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Posted in Personal Journal Blog

Waiting until the day

Posted on by @JeriMooreBrunton

Paul left me in NZ on January 11th and then I went back to the US for 21 days in April and spent our last moments with him in our Naples home that we have put up for sale. I packed and cleaned every day and saw him every evening after he finished work. I returned to NZ leaving my husband behind once again. After several months apart It feels like the days are getting longer and I am wondering how long we will be waiting until he finally joins us here.

We decided to pack up our lives again and make the crazy international move between the US and NZ one final time, but this stint feels especially long. Maybe it’s because while we were alone and the girls were 8,000 miles away we realized that we were best friends, not just husband and wife, and in the end, all we have is each other. Or maybe it’s because we enjoyed the time we had cut out together, laughing, going on little adventures, and filling the space where the girls once were with uninterrupted conversations we had not had since they were born. And because of that window of time alone, our love grew stronger than ever.

We made the tough decision together to return to NZ earlier than planned. We said we would always end up back here someday and someday is now. I have landed in a career I love here and he is leaving one he loved in Naples. I am here enjoying our daughters while he closes shop, cleans, and shows our house repeatedly and he is alone. I can’t begin to imagine how he feels right now. I am sure the days feel twice as long for him and his canine sidekicks.

Our life is a constant adventure and though there are things in the past I would have done differently I don’t regret this move and hope Paul is confident that our future here back in NZ is filled with promise, love, happiness, and peace. I can’t wait until we are all under the same roof continuing to make lasting memories as we watch our girls grow, thrive and play a part in our story as a complete family again.

I moved a lot growing up and they say that women seek out a man to marry that will give them what they longed for as a child and though “All I want is a real home with flowers on the windowsill” (Carol King reference), we have moved repeatedly in our marriage. I think about my sister who has lived in one of her homes for almost 20 years or more and I can’t begin to fathom what putting down roots like that must feel like.

There was a moment in our life right after Paul and I married, that helps me find peace in our hectic gypsy lifestyle and it’s this. Now I’m not always a hippy-dippy believer in fortune tellers and one evening my friends encouraged me to go into one while we were on a night out on Broadway in Nashville. I pulled my chair up to her table and gave nothing away about myself. She laid out cards and read the fine lines in my palm then looked me in the eyes and said, “You will never find the one home you have always been seeking. You will instead travel across the water repeatedly, live near the sea and hills and your home will be the love of those that are important to you.” Her words at that moment struck me deeply and at the time disappointed me, but she spoke the truth. Now 25 years after I visited with that random stranger I understand fully what she meant and she saw what I could never have imagined laid out for my future.

Now I don’t have that one home I’ve had many. I haven’t put down solid roots in one place, yet I have had and have plants and flowers in every home I’ve lived in no matter the length of time I’ve resided there. We grow together through the challenges we face as a result of the decisions we make and always come out wiser. We have experienced the world in ways those around us could not begin to and find beauty in all of it.

Most importantly I have a loving husband who is brave and selfless and will take as many risks for love and to be with family as I will. We have our lovely, brilliant girls who fill our hearts and bring us joy, we have family and friends on both sides of the earth that we are thankful for, and after all we have been through; adventures and situations that are not for the faint of heart, we love, adore and still have each other. I am waiting until the day I can hug my husband again and never let him go.

Posted in Personal Journal Blog

It’s Been a Hot Minute

Posted on by @JeriMooreBrunton

It’s been a hot minute since I have blogged. A lot has happened since I wrote about counting down for our holiday trip to see our girls and family in NZ. We got to NZ and basked in the familiarity of the laid back life style, old friends and the warmth of being together (all 5 of us) as a family. We were wooed by the charm that we had almost forgotten while being back in the states and realised that we were not where we wanted to be.

After our youngest daughter joined her sisters in NZ I felt lost and empty. Sure, our life in Naples was full. Paul had a wonderful job and was blessed with amazing opportunities to grow as a business leader, I had started a business that was beginning to take off and we were with friends that are chosen family and my loving sisters, but we missed the joy we get from being a part of our girls lives. All 3 of them were now 8,000 miles away. In the evenings and on weekends Paul and I would binge watch shows and movies and always ask each other what we were doing? We kept saying, “why aren’t we with our children?”

We both had a hole that could not be filled by work, diving into charity causes by volunteering, treating our dogs like people, making memories with old and new friends and being with family in Naples. When we arrive in NZ this past Christmas we had no idea it would change our lives, again!

The past months have been a whirlwind of closing down businesses, selling cars, packing, readying our home for showings, getting new jobs and me settling into the flat with our girls and nephew in Devonport. I travelled 8,000 miles home for a 23 day feverish clean out of stuff so that Paul wouldn’t once again be left tying up loose ends alone; once his time to join us arrived. I managed to do our taxes and said goodbye (see you later or see you never) to every single person I love in the states. Not one time during this mad dash have I questioned or doubted our decision to leave the US behind with its polarisation of politics, mass shootings, the sadly diminishing rights women and girls have regarding their body’s, burn out inducing work ethics or broken medical system.

I landed my dream job here in NZ at an amazing marketing firm that is a Google Premier Partner as a digital marketing consultant and SEO specialist and have the 10 month of online schooling I did through the University of Miami and my determination to thank for setting me on this new path (a story in itself). After all of these sudden changes I am close enough to see my girls smiling faces and have the ability to hug them. To me that is worth crossing a million miles of ocean for. Family, love, making memories, finding our happy place and realising peace. That is what we are moving toward, what we are here for and I adore and cherishing every moment of it. Paul has yet to join us, but when he does we will be complete . And after a night on the couch of watching Netflix we will no longer sit, lost in the silence of our home, we will be basking in the love that surrounds us.

Posted in Personal Journal Blog

NZ MIQ day 0/1 (KIA ORA!)

Posted on by @JeriMooreBrunton

We arrived in Auckland, NZ, on Monday the 12th of July. Landing at 5:38 am, we went through a maze of customs checkpoints, were cleared to get on the bus, and headed to Auckland CBD. We sat (in the bus) with no toilet, water, etc., for what seemed like forever. Processing us at the airport was at the most an hour so let’s say we left there at 6:45 am or 7:00 am. By 10:08 am, there was still no sign of getting off of the bus, which had been sitting still in the road comically for hours in front of a giant neon sign that read, “WHATEVER”!

Omg, WE FINALLY MOVED!!! 10:10 am. (3 hours on the bus). We made it into our room by 11:00 am. It’s tiny and tidy. The beds are super comfortable. I wish there were drawers to put our clothes in (whenever we get our luggage, that is, it still hadn’t been brought up to us by 7:00 pm). No worries on the food front though, it’s terrific. Within 30 minutes of getting into our room, we were delivered cereal with yogurt, milk, and fruit. And at 12:30 pm, they sent up a beautiful stir-fried prawn dish with cake and coconut water. YUM!!

We were called on the phone and told to come out of our room, face masks on. Yellow PPE gown wearing military personnel with face masks and plastic face shields ushered us to the covid testing room. They administered the brain stabbing PCR test; the first time I’ve had that one, it didn’t hurt at all but yuck, what a gross feeling.

Seeing Sabrina and Molly 12 floors below us. ♥️♥️

And for the grand finale of our day, Sabrina and Molly, my two sweet babies, delivered coffee and chocolates to our hotel. They left it at the front desk for us. We couldn’t see them yet, so they dropped and ran. We could see them standing 12 floors down on the street corner. We all waved as we talked to each other on the phone. We are so close yet still so far. I can’t wait to hug them. Almost there.