Journey

After 23 years primarily as mother it feels strange, wonderful and sad at the same time, to be having experiences away from the boys.  I am missing some of the meaningful events in their lives but I am experiencing valuable moments in my own.  It somehow feels wrong to be doing this.  Rory had his graduation ceremony from WITT for the year.  Sean and Tash went along to celebrate with him.  In Rory’s words “I am proud of myself.  I have contributed to what the WITT team have done.  I felt like I was in the right place.”  We really can’t ask for more than that.  Colt was also super proud this week when he won the Inglewood Primary Intermediate spelling bee .  He called me on the phone to tell me as soon as school finished. 

Rory had his fortnightly session with Psychologist Andy and saw the dentist at the hospital to check and seal his teeth.  We have been waiting for Rory’s appointment with the visiting Audiologist from the Southern Cochlear implant programme.  Thankfully calibration/re-mapping of his left cochlear implant has fixed the dullness of hearing in his left ear.  I was worried there was permanent damage.  Rory enjoyed dinner out one night with the Taranaki Canteen members and Support workers.  I spent two nights away for the Central NI Regional Council Biodiversity Hui.  We stayed at Piropiro, an out of the way place, in the Timber Trail Lodge www.timbertraillodge.co.nz.  In between presentations and discussion we counted rare NZ birds, walked in the bush, rode our mountain bikes to Maramataha Bridge, the longest (141m) swing bridge on the Timber Trail which sways 53m above the river, and ate delicious food.  Intermittent wifi meant limited access to emails and social media and there was no tv.  It was good for all the Programme Leads and Senior Ecologists in attendance.  It was great to share our knowledge and passion for working with our communities to restore the biodiversity in our regions.