Give them roots and wings

When we were planning our New Zealand trip, another friend was also planning the same for her family of six. We excitedly exchanged notes and lamented about the high cost of the trip. We actually met up with their family when we were in Christchurch – at the end of our trip, and before they started theirs.

My friend asked me “Was the trip worth it?”

After that I thought about the question further – what WAS the trip worth? For sure, it cost us a lot of money, and a lot of planning on my part.

But more than all these things, I think what I was most thankful for, about the New Zealand trip, was the fact that we waited 15 long years to do it.

During our dating days, Edmund told me about a campervan holiday he took with his friends after he graduated from University. Since then, I wished that I could go on a New Zealand campervan holiday with him.

We talked about going New Zealand for our honeymoon.  But we did our calculations, and decided to go to Tasmania (which we loved), and save New Zealand for the future.

Tasmania was beautiful.

There were (naturally) just two of us.
We drove around in a sedan.

When the children came, we decided that we would go when they were bigger. After Elkan and Elias grew “old enough”, Samuel came along, and so “the day when the kids are big enough” was pushed back even further. At the same time, we went to Indonesia every year to visit my grandmother. It was something precious to us, and those visits would forever be part of the children’s childhood memories. But it meant that we could not spare too much money to go anywhere further than Malaysia.

Finally, last year, we decided to plan our trip to New Zealand, because it was a special year for Elkan – his last year as a child, before he becomes a teenager. Samuel was at a nice age of 6 when he was quite independent and would be able to enjoy the trip.

Still.. Samuel needed help getting off the Moeraki rock…
And Edmund had to carry him on the walk back to the campervan.

Of course, we could have visited New Zealand earlier – just the two of us, and visit it again when the children were ready. But it was different seeing the beautiful country for the first time, together with the children.

This was not the most beautiful angle of Mt Cook.
But Samuel decided to start dancing here.
Everything looks more beautiful
when someone you love is part of it.

Beautiful, so beautiful.

I was glad we waited. The experience was so much richer because we had the children.

The Elephant Rocks would have been quite different
if we had gone without the children.
Edmund had to rescue Elias off from the rock.
He could climb it, but could not get off it.

I don’t like raw salmon.
So Edmund seldom gets to eat it.
But Elias and Samuel have acquired a taste for it.
The advantage of having a few kids is that
you would always be able to find someone
who shares something with you.
Everything tastes better
when there are people fighting over it.

Edmund was clearing the dump.
The boys started by watching from afar
but curiosity finally overcame them…

Now we need a large car when we travel.
There are more of us, and more suitcases.
Although we are past the stage of milk powder and diapers
we still need luggage space for the children’s books and toys.
(As all parents will know, these are more for the parents’ sanity,
than the children’s entertainment).
We now have to cook for 5, and we easily cooked
a big bag of frozen chicken drums and rice just over two nights.
The motel was easily littered with kids and the kids’ stuff…
How busy… and exciting our lives are now…

Despite being a rather impatient and results-oriented person, I am strangely patient in other ways. I always believed in living life slowly – to treasure each moment, and after the children came, to allow the children to be children for as long as they want to be.

To me, they have a whole lifetime to explore the world, and if we do it correctly, by God’s grace, a whole eternity to explore the Universe.

I believe in waiting. Good things come to those who wait. Good things are worth waiting for.

We were two.
Now we are five.

The family, the family and the family!