The Day NZ was rocked...

Yesterday was SB's 28th birthday. Yesterday was also the day that the landscape of Christchurch changed forever. We live in Auckland, an hour's flight and a day and half drive away from Christchurch, so the earthquake has had no major change on our day to day life... but boy, NZ is hurting and we are hurting too.

I first heard the news when I was out on the field at school, "Christchurch has had another earthquake". It's been so common that I shrugged it off. A quick stop in at my desk showed the situation to be far more serious. We knew fairly early on in the afternoon that our close family were okay (at least in a physical sense) and further investigation showed that two other of my Christchurch friends were safe. It was such a relief to wake this morning to a message from Bridey letting us know that her and her hubby were out of harm's way... the thought that they were not had weighed heavily on my mind all night. So we have been lucky... we know that others have not.

My cousins work in the medical field and have been on the ground all night, pushed to their emotional limits. B had started work yesterday at 7 am, arrived home this morning and at 4 pm was still struggling to get to sleep. Yet the TV plays the picture of the cathedral over and over again. 134 big stone steps in the tower that SB and I climbed on our first holiday together in Christchurch. The foggy view we looked out at as we hugged each other tight in the early morning, foggy ourselves from our early morning flight. A view that for now, is forever changed.

I think it probably goes without saying that posts will be fairly sparse around here while we work out how we can help. Thoughts, prayers and sparkly vibes all accepted here.