Never Say Never

For the past few weeks we have enjoyed a visit with my parents. We always love to have Oma and Opa with us- they enjoy the kids so much, and are great company and help to the grownups as well! We reflected several times about how this was their third trip to Australia- when they came here in 2004 to visit us while Rick was engaged in his 8-week ministry exchange, the trip was billed as the "once in a lifetime opportunity." And now, going to pick them up at the Sydney Airport almost feels like picking them up at the local bus station! Never say never!


For the first 6 days of their visit, Erin and Claire were on school holidays. We let Mom and Dad have a few days to recover from jetlag, and then we took a two-night, three-day trip to Canberra, the capitol of Australia. It had a Washington D.C. feel to it, with the government buildings and museums, although it has a lot more planned green space. Unlike Sydney, Canberra experiences 4 distinct changes of seasons, with lots of leaves falling in autumn (they don't call it fall here). Mom and Dad remarked on how strange it was to see the colored leaves when all of the trees and flowers are just beginning to bloom in the northeastern U.S.! We enjoyed visiting a good number of places in Canberra, including Questacon, a fabulous science and technology museum that we could have spent two whole days exploring, the Old Bus Depot Markets (two huge warehouses of local food and craft), the Canberra Glassworks, where we saw a gorgeous bowl blown from start to finish, and the National Museum of Australia, where the adults wish they could have spent more time visiting amazing exhibits on Aboriginal culture and Australian life and history.

Erin pull her weight at Questacon

Claire at the entrance to Questacon's "Eaten Alive" exhibit!

Alien creatures Lachlan and Opa in Australia's future at the National Museum of Australia

When the girls returned to school, we stayed local, enjoying some day trips confined between the hours of 9 and 3, including trips to the mountains and the coast. Mom and Dad also struck out on their own, taking a Sydney Harbour cruise and attending a ballet at the Opera House (a performance at the Opera House is always a must see for them!) Mom and Dad enjoyed getting into the daily routines, taking them to school and picking them up (even getting to know a few other parents), watching a netball game, practicing the piano with Erin, helping with homework and having tea and dinner with our neighbors!

Claire and Oma plant pansies on the front veranda (since Oma and Opa have left, Claire has reported that she wants to be a gardener when she grows up)

Sadly, they left yesterday, but save for the house being a little quieter, and me being a bit morose about the loss of all of my household and childcare help, that's ok. We will see them in 6 1/2 weeks when we return to the States for our northern summer visit!


Before they left, they gave me and Rick the ultimate gift- they took charge of the kids for 2 days, one night, so that we could celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary with a short trip to the Southern Highlands, an area that is about one and a 1/2 hours southwest of Sydney. We stayed in a restored settler's hut that was built in the 1830s in Berrima, a small town that retained its historic character when the railroad bypassed it and basically cut it off from much modern development. It was the perfect romantic hideaway, with the not-so-historic kitchen and indoor toilet added for modern comfort!

We relished the opportunity to be completely free from the responsibilities of small children and church life. We enjoyed a spectacular bushwalk at Fitzroy Falls, poked through antique and specialty shops and ate grownup food at grownup times! It was truly amazing to consider how far we have journeyed in the past 10 years- the date of our spring wedding in New Hampshire has become an autumn celebration, the Pacific Ocean now lies between us and Camp Calumet, and we have children who speak with Australian accents. Had anyone suggested on the day of our wedding that this might be the case, we would never have believed it. Never say never!

10 years- we made it!

Love, Anne

Happy Easter!

Wishing our friends and family far and wide a blessed Easter!
With love from all of the Daceys

The angel said to the women,
"Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples:
'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.'
Now I have told you."
-Matthew 28: 5-7

Girl Guides

This week, Erin joined the North Epping Girl Guides Unit as a Brownie. North Epping has a small, extremely well run unit, which has a substantial waiting list of girls- we were fortunate to get Erin on the waiting list last year when we arrived, so that she was at the top of the list for enrollments this year. She is beyond excited, and is loving all of the activities. We are feeling a bit daunted but excited for her options for earning her badges- there are so many exciting things that she can do, and there is no doubt that they will all help her development as a responsible, respectful and caring child.

She chose a promise which respected her status as a US citizen. In the Australian Guide Promise, a guide promises to serve "the Queen and my country." Erin chose an alternative in which she promised to serve "my country and this country." We were very proud of her for claiming her US ties!

Anne

The blue is much nicer than the US brown colors, don't you think?
(Note the Queen in the upper part of the picture!)

Where in the World?

On Sunday, we headed into Sydney on the train for the afternoon to attend Sydney's St. Patrick's Day festivities. When Rick and I were first dating, and in the beginning years of our marriage, Ireland was a place of important focus for us. Rick, in particular, has strong Irish roots, and we both enjoyed celebrating our Celtic heritage. Our CD collection (which, I must admit, in briefly perusing it, does not seem to have been much updated since those early years) is stocked with Celtic music. We honeymooned on Ireland's Dingle Peninsula and had a wonderful time, and vowed to travel the whole island some day. We even named our first child Erin after the Emerald Isle.

But something happened in 2004. Rick found the opportunity to spend part of his sabbatical here in Australia doing a ministry exchange (Ireland was kind of out of the running for that, given that the Catholic church frowns upon us wives for their clergy). Ireland fell into our romatic past, and Australia became our real present and future. And now that Australia is our adopted home, we thought, well, time to give the kids a little taste of Ireland. St. Patrick's Day is not as widely celebrated here as it is in the US, so traveling into the center of Sydney seemed our best option, particularly because the lovely stretch of weather that I mentioned in the previous entry is continuing.

Well, I must say that our romantic longings for Ireland were not renewed. Unfortunately, what we found was a lot of alcohol, cigarette smoke and crazy drunk people wearing green wigs and orange and green body paint in a very crowded, sunny hot area of Hyde Park. Granted there was music and Irish dancing, but we couldn't see it through the crowds, and the food stalls were disappointing. The lines were too long in the Kids' Fun Area to make it worthwhile.

So, instead, we sought the cool, welcome shade of the giant avenues of gum trees in Hyde Park and rethought our afternoon strategy. First, Rick and the kids thought this would be a good place to enjoy what they call "Tickle, Tackle, Tumble", usually an evening activity, which they haven't had a chance to enjoy for a while:

After the kids brought Daddy down, we decided to walk towards the Harbour and catch the train from Circular Quay (to the uninitiated, like myself until at least 6 weeks into our 2004 stay, "quay" is pronounced "key", not "qway"), and see what we could discover along the way. We wandered over to St. Mary's Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. It has impressive architecture and beautiful stained glass. Teenagers were out front making a ruckus to encourage people to attend a World Youth Day Event that was taking place that afternoon. In July, Sydney is hosting World Youth Day, a week-long Catholic youth festival that will include a visit from Pope Benedict XVI (only the 4th Papal visit to Australia).

As we made our way down Macquarie Street on the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens, we noticed that the street was closed off. As we got closer, we could see the tail end of a parade with at least 3 Greek flags flying at the end- from what I can tell from my quick Google research, it was a Greek Independence Day march.

As we quickened our pace, hoping to find more of the parade, we happened upon, of all people, Jesus, on a donkey, and his disciples and many followers in the dress of Biblical times amongst the tourist crowds at Circular Quay! Turns out, again, from trusty Google, that Wesley Mission, a city mission of the Uniting Church, was re-enacting its annual Palm Sunday procession around the Harbour foreshore.

After recovering from our Jesus sighting, we decided that ice cream was in order (much like, I am sure, the crowd that witnessed the first triumphal entry into Jerusalem).

Just as we were finishing our ice cream, we heard pipers coming, so we rushed to salvage a bit of our St. Patrick's Day celebration. But alas, as we turned the corner, the pipers were disappearing up the street. However, during our mad dash, we did witness a number of Greek Orthodox priests with their long beards and flapping robes run across the road to catch the bus!

A 4-hour trip into Sydney, and we managed to trek around the globe- Dublin, Rome, Athens. We were transported back in time to Jerusalem. We even enjoyed some quality family time. A very surreal excursion!

Anne

The Circle Of Life

So, today is my birthday. Time to celebrate another year of a life journey that is taking me places that I never could have dreamed. Time to give thanks, to spend time just as I want to spend it and reflect on this life that God has given me.

When I first thought about sharing this day on our blog, sometime earlier this afternoon, I figured I would just share the little excursion that Lachlan and I took. One of the things that I really wanted to do on my day was to spend a bit of time on Sydney Harbour. We have had a wonderful stretch of glorious weather for the last week or so, and the Harbour is just stunning at a time like this. I had an image of walking along by the Royal Botanic Gardens, sitting on the grass and watching the boats, enjoying a picnic lunch. Of course, Rick and the girls are busy with work and school during a weekday (for the record, as Rick would ask me to add, he is taking me to lunch on Friday to celebrate my birthday). But having them along would have made it different- less about me and exactly what I imagined, and more about the compromise for the greater family good!

Lachlan, however, on his own, is a great companion for this type of excursion. He happily sits quietly in a stroller and watches the world go by. He adores his mother. He says cute, funny things that make me laugh, and that remind me to connect with that joy inside myself. He has a beautful innoncence that has not yet been tainted by interaction with the "real world", and I love to observe the world from his wonder-filled perspective.

So, I did just what I wanted to do. We took the train to Darling Harbour so that I could break my annual Lenten "sweets and desserts" fast, and I got a scrumptious fudge sundae at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe before I even ate my lunch. Then we took the ferry out onto the Harbour and went around to Circular Quay and we had our walk and picnic, just as I had envisioned it would be. The sun sparkling on the water, the world famous view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, the lush green grass of the gardens, the shade of a grand tree, a delightful son marveling at a beautiful tropical bug that he found on my shirt. God is good. I celebrated how blessed I was to be born to this earth, and to be so blessed in my life.

But then, life comes full circle.

I drove directly from the train station to pick up the girls from school, and discovered that Rick was there at a time when I would expect him to be in the office. Turns out that he had come home late morning to be with me when I received an email from Cheshire, one that we had known would someday come, but that we never wanted to receive. Our dear, dear collie MacAllister, who was a cherished member of our family, and the most gentle, loyal, loving companion for all of us, had died.

We shared our grief at leaving him behind in the US in our January 8, 2007 post. Just last week, Erin's topic for her news presentation in class was MacAllister. We loved getting news of his adventures (such as they were in his advanced age!) in his blog, and we always had the sense that he was still hovering right under the dinner table.


We are so grateful to Alison and Matt for giving him such a wonderful "retirement" home in his last year. He was blessed to stay amongst many people in our Cheshire church who had a special place for him in their hearts. Thank you, Alison and Matt, for loving him and leading him in his final journey.

And so I end this entry that begins with a life celebration, with the memory and images of a life well-lived, and truly, well-loved.

Anne

Sorry Day

The Aboriginal Flag

The Australian Flag

Today, the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, fulfilled an election promise and made a formal apology in Federal Parliament to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of the Stolen Generations. The Stolen Generations refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who were removed, under government authority, from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1869 and 1969.

In 1997, the report of an offical inquiry into the Stolen Generations recommended that a national apology be made. However, John Howard, who was Prime Minister when the report was issued, never apologized, and he was defeated by Kevin Rudd this past November.

People all over the country gathered to watch the live broadcast. It was a profoundly moving experience and, certainly, long overdue. The girls' school had a presentation at their morning assembly, and the Aboriginal and Australian flags are hung in the main assembly area for the rest of the week. If you are interested in hearing Kevin Rudd's apology, follow this link: http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/2008/national/australia-says-sorry/main.html?s_cid=rss_national

The movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, which won worldwide acclaim in 2002, tells a gripping tale based on a true story of three children who ran away from a government settlement to return to their Aboriginal families. We highly recommend it if you are interested in learning more about the Stolen Generations.

Anne

Australia Day 2008

Yesterday, we celebrated Australia Day, Australia's national day. It commemorates the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia. It is much like the 4th of July in the US, although there seems to be an even greater amount of flag-wearing here (you decide, in light of the picture above, whether it is for better or worse!) As the kids and I had just returned a few days before from our January trip to the US (which, by the way, was great), and this was the first day that we did not feel jet-lagged, we were keen to celebrate our return to our adopted home.

The kids and I headed into the center of Sydney (dad, much to his dismay, was working on a sermon) on a beautiful summer day, where we enjoyed lots of festivities at Hyde Park, including music, food, displays, and, of course, free tatoos and flags! There was so much going on- unfortunately, we had to forego all of the celebrations on the Harbour, which included tall ships, as the little feet could only carry us so far....

Asked to write the best thing about being an Aussie, Erin wrote "Fun in the Sun", and
Claire wrote "The best thing is going swimming."

The kids enjoy a ride in an Australian military vehicle.

I should note, also, that we are now celebrating one year of living in Australia. Wow.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
Anne