We made to New Zealand! It seems like such a long time in the making, and we still marvel at the beauty of this country as we look out our windows.

After 4 days in Auckland, we flew to New Plymouth and then rode to Hawera, where we are settling in to life for one year. We'll give back details and post pictures later. The dates here are written day/month/year, so we will try to post in that manner.

5/10/2014 Sunday. Slept late and Bubba was able to finagle getting the Alabama football game. We didn't get to watch much though as it was 8:30 am here and there were boys to feed and prep for church. We attended Hawera Presbyterian Church. Lots of young kids in the congregation. Great message and several of the songs we knew- Chris Tomlin's "How Great is our God", Twila Paris' "He is Exalted" made Laura feel at home!Two men were prayed over to become new managers and the story of Steven and the servants of the church was read. We then watched a film by Robert Morris about why we should not tolerate the spirit of Jezebel. I've read that story several times in 1Kings but love getting new revelations!(The video is on You Tube if you go to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtW074wfF9o ). Jack wanted some hot wings so we tried KFC here in Hawera. meh-not as good as Granny's fried chicken or KFC in the US, but we added some Franks wing sauce and it was good. We were unable to pull up the AL game afterwards, but Steven shared that Bama lost. Not much point in watching that game now-bleh. We skyped with Bubba's family, played some on the computer, and left to get more groceries.

These boys are plowing through the milk. (about $7/gallon here- sold in liters) The dairy here in town is Fontera- the largest in the world! Lots of cows around. They have a free milk for schools program here. The rest of NZ is mostly sheep.

We'll post more and show photos later, just wanted to get something going. Love to all!