There are still people like this in the world

We had another miracle this week. I have been truly humbled. For the last couple of months financially we have barely been getting by and the winter months seemed to only make it worse with constant trips to the doctors and having to pay for winter power for the first time EVER. Work wise it has been a bit hard for Joe because in June he found out that the bonuses and/or incentives which all of his colleagues would be receiving he was not eligible for because his contract was slightly different to everyone else. It was all related to his residency status however up until that point he was always told it was a performance based bonus so everyone including his boss thought that it was based on "performance" not on residence status. (We have now applied for his residency and are currently waiting for a decision which is a 3+month process.) It was hard for husband I think because he lost a lot of his motivation and felt slighted by his company. He felt he had done the hard work they had asked of him and now he because ineligible because of a piece of paper.

August was his 1 year mark and his entire team were going to receive their bonuses and also their yearly increase (Joe was ineligible for that too.) Well yesterday (August 31) I got a call from him and he said we had just got a huge blessing. I asked what it was. His team members had joined together and all put in a bit of money and given Joe a "Team Bonus". When he told me this I felt so happy for my husband. I don't know anyone that knows Joe has ever met that thought ill of him. He is a very friendly kind of guy and easy to get along with. Where I am the kind of person that can be selective or slow to make friends he can talk to anyone and everyone and is a really genunine person. 

He was truly humbled to receive such a gesture from his fellow work mates and I know that you have to be a special kind of person to even get that kind of a wonderful gesture from people. I am more amazed at his team. I know from talking with Joe that many of his team members are Christians or have a belief in God or a higher power. There team was originally on a shift from 1:30pm till 11pm (Tuesday - Saturday) when Joe first began work and then 3 months later their were moved to a normal 8:00-4:30pm shift. According to there team leader a opportunity for such a new team to move to such a coveted time slot is unheard of and yet most of his team openly acknowledged that they had been praying for such a change. Amazing right? Well now again they have shown such amazing charity and love towards my husband and our little family.

Below is a write up which has been done about this gesture and I am so grateful to these wonderful people that have blessed our family so much. 

(Names and his company have been omitted)

To whom it may concern,

We have had an amazing experience in our team this week which is not shown so often in the world today, so we are writing about this example in hope that it could be looked into to celebrate those involved and that similar occurrences might be seen in a different light.

One of our team mates has been working here for close to a year now, has put in more effort than most (which of course can be seen in the results and atmosphere he creates) and has been one of the most positive influences in the company call center in a very long time.

Unfortunately bonus time has come around for the year (fortunately for most); and while we have all been celebrating and having conversations around the water cooler about what to spend our large pay cheques on; our team mate has had to face the facts that he will not be receiving a pay increase nor bonus/incentives for his hard work due to issues with his residency. Furthermore, I believe he is the only one in our team with a wife and kids and would have appreciated it the most.

Our team leader has tried every direction possible to persuade people to hear him out – but all requests and ideas were declined. I (personally) slightly felt disappointed personally to hear that “we” as a business had fallen from taking care of our family to concentrating on numbers, figures and contracts.

On a good note – Our team decided to put together a shared lunch, we all brought a plate along to celebrate the bonus and a year of hard work. We also decided in the background to bring together some money of our own to create a “team bonus” for our team mate and surprise him.

This of course went exceptionally well; he thanked each member of our team and gave everyone a hug – this is what a family is about, and how we should be treating our fellow colleagues

Thank you for your time,

His team mates

The little things

Sometimes there are moments I wish I could just freeze and hold into forever.

Like how baby joe sleeps with a monkey pillow pet on his face each night. How he puts his hands in the air when he gets excited. How he says thank you every time I make him a bottle or how he throws a huge fit every time we don't let him feed himself. I want to remember how he chuckles every time we let him talk on the phone or how putting the vacuum to your hand and jumping makes him roll with laughter.

Or how Hinalei wants to be read dozens and dozens of books each night. How she plays pretend every night with her dad and she is Belle and he is gaston or she is Wendy and he is Peter or she is Tiana and he is prince navene. How she loves to eat boiled eggs at any meal and thinks cheese is a food group. I love how she already tries to get Joe to do something I already told her no to and how he falls for it every time :).

Sometimes I have moments of sadness when I realize that these moments will soon be gone and replaced by school and friends and maybe even FB. People are right when they tell you that your kids are only little for a short time.

While motherhood for me does not come easy and I feel like I am flustered most of the time and most days I know that it is worth it so much more than any satisfaction a job could give me. It is definitely the hardest thing I will have to do but when Hinalei or Baby Joe snuggles on my arm or calls out to me instead of there dad I know I must be doing ok.

Sorry this post is more for me than anyone else but I just want to remember every detail of them when they are young!

Two huge miracles.

The point of my post is to share some most amazing and blessed news. I am not trying to boast, in fact I feel anything but pride right now and I am in awe of my Heavenly Fathers loves for me and my family. Firstly we actually got the letter back from Thailand  regarding an important document needed for us to complete Joes residency and can now proceed with getting submitting the papers for Joes NZ residency. This is such a huge weight off my mind and one that I am so grateful to the Lord for providing us with the letter back from Thailand. It took exactly 1 month from the time we mailed it to the time it was returned to us.

This leads me to my second miracle. The letter and this miracle happened on the same day so needless to say a lot of tears have been shed in thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. Well it is probably no stranger to anyone that when you have a small family and one person working that you struggle financially. I am so grateful that I get to stay home with my children but it has not been easy. Many times I feel like it is a juggle between which bill we have to postpone till next paycheck. However about a month ago while studying my scriptures and I came across this passage in 3rd Nephi 13:31-33 that says Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Well I feel that in the past couple of months I have been learning a lot about faith and I so I decided that I was going to try and let go a lot more and try very very hard to trust in the Lord and his ability to provide for our needs. I will still keep budgeting my money but I would try and worry less about tomorrow and focus more on what I can do today. I am so lucky though to have a husband who does not want for a lot of brand name or stuff. He is very supportive of our family and is very good about living within our means. He does not ask for things and we don't argue about money which I am so grateful for. If anything I know he wishes he could do more.

Well I have been pleading with the Lord to provide some way for our family to not be so strapped financially and even to be able to pay off some much needed overdue bills. We received Josephs tax return and were able to do much good and I was waiting on $41 dollars for my tax return. Not much really but every bit helps. Well it showed online that it had been processed on August 10th but was yet to be deposited in my account. Now 11 days later I was becoming impatient and decided that I could not wait any longer so I gave them a call.

I was directed to several different people and finally to one lady who said some details regarding our tax details to be finalized. She asked me some questions and then had me put on hold for a while. She said that sometimes when it is a big return they have to double check on stuff and I was like... uh $41? That is a big return? 

Well after being on hold for 20 hours and feeling my eye balls falling out of my head as I got older and older and older...hehe... she came back on the phone and said that everything had been accepted by the computer and that our refund to the amount of $2657.73 had been approved. I was like "Um can you please repeat that?" She said that I would be receiving some back owing working for families refund of the above number and also an income tax return of $41. I thanked her, hung up the phone and burst into tears. I was literally sobbing uncontrollably for about 15 minutes while Joe tried to ask what had happened and Hinalei keep saying "Mummy stop crying, stop crying." Finally I managed to get the words out and we all knelt down and thanked Heavenly Father for his tender mercies and for showing me once again how aware he is of our little family. Not only will this money pay off the debts we have but will allow us to have a little extra.

I just want to bear my testimony to you that Heavenly Father is aware of us each indivdually. SO  SO SO many times in the last couple of months I have struggled with whether to pay tithing, whether to pay fast offering etc and now here the windows of Heaven have opened and I am in awe and totally humble at the same time that the Lord has provided for our little family. I love this gospel with all my heart and I am grateful to a Heavenly Father who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Nesting and the freak out

I have started nesting. I am getting really excited about our new little bundle of boy and I have started making lists and checking it twice and pinning projects etc. I am currently sewing some bassinet fitted sheets. This is my first baby that will have a bassinet. Hinalei had a crib because no one told us a bassinet was better for a newborn and baby Joe was in a portacot after we arrived in NZ. This time in our own little place I wanted a bassinet. I have been deal hunting and finally this week managed to score one for less than an arm and a leg... Seriously NZ prices for baby stuff is ridiculous. Sometimes I like to go onto the Walmart site just to tease myself on the prices I am missing out on. For instance a bottle sterilizer here is around $200 at Walmart I saw it for $40. I wanted to shed some tears. Also pampers which are my favorite newborn baby diapers are nowhere to be found in NZ unless you order them online directly from the company website and they don't even have the swaddler ones you buy from Walmart or target. Doh!

I have also been reading up on what other mums have to say about #3 kids because I always hear that it is the hardest number to handle. Most of them mention keeping it simple for the first few months. Setting yourself like simple day to day goals, feed the kids, feed self, wash face, maybe change your pj pants. Stuff like that. Not to stress about going out or juggling to many outings. Baby is due right as holiday season basically begins so we will see how that actually works out. I am worried to about getting house work done so I have been trying to clean little by little and prep food ideas that are simple and quick to put together that everyone will eat. I am worried a bit about my little Joe because I am so not ready for him to be my big grown up 2nd child but he already is such a little dude that I am confident he will be sweet and I can just see in a years time my 2 little terrors getting into all sorts of mischief.

I am 30 weeks this week and while 10 weeks seems like a lot of time I know it is not. This whole year has just flown by!