done and dusted

six bags for check-in

five carry-ons

two boxes posted (not pictured)

one laptop bag

and a stroller with an Ergo.....

But the point is that we are all done packing. Except for one little teeny tiny load of laundry currently washing, plus the things we are all wearing to bed and toiletries. I don't know where any of that will go in the morning since all the bags are packed to their 23 kg and 7 kg capacities, respectively - but I'm sure we'll have a fresh perspective on that dilemma after a good night's rest. The women in my new mothers group here told me that the Kiwi airport staff is a bit soft and if some of my bags are overweight and I can squeeze out a few tears and clutch my pregnant belly tragically, everything will be just fine. I'm banking on it. In fact, our entire airport strategy consists of Richard quietly melting off into the crowd while I approach the check-in desk in a shirt clinging to my just-showing "with-child" belly, with 1 year old Joseph in the Ergo on my back, nearly three year old Bernadette in the stroller, newly five year old Maria holding my hand, and bags heaped behind me. At this point we imagine/hope desperately for a great horde of Traveller-In-Need-Of-Assistance Staff swooping in from every direction, anxious to collect all my bags, rush me through security and permit the kids and me to board ahead of every other passenger - all because I will be surrounded by so great a cloud of children. We don't have a back-up plan.

 It's 7:19 pm, the kids are all in bed, I just packed the last bag and Richard vacuumed the carpets. We're done. We have some friends coming over in ten minutes to celebrate our last evening Down Under. Last night Richard and I went for dinner at a little Italian place with Fr Michael (who is heading off to Rome next month to study at the Angelicum for the next two years). It was a perfect night out. Today: lots of goodbyes, lots of packing, lots of bustling about, lots of children crying - but it still has not really hit me that we are leaving tomorrow morning. Even when Richard asked me just right now to take a break from the blog to trim his beard and we couldn't find any scissors other than child safety scissors because I packed in dribs and drabs over the past two weeks and now have no idea in what bag any given item might be located so I had to trim his beard with that ridiculous instrument.....even then it did not really sink in (at all) that everything we own is packed and we are leaving tomorrow. After two years and four days, we are leaving New Zealand and returning to the States. I just cannot take it in. And there is no time to try to take it in right now because our friends are arriving and Richard's beard is still all over the kitchen floor. Until then, please pray for safe travels and for the kids to feel less panicky about the plane ride than they were feeling all day today. Thank you to all! This is not the last blog post, but it is the last post of missiontonewzealand written in New Zealand.  I'll write again in America!