May Adventures….

Hi Everyone!

The island that we live on Viti Levu is divided in half by a north south range of mountains.  99.9% of our time is spent exploring the coastline and surrounding islands, but when you head inland, you eventually will find yourself in the Highlands which is made up of dense lush rainforests, steep ranges, deep river canyons and dramatic waterfalls.  The more remote the village the more traditional the villagers are in their ways.

After about an hour of shifting back and forth between 4WH and 4WL (I have seen that dial on the car before but never imagined we would actually use it), we arrived in the village of Namosi on the edge of the Luwa River.

We were met by Danny and a few kids from the village who helped us carry our stuff across the river to the Namosi Eco Retreat.

Pretty remote and amazing, the Namosi Eco Retreat consists of 8 Bure’s and a little fenced in compound adjacent to Danny’s village.

Activities included a brief walk to the swimming hole in the river…just past the cow.

The faux fishhook smile is better than no smile…

Splashing around with the aunties in the river….

Will caught a quicker ride back to the village with Danny…

….man, nothin’ beats a cup of Tang after a swim and shower.

A traditional lovo dinner…..heat the rocks, dig a hole, wrap the chicken, cassava and other goodies in palm fronds and tin foil, cover hole with everything but the kitchen sink, wait 4 hours and then gorge.

Then climb all over cousin Dave!

Toberua is another island resort near Suva…..I think a well deserved few days for the cousins after Namosi.  🙂

Where is my 2pm massage!

Now that is some cousin Love!

Makin’ baskets…..

This little guy is not going to be happy when he needs to start actually wearing clothes….

Until then…

In case you didn’t believe us that rugby and the Rugby 7’s were pretty important to Fijians, well the government just issued a 7$ bill to commemorate the Fiji 7’s gold medal run in Rio…..

Grocery shopping is mostly a depressing experience in Suva where we don’t always get the freshest or the widest selections…….of anything.  Sometimes, though you run into a something like a dozen eggs with a hand drawn label…….and while it would be easy to be a pessimist, we choose to believe and LOVE our farm fresh eggs from the Lazy Chef!

Chiefs vs. Crusaders.  2 of the top teams in the Super Rugby League from NZ are the Chiefs and Crusaders.  Both have a ton of history with Fijian players and so we arrived at the ANZ stadium about 2 hours before kickoff to secure our seats……ahem, might not do that again.  Anyhoo, we sat with our friend Henry and his family who are big Crusader’s fans and luckily the Crusaders pulled it off in the end.

We have incredibly active kids…..

Finally…..well, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, loss is loss.

With Abby and I ‘advancing’ in age (more me than her) and with 2 wonderful kiddos, the last thing we were looking to do was add to the madness, but alas, what is life without adventure and in this case, that distinct pink line.   🙂

First reaction?  Holy Shit…3 Kids?   Followed quickly by:  Minivan.  Would we need to move from our house in Denver?  Another college tuition?  Fear, panic, confusion……followed by some more confusion mixed with some understandable fear and definitely a few more moments of panic. ….and that was day one.

Slowly though we started to think about names…. and slowly the magic of another little person in our life started to outweigh all fear and questions.  All those fears still existed and visited us a few times per day, but we also allowed ourselves to think other thoughts.  Lucy would be more of a momma bear than Momma Bear herself!  How would Will take to being the middle child?  Not well.

Reality started to hit as we started to visit healthcare facilities in Suva and decide where this was going to take place.  The House of Death as people referred to the main hospital in Suva didn’t seem to be an option (infant mortality rates in Fiji are 16% compared to 3% in the US).  Brisbane, Melbourne and Denver were the finalists.

We decided to check out Brisbane for our 12 week appointment, but before we went Abby felt the urge to take another look so we headed to see some ultra sound images to make sure all was fine.   All those rational emotions felt over the past 6 weeks turned to a mixture of sadness, relief, but ultimately heartbreak.

Here is Abby and Dr. Fung working on next steps in the office of easily one of the more important, accomplished and wonderful doctors/humans in Fiji.

Miscarriages are extremely common.  We have 2 beautiful kids.  We have so much to be thankful for.

I took the early shift on sadness and Abby was there to explain all the things that I already knew, but what really mattered was the sound of her voice.  Pretty quickly, it was my turn to be strong as the next steps involved surgery and leaving our kids at home to fly to Brisbane narrowly missing a Category 5 Cyclone (Donna) hammering New Caledonia….never a dull moment.  🙂

As our dear friend Tahu said, “that is a stone cold motherfucker.”…..and you know what?  I couldn’t say it any better.  Fear, heartbreak, anger and love are maybe better ways to describe the emotions but, at the end of the day, it really is a stone cold motherfucker.

***  We share because we are good….really, we are good.  We share because while it is both an emotional and private experience, most everyone reading this has most likely experienced something similar.  ….and finally, we share because sharing amongst those you love is good.  Looking back, it is rare that you feel regret from sharing important details of your life with those around you.  ***

Gobs of love from all of us to all of you,

Lucy, Will & Abby…..and who is that handsome ball of muscles behind them?  Another story for another day/blog post.  🙂