Tonight we had our first visitors.

We also had our first trip to town and a supermarket, but that’s less interesting.

My brother was down from Scotland for work, and 2 close friends are away for the weekend and wanted to pop in with some frozen meals for us.

Given how well little CJ is doing, we decided than rather than just popping in, a BBQ was in order. S1 took a kip upstairs while CJ and I sorted out the BBQ, after all, it’s never too early to learn these things.

Out of everyone we know, my brother would easily be in the top 3 for the prize of most excited about us having a little one (there’s 3 people in a dead heat!).

To see him holding our little man made my heart smile.

S1 and I have always been fiercely “independent together”. We like to do everything on our own steam and together; it’s not often we call on help from others, we just prefer to take the challenges together.

For the last 9 months it’s been top of mind that this is one of the few challenges where the lack of family nearby for support is going to be sorely missed.

But tonight, in this small moment, I realised that now CJ is here, the support is here as well.

My brother holding little CJ, the laughter of good friends in the background. We may not have many traditional “family” close by, but it’s becoming very clear we have a whole [url=https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=whanau]whanau[/url] who are willing to help.

Deep down I knew that support was there, but tonight it struck home. Even just knowing that our family and friends are willing to help will make the coming days and weeks that little bit easier.

Thanks for the support guys.