where do you put your happiness when you realize that there is no way that it can all fit into one single life? i suppose you stick it in between prayers of thanks and gratitude and hope that it is there to stay.

i have had the best few weeks possible recently. let me recap briefly (be warned: i don’t know what “briefly” means.). mom, dad, and marc came to visit! hooray! probably one of the best family trips we have ever had, if i do say so myself . i think it was pleasantly upgraded by the presence of robin and the trips we all made to gilly and greg’s house on the north island and to carolyn’s house on the south island. it was wonderful for me, and i think for them as well, for my home family to meet my new zealand families. it all felt very full circle. flash forward a whirlwind eight days later to when my amazing family leaves and robin and i once again find ourselves wwoofing at carolyn’s house!

it always feels like such home when we come back to carolyn’s. i love it here in a big way. a too much way. a way where someone is going to have to drag me away from it. WHY GOD WHY DOES MY VISA HAVE TO RUN OUT ONE DAY?! it’s hard to think about having to say goodbye to carolyn and her absolutely magnetic family for good. that day is still months away, and i have already dubbed it “black whateverdayweleavecarolyn’sday.” waaah.

i haven’t been privy to many successful surprises. none, in fact. i am never the one clued in on it, and the one other time that i have been surprised by someone, it was reid showing up for our graduation and i sat in a room full of his friends and in unison we screamed in horror that he had just walked into our house through the guest bedroom window. after our terror subsided, we hugged and were happy to see him, but that momentary lapse into “who the hell is this guy?” kind of killed it.

but! for my birthday a few days ago, i was surprised and in such a good way. robin and carolyn had been conspiring with malcolm and lindsay for a few weeks to get them to leave the north island earlier than they had planned and surprise me on the south island! IT WORKED SO WELL! the afternoon of my birthday, which carolyn and family had been doing a fantastic job of evasively ignoring, robin, thomas, and i were in the kitchen having coffee and pretending to sniff each other in a creepy-stranger kind of way. all of the sudden, i see mally’s face pop through the kitchen! my one track brain didn’t stop to ask the question as to why mally was in carolyn’s house, but rather it knew that mally = lindsay and that mally + lindsay = squeals and squeals of delight! so they all tricked me, and they did it well. that evening, we had a barbeque and cake and wine and all the things that one wants when she turns twenty three. as i was blowing out my birthday candles, i closed my eyes just for show because i didn’t make a wish. what in the world could i have wished for?

thank you thank you thank you, but who are you?, but mostly just thank you.

love,
maggie