Our family was born in May 2015 after James and Cat rekindled their childhood romance and blended their two families together.
I met James when I was 12 years old in Stillwater – he lived up the road and I was staying at the camping ground. It was love at first sight and he became (as much as someone can at 12) my boyfriend. Somewhat unsurprisingly we broke up 4 weeks later and instead of boyfriend/girlfriend he became my best friend. We stayed friends for 25 years – each of us getting in and out of relationships, getting married and having children – but never together, until newly single in our late 30’s everything just kind of fell together in the most unexpected way and here we are – me and my best friend and our 3 daughters – all living together in one big messy, loud house in Auckland.
I work in an inner city advertising agency in Auckland and run a successful photography business as a sideline. Up until falling back in love with me 2 years ago, James was working as a joiner and living with his daughter in a cottage on the Hauraki Plains. We couldn’t really have been more different (our favourite song around that is Leather and Lace – “my city, your mountains”).
Despite our different backgrounds, or maybe because of them our lives seemed to come together. James took me to places I never knew existed out of Auckland and I showed him Auckland like he had never seen before.
Our first ever tradition as a newly formed family was to get lost. Both literally on Sophia’s birthday and metaphorically as we muddled our way through the murky waters of blending families.
As parents in a blended families one of the hardest things is sending your children off to the other parent – you miss them. On the other hand, one of the nicest things about being a parent in a blended family is sending your children off to the other parent – it’s like being young and dating all over again – but with money this time! On here you will find some of the places that me and James have got lost together once a fortnight when we have no children.
Then there are the places we all get lost together with the kids – the adventures we plan and the ones we sometimes unwittingly find ourselves on.
At Getting Lost you will find stories of the places we get lost or escape together and the places we get lost with the kids. Surviving blending and divorce can sometimes feel like you are lost with no where to go – rather than fear this we chose to embrace it. We love to get lost – it’s the thrill of discovery and its the only way to truly appreciate being found.
There are some tips and tricks we discovered as we made our way along this path (trust us, we’re no experts yet) & some of the giant holes we fell into.
Enjoy & get lost.
Cat