No one who knows me for long will be surprised at my elevated joy at the news of Damian Lillard’s return to Portland, but it’s pretty shocking that that isn’t the highlight of my week. The Bryan family flew down for a week in Christchurch while visiting New Zealand on their summer holidays, and I got to spend the last few days with them.
We still have plans for tacos tonight (they weren’t here on a Tuesday), and I can honestly say it’s been so good for my soul to just sit with these people who have known me for a decade.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself because I did have guests on Tuesday last week. Monday morning I woke up to a message from my OG TA Olivia who was flying into Christchurch with her cousin and asked if they could spend the night before adventuring around the south island in a camper van. Obviously I said yes. When Olivia arrived, I told her I didn’t know her plans but that the Bryans flew in the next day. She immediately told her cousin they had to adjust plans and stay. With a detour to Burwood to pick up some supplies for me, we all met up at the New Brighton Pier which Chris had seen in previous blog posts and wanted to visit in person.
It was so fun to have people who now live on three continents gathered together for this one afternoon to catch up and share life in person. Olivia and her cousin left from there, and I took the Bryans back to my house to settle in. I’ve still had work this week, so they graciously entertained themselves and even did some chores around my house while I was busy, but I got to invite them along to youth group and have Chris share a message with my young people.
I’ll savour the moments in these last few days together, but as I’ve been able to tell Chris and Chrissy, I’m where I’m supposed to be because even when they aren’t here, my whānau in Christchurch is taking good care of me. There’s just something different about the people who come from the other side of the world to have tacos with you.
