Paihia - Bay of Islands Cruise

We took the Tans to the resort town of Paihia (Bay of Islands), about 4 hours drive, north of Auckland. On the way there, we stopped at Whangarei for a picnic lunch we had packed that morning. This three hour cruise, for both the Tans and us as well, was one of the best cruises we had ever been on. Not only was it very scenic as you can see in the photos, the highlight of the cruise was spotting the wild dolphins, who swam with and around us for a good ten minutes. Some of the dolphins were even having a race with the cataraman we were on. It was absolutely awesome! The kids were so thrilled! The catamaran also had to manuovre its way through the Hole in the Rock, a 15m wide hole. Pretty spectacular too.
Take note of Mary's very affectionate cuddle for Justin in one of the photos - don't they look lovely there? That didn't come without a price. Justin had to agree to bringing the whole family back to Auckland in 2009.

Tim's First Holy Communion

Tim celebrated his First Holy Communion on 25 November 2007 at St Mark's Parish in Pakuranga, Auckland. We were honoured to have Tim's godparents, Mary and Justin and their 2 1/2 year old son, Ren (Julian) come from Melbourne to join us for the ceremony and to spend a week with us. The ceremony started at noon, celebrated by Parish priest Fr Barry Scannell. It was a beautiful mass - most parts of the mass involved the children - sorry prayers, readings, intentions, offertory and a liturgical dance. Every single child had something special to do. After mass, everyone was invited to the Holy Communion breakfast (actually lunch). The room was beautifully set up - with colour-coordinated balloons, plates, sprinkles, table cloth and individual seatings and name cards for each child. Very impressive! The children had also made posters about their themselves and these were placed on the walls for everyone's viewing pleasure. Very speical and very meaningful as each child wrote or drew about his interests and his family.
I could tell Tim relished all the attention. Asked how it felt, he said "Good but the wine was bitter." My boy is growing up so quickly.

Launch of Blessings

Blessings NZ Ltd was officially launched on 6 October 2007. From the moment the seed of interest was sowed to the picking of the name of our company and the inception of the company, Adelyn and I have seen and felt the Lord's hands guiding us through this partnership. Blessings operates out of St Mark's Parish in Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand. We sell Catholic and Christian religious items and gifts - rosaries, bibles, books, holy pictures, medals, statues and other such items. It has been an extremely rewarding experience running this business and we are thoroughly enjoying it. Just as the Lord has blessed us, we pray that each and every one who purchases something from our store will also be blessed! Thank you everyone for your love and support - especially our husbands, Mervin and Vincent and our children, Tim, Erica, Jonathan, Kevin, Nicholas and Alex.