Gray Family 2003

It was exactly one year ago that Steven had his first attack of angina.  Hard to believe that even before he reached 50 years old he would come to grips with his heritage in such a painful way.  While angina is not nearly as painful as a kidney stone, it is more life threatening and thankfully he has lived to tell the tale and celebrate the coming of a new year.  We have much to be thankful for including these less painful highlights for the family in 2003.

We were blessed at the beginning of the year with an extended visit from our patriarch, Jerome.  He spent two months with us and was here to provide support to Steven on dealing with his angina and the resulting angioplasty.  The two of them could walk slowly together around Nelson and even took a wonderful driving tour of the South Island visiting Sophie is Christchurch and Abe and Deb in Dunedin.  That trip also included the first visit for Steve to Mt. Cook, Akaroa and Arthur’s Pass all highlights of the South Island missed on previous tours.

A visit at the end of the year from Mike and Joan Moser was a great way to end the year.  Steven got to escort them around the top of the South Island while Maggie flew with them to Queenstown and showed them Doubtful Sound, the Dart river, and many of the sights of the West Coast.  We were also blessed with a brief visits from Mike Patton who arrived in Nelson in time to view the Wearable Arts Awards and Irv and Jan Shapiro who got Steve’s whirlwind tour of the Nelson area.

Sophie began her tertiary education at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts in Christchurch.  Living in a dorm away from home and involved in a demanding, but fulfilling schedule, Sophie was totally absorbed in song, dance, and theatre.  She did very well and was even awarded a scholarship from the private foundation of one of our great opera stars.  She is very happy to have landed a job with a jewelry store selling baubles to others.

Abe and Deb resumed their university careers at Otago University in Dunedin.  The moved into an appropriate starving student hovel and settled into student life.  Abe studied botany and Deb studied pre-med.  Both did very well and are now anxiously awaiting word from the immigration ministry on Deb’s application for residency.  Deb is also waiting to hear about her medical school application.

Ellie remained at home and began her high school career at Nayland, following in the footsteps of her brother and sister.  She enjoyed her first year, got to tour with the choir and was involved in other dramatic pursuits.  She was recognized as one of the top students in English and drama at the year end awards ceremony.  Other highlights of Ellie’s year included trips with Steven to Sydney in January and to Tonga in September to cruise in the Vavau islands with friends sailing back from a trip around South America to New Zealand.

Steve’s heart problems nicely coincided with a planned period of non-work and the successful angioplasty has made him one of those beneficiaries of modern medicine.  As an added pleasure, living in a country with socialized medicine meant that while he waited some weeks for the operation, it was entirely free to him. 

While there was lots of time off from formal work for Steve, it wasn’t all play.  He made two short trips to the Philippines for a community development project and is currently on a very extended contract in Indonesia helping prepare the country for next April’s elections.  At the end of one of the Philippines trips, Maggie joined Steven for a visit to Borocay Island in the Philippines.  Steven got a chance to do some scuba diving and Maggie got a chance to relax.  The beach chalet was beautiful as was the beach and of course, it was nice to get away on a holiday.

Maggie continues with her business of making beaded creations and taking care of our expanding gardens.  Her business grew nicely over the past year although she continues to figure out what new products to offer.  She also oversaw the construction of our new garage and held down the fort during Steven’s time away.

This past year was the first year since moving to New Zealand that we haven’t been back to visit the US.  Well, technically Sophie did take a trip in January to visit a couple of drama schools, but we have definitely solidified our life in New Zealand. 

We feel incredibly blessed to live where we live and to have bought our house when we did.  Nelson has been “discovered” and housing prices have skyrocketed.  Combine the real estate boom with a weaker US dollar and it means we would’ve not only had to pay more than double now for the same house, but the money we did bring down from the sale of our old house would be worth one-third less.  We were definitely beneficiaries of dumb luck on the timing of that purchase.

We are looking forward to 2004.  Steven will spend the first quarter up in Indonesia and hopefully Maggie will visit him and the country sometime in February.  After the summer vacation, Sophie, Abe and Deb will continue their university careers and Ellie will head back to high school.  Not many plans for this coming year, but we hope it includes continuing contact with all of our far flung friends.  (Speaking of contact, visit the website www.ezshmoooz.com for cheap rates on calling New Zealand or Indonesia for that matter.)  We remain hopeful this year will be one where the Bush administration falls and the US rejoins the international community as a true partner.

Lots of love,

Steven, Maggie, Abe, (Deb,) Sophie and Ellie