”. I will NEVER forget how terrified I was the first time I joined them .
. . togs, swimming, Steve – and it
wasn’t just ladies swimming . . . it was all a bit much and I only survived
because of the promise of coffee after. Being a part of that group has been one
of the highlights of my life here. There is no world or family problem that we
cannot solve at Gipp St on a Monday morning.
Our
camping buddies are another huge part of our lives here. It’s been so much fun
all these years watching our children grow up together - I would have never
imagined that I would come to love camping, and we certainly didn’t have much
experience at it as evidenced by the fact that we still cannot put our tents up
by ourselves and invariably our car battery dies after blowing up all of our
air mattresses and being opened and closed a thousand times - but you lot have
carried us through and we’re so privileged to be raising our family with you
beside us. I am thankful for how your lovely children have befriended my girls
and brought so much adventure, fun, acceptance and love into our lives. And our adult friendships have been the
family I don’t have here – thank you.
When
we finally took the plunge and stopped homeschooling our girls we chose Marsden
for them and have gained so many lovely friends from being part of the Marsden
community. You all have been so gracious as you have loved on our girls and
we’ve been through a lot together as we navigate these years – you’ve given us
grace when we needed it and your girls have been incredible friends to our
girls. And a super big thank you
to those of you who helped me with my first ever Gala convener job last year -
there is no way I could have pulled that off without you.
Our
little family has been through some real ups and downs in our eight plus years
here – the highs have been high but the lows have been very low and we have
been so blessed by all of your friendships. You’ve sustained us through the
deaths of Lloyd and Hugh and Margaret. You’ve celebrated with us too – I am so
moved and honoured by so many of you being there for my children as family at
birthdays, baptisms, school plays and the like. It means more to us than you
will ever know.
So
thank you – I’m really blessed and proud to be a citizen here in this great
country I love so much. I’m glad you haven’t built a wall. But seriously, I’m even
more grateful for each of you and it has been a privilege to call you friends.
So here’s to you! Cheers.
