Our Travels

This week I met a friend of a friend who is a few months pregnant and looked fabulous. I congratulated her and she gave me an unimpressed smile. I'm then made aware that this pregnancy was an accident and by no means were they really accepting of it due to their circumstances. The couple already have 7 children between the ages of 20 and 12 and to them they're just about to see the last of their kids through school and it's really hard to make ends meet and then here they were about to raise a new baby. I remembered close friends in NZ that really want a child due to their lack of reproductive success. They had undergone IVF to no avail late last year and are now really open to adoption. So I told the pregnant woman about our friends with no kids in NZ and she said she is very keen to let them adopt her baby. I suggested for her to sleep on it and talk to her family and see what they say while I contact our friends and see what happens. Today I called a lawyer and discusse...

Lani Wendt Young's second book in the Telesa Trilogy, 'When Water Burns' is now available for worldwide purchase from Amazon. This fiery young adult fantasy adventure combines Pacific mythology with contemporary romance. Release Date Announcement: Print Copies of 'When Water Burns' - * NZ/Australia/Pacific: June 25th, 2012.               $24.95 NZD      (plus postage)   * USA/UK/World: June 13th, 2012.                       $15.95 USD     (Lani Wendt Young:  http://sleeplessinsamoa.blogspot.com/2012/06/release-date-announcement-print-copies.html )

My son and I landed safely in Samoa in the early hours of Saturday morning. We had a good nights sleep and woke up to a beautiful sunny day. I was greeted by the welcoming crowing of roosters, chirping of birds and the sounds of the neighbours. Just blissful sounds of home to me. I looked out through the practical modern Samoan window of louvres and was rewarded by the breathtaking multi-colours but predominantly rich green of the plants and trees. To me this is a sign I am HOME. My sister and hubby have moved to a new place and on one side is a cliff where one can hear the distant sound of a waterfall. I woke up and just took in everything around the house and was just happy and content. I am home once more and am grateful that I can come home more often than not. Had a lovely time catching up with my family and my Mum.  Rugby At 3pm we made our way to the games to watch Manu Samoa take on Scotland. It was not a very exciting game with Scotland scoring a try in the first 5 min...

Today the swelling on my face is much better, the feeling in my tongue is back and the scabs that were around my mouth have just about all cleared. There is still a numbness on the bottom right side of my lip and the pain is almost all gone when I'm due for my medicine. My right ear is still block until I hold my nose and blow or I move my head to the side. Today I finish the antibiotic course I was prescribed. I got another anti-inflammatory tablet that really brought the swelling down and really was pain numbing which was great. Last night however I started to freak out about it all. I wondered if the feeling on my lip and chin will come back and whether I will go back to normal. I mean I thought up every possible worst scenario and I just got scared. I regretted having the surgery done and all the bad thoughts went through my head. Poor hubby who was away on a work trip walked in and was met with a freaking out almost chipmunk! I chatted to nurse sister and she reassured me an...

I took panadol, antibiotics but refused the anti-inflammatory prescribed as it causes swelling around my eyes. So there's a lot of discomfort and I certainly look like a chipmunk. Huge chin plus scabs around my lips where they must have held my mouth open. Every time I imagine what they did I cringe. The doctor called a few hours later with further instructions for after care, to put ice on my jaw and even drink cool water or eat ice cream to help with the healing of the wounds. The next morning I was very swollen and tender in the mouth area and my jaw was just huge. My son was bored and wanted to go to school so I covered my mouth like a bandit and drove him to school. It was very uncomfortable but made it to pick him up again later. I covered my face more to save others from a sight for sore eyes. When I showed some of the ladies my swollen chin the look on their faces said it all! And back to bandit style I went. Today however I finally feel a lot better like I'm definite...

Yesterday I went in to have my 3 wisdom teeth removed. It had taken me a long time to have the courage to go get this done. So earlier last month we met a dentist and was encouraged to go see him to have my bothersome teeth removed. He did the X-ray and then made the appointment for the surgery. One of my  the wisdom teeth was horizontally impacted and another was fairly deep. Well I went in a little nervous but my mind was at ease it'll be okay. I changed into the hospital gown with the gap at the back luckily it overlapped! The nurse showed me the way to the surgery and once I was on the table the anaesthetist came in and well it wasn't long before I was out to the count. I woke up in the recovery room not feeling my mouth! I fell asleep again. When I woke up the dentist came to see me and said that it was a difficult procedure as one of the teeth was deeply embedded in the bone. They wheeled me to my private room where I was just happy to sleep and sleep. Finally they gave...

Big party in Samoa today for the Diamond Anniversary. Manuia le 50 Tausaga Samoa. Facebook is hot with overseas Samoans yearning to be home on this very special day for our country. As for us, we were at an Australia/New Zealand Moulin Rouge themed ball last night and the lovely band upon request did a shout out for Samoa at midnight which we really appreciated. 50 years of FREEDOM. Woo hooo I wish I was watching the fautasi races this week.