Another year’s over…

Is it just me, or did 2012 seem to fly by?

And here we are… already a week into 2013. That’s the first time I’ve written that.

2012 was a good year for us. The year of Reuben. Our life changed again… Pete became the worker, I was back at home, and now with two kids instead of one! We moved house again. We became more involved in our church and cemented some really fantastic friendships in this town we live in. I feel happy with how 2012 has gone. We have grown and been stretched and overcome the difficult patches. I’m happy. We’re happy. We like where we live (despite the rough patch that got us here) and how we’re living, we love our friends and family, we adore our two kids and each other. Life is good.

I’ve been thinking about my goals for this year. My goals – our goals. It’s soooo clichéd to do New Year’s Resolutions, but I do like the beginning of a new year, and after all the hustle and bustle of the wind of of a year, it makes sense to reflect on how life has been and make some choices about how things could be different.

I think this year, I’m more going for some overall philosophies in my New Years ‘Resolutions’. Lifestyle changes… or even tweaks… that I hope will help send me and our family in the direction that we want to go.

I’ve noticed a growing trend for bloggers is to choose a ‘word’ for the year, that will be their focus… like maybe trust or choice or courage or expect. You know me though, I talk way too much and one word…. will it just wasn’t gonna cut it for me. I’ve decided to choose a scripture instead. You can’t get a more powerful word than one straight from the Word of God! So, my overall theme for 2013 is this:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord {Colossians 3:23}

I think that just about covers it. I can apply this scripture to any and every area of my life. It’s not an easy one, that’s for sure. It’s going to require lots of attitude checking, I can already tell. If I was doing my housewifely duties for the Lord, I probably wouldn’t be calling my husband a nasty-so-and-so under my breath for forgetting to take out the garbage again and leaving the lids off the vegemite and butter for the eleventy-billionth time that week. If I was parenting for the Lord, I would be speaking with a heck of a lot of love and patience and grace in my tone. So this is my ‘Word’ for the year… whatever I do, I will do with all my heart – no half-heartedness here folks! – and with an attitude that would be pleasing to the Lord. Thankfully God has grace in abundance, because I know I’m going to fail at this daily, but hopefully I will learn something along the way!

I’ve also been reflecting on five key areas of my/our lives that I would like for us to work on.

1. Spiritual

Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord {Deuteronomy 8:3}

A pretty important little sentence there – especially when you consider that Jesus himself quotes it over in Matthew when Satan is taunting him in the wilderness.

This year I want to devote myself to spending more time with God. Whether it’s reading the Bible, listening to teaching podcasts, reading books that teach me more about Him… I want to rekindle the fire, and build my relationship with Him.

2. Marriage

We will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this year! I love my husband very much, and love parenting and doing life with him. Life however seems to develop a busyness that can leave relationships by the wayside. We have days where we realise we’ve spent maybe ten minutes actually talking to each other… between Pete’s working, parenting, running the household and having some down-time, the days seem so full that we’re scratching to find space for quality time together. We need to do that, SO much. I would love for us to go back to our ‘date nights’ that we did for the first few years of our marriage, where we would have a date on the 10th of every month (we were married on the 10th). Nothing fancy – we were super-poor uni students back then and sometimes a date was just a picnic on the lounge room floor –but it was scheduled, quality one-on-one us time, and just what we’re needing right now.

On this topic, and I guess to also tie in with my first point, I’m reminded of this scripture:

Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. {Ecclesiastes 4:12}

God is so much a part of our marriage. I don’t want to be at risk of leaving Him by the wayside either. Pete and I need to involve Him more in us.

3. Parenting

Of course this is a big one. My kids are my world. I see them as the ‘talents’ God has given me, and when it gets to the part where God looks at what I have done with what He has given me, I want to hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant!” When I think of parenting, the verse from Proverbs-

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it {Proverbs 22:6}

is often in the forefront of my mind. I want to show my kids how to love, and be patient and kind and gentle, show grace, and to be in relationship with God. I need daily to remember that

a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger
{Proverbs 15:1}

I need to remember that my children learn their cues and reactions from me. Scary though some days! I have so much to learn.

4. Health

I remember learning this scripture in my Sunday school days:

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…. Therefore honour God with your bodies. {1 Corinthians 6:19-20}

I’ve made (probably half-hearted) resolutions before about losing weight and getting fitter…This year, I just want to commit to being healthy. I want to learn the right things to put into my body, and eliminate things that are hurting me. I want to exercise, and build my fitness to make my body stronger and healthier. I want to be able to run around and play with my kids. If I can stick to this, losing weight and gaining fitness will be a bonus, but I don’t want to make that my goal and turn this into a dieting thing, I just want my body to be healthy, and I want to feel good and know that I’m looking after it.

5. Stewardship

I guess this is the one that is overarching all my previous four. We live such a blessed life… we are blessed with each other, with a beautiful home to live in, health, family, relationships, jobs, finances, possessions… I want to be a good steward of what I have been given. Again like in the parable of the talents that I quoted above – I want to be good and faithful with what God has given me. All of it.

Like I said, not so much resolutions this year as I guess a new philosophy. Maybe not even new, but this year it’s intentional. I want to learn this year, and grow as a person. I’m so excited about what this year holds!

Are you getting all reflective this New Year too?

Chores + Pocket Money {+ a free printable!}

Mayana is four in twelve days *sob*. She is getting to be such a big girl, and very capable. She’s a great helper, and makes my life easier in many ways. She is learning to help around the house, and is especially helpful in entertaining her baby brother when I need him distracted for a few minutes!

I really want to encourage Mayana in her attitude of helpfulness (she generally LOVES to help), and Peter and I have decided that we would like to reward her with some pocket money for the help she gives us.

The three of us had a chat about some jobs that she was already doing, and some jobs that she could learn to do, and decided on eight things that she can do daily to help out around the house. We talked to her about how it was important that everyone in our house has responsibilities to help make our lives run smoothly. Mayana know that if she helps me out with my chores in the mornings (ie washing up, sweeping the floor etc) then I have more time to play with her. She also knows that I shouldn’t have to be picking up her dirty underwear from the bathroom floor every night!

I’ve made a chart for Mayana, and each time she does one of her special jobs, she gets a stamp or a sticker. I actually plan on laminating this and sticking it on the fridge so that I don’t have to print one every week. Mayana has eight jobs she can do every day, plus I’ve given her an extra space for ‘Being an Awesome Helper’… so that I can reward her extra for things like looking after her brother, helping with grocery shopping… and okay… maybe I’ll be able to use it for a little bit of a bribe when necessary.

The rest of the jobs are mostly things that she was doing already, and a few things that she just needs a bit of encouragement to remember. She doesn’t do all of these jobs independently – for example she’s only really in charge of unpacking the silverware from the dishwasher… not the whole thing. She hangs the nappy liners on the clothes airer while I do the rest of the laundry (about 6 pegs per liner, if you don’t mind) and at this point she’s only really clearing her own dinner dishes from the table.

At the end of the week, Mayana will get 10 cents for every job that she has done. I’m under no illusion that her chart will be full of stars every week, but if she ever manages that, she has the potential to earn up to $6.30 in a week. We’ve talked to her about tithing and giving to God, and she’s excited to think that she will have money each week to put in the offering bucket as it goes past at church. We’ve also discussed saving money, and she’s already eyeing off a few Lala-Loopsy things that she’s quite like to save up for!

I’m excited to see how she goes with this. It’s been motivating so far in her keeping a much better attitude when I ask her to do a job. She loves going to get a stamp when she’s done something, and is offering to do things before I’ve even asked her. I’m hoping that it will help to ingrain some of these things as habit. As she gets older, she will get chores that are more age-appropriate, and these simple things will become more of an expectation – the things that she knows her her responsibility for helping our house to run smoothly. I also like the idea that she can learn about the fact that we don’t just always get things because we like or ask for them, and that sometimes we need to work hard and save to buy things that we want and sometimes even need. There are lots of learning opportunities involved in this too… learning about money is so confusing, and exposing her to different units of our currency is going to be good. She was so disappointed today that her fifty cent coin was only half of one dollar, and that she had to give both of her ‘dollars’ to the lady when she bought her cookie cutter!

Anyway… I thought that someone else might find it useful to use a sticker chart like this. So you can download it for free as a PDF printable if you click HERE!

I have only changed one thing from the original one above… I know not everyone has chickens so I’ve changed that to ‘feed the pets’.

If you use the sticker chart, I’d love to hear how it worked for your little ones!

questions of schooling

I just want to preface this post by saying I have absolutely no judgement on where or how people choose to educate their children. This is all my own experience and opinions and thought process in making the decision for my child’s education.

 

Mayana has one year left before she goes off to big school. It makes me feel quite ill to think about it. And with waiting lists for schools around here filling quickly, it seems that it is time to be thinking about where we’re going to send her in 2014.

The obvious choice of course is sending her to my school, but I don’t want to make the choice only because it is the obvious one. My school is a Christian school, and is quickly growing, with a good reputation. The Prep classes seem to fill up quite quickly, and I know and like all of the teachers in Prep and the rest of the junior school.

There are also two schools with good reputations within walking distance of where we live now. One is a Catholic school and one is a State school. The Catholic school has a really cool art department, and from what I understand teaches allied arts (visual arts, drama, dance and music) as specific subjects for all ages. That really appeals to me. People I’ve spoken to who send their children there seem happy with it. I like the idea of having a Christian curriculum, and I find that Catholic curriculum is quite well rounded (I did a prac in a Catholic school and had many opportunities to explore and engage in the ‘theology’ curriculum). My school doesn’t have a specific Christian curriculum, though teachers are encouraged to embed the teaching of Christian principles and ‘theology’ (only for want of a better word) within their programs. It’s a little ambiguous though, and with not a lot of accountability. I know it is my responsibility as a Christian parent to teach my child about the ways of God, and help them to understand why I believe what I believe and hope and pray that they make the right choices. I’m not trying to palm it off to someone else, but I like the idea of have our way of life backed-up in school, instead of being challenged or questioned.

The State school I have also heard good things about, from both parents of kids who go there, and friends who have done supply work there.

It’s made me really think about what is important to me in a school for my child. I myself went to a Christian school from the beginning of my schooling till the end of year four, a state school for the remainder of my primary years, and completed high school at a Christian school which I hope one day, when we move back to the Coast, I will be able to send my children to.

I liked going to a Christian school, I liked being able to talk and learn about God and things that were important to me. I grew so much in my faith at school. I like that there are stricter boundaries, greater accountability, and often higher expectations (for behaviour and academia) in private schools. I know that is a huge generalisation but I am speaking from my own experiences, both as a student and a teacher. I’m not completely naive, and I know that crap happens at Christian schools too. But my experiences in teaching on pracs at state schools where soooo different to my experience in Christian schools.

I’ve seen things happen in state schools that made my heart hurt. Eleven and twelve year old kids talking about their sexual experiences, eight and nine year olds engaged in cutting and other self-mutilation, bullying that made me sick to my stomach, language that made my ears burn, six year olds throwing furniture and other objects at their teachers, kids so full of self-entitlement that the whole rest of the class suffers and loses the opportunity to learn. I know this stuff isn’t exclusive to state schools but in my experience it is definitely more rife, and in too many cases is accepted as normal, and shrugged off because people just don’t know what to do about it. Of course as a mother I want to shield my beautiful little girl from experiences like this, and put her into an environment where she can maintain her innocence for as long as possible. But I know that not all State schools are like this, and I don’t want to write off a whole sector of education based on these negative experience, when I now that there are some really fabulous government schools out there with dedicated and incredible teachers.

Then there is the money situation. From what I understand that Catholic system is slightly cheaper than your average independent school, and of course State schooling is supposedly ‘free’ – though I’m reading more and more reports from disgruntled parents sick of paying huge levies and other fees. We don’t exactly have heaps of spare money at this time, but if I believe that sending Mayana to a private school is going to be the best decision for her, then we will make it work – to me it is an investment in my child’s future, and well worth it. But it is definitely a consideration that needs to be made.

I guess I need to go to these schools and have them tell me why I should send my child there… what makes them the best choice… I need to see for myself.

It feels like such a big decision to me, and I’m not taking it lightly. I keep going over pros and cons in my head, and I’ve been praying about it a lot. Hopefully, Peter and I will be able to make a decision, and the right decision, and soon enough that we don’t miss out on the school that we choose!

I just can’t believe that we’re at this phase of our parenting already!!

learning… always learning

The Friend family is on the move again.

After we moved not quite twelve months ago, we were assured that this house was a long-term rental, and that we could settle here and make it our home.

So when we received a letter a few weeks ago informing us that we had to be out in six weeks, we were somewhat shocked. Well shocked was one reaction… we were also sad, angry, frustrated, and very ticked off.  We love living in this beautiful house!

I cried… and swore a little. I may have even stomped my foot. It was just. so. unfair!

And I worried. Because that’s what I do. I hate that that’s what I do, but it is.

So, we fast forward a couple of weeks and I’m feeling a little stupid. Because worrying is SUCH a waste of time. And I should know that. Because God has ALWAYS taken care of us. Every single time. I know that. One day, my first response will be just to put my trust in God. He sure has given me enough opportunities to learn that lesson!

In about ten days time, we are on the move. To a very lovely brand new home not too far from where we are now. Like, as in, just finished being built. It has three bedrooms and a study. Lots of cupboards. Flyscreens. A laundry INSIDE. (Can you tell I’ve been living in a Queenslander for the last two years?) A clothesline. Air conditioning. A super easy-maintenance yard. God has thought of everything.

Like I said. I should not have worried. I should never worry. Our whole marriage and life together is an ongoing testimony of God’s provision. By the time we applied for our new place, I was had reminded myself of this and was feeling confident that God would look after us. As I drove away from the real estate agency, I prayed out loud: God, I know that this is in your hands now. I know there is literally nothing more that I can do in this situation, and I know that you’ve got a plan. If we don’t get this house it’s because you’ve got something better. Thank you for opening the right doors, and giving us favour with men.

Next time, I’m hoping that will be my first response. I’m still learning, and I guess God is going to keep allowing me to encounter these situations until I get it and it finally sinks in.

Pretty Things to Print!

I felt the need to do something creative today, and when I stumbled across the fabulous website Picmonkey.com, inspiration struck.

This is the first time I’ve played around with this ‘subway art’, and I enjoyed it!

I made some printables with some scripture and quotes that have been speaking to me a lot lately, and I’ve decided to share them with you here… so if they speak to you too, print them out and hang ‘em on a wall somewhere!

If you click on the pictures, it will take you to where they are stored on my Google Drive, and you should be able to save them to your computer. Let me know if you have any problems with downloading them!

This is a quote I came across in a Joseph Prince devotion I was reading recently. I tend to stress about things that I really have no power over. And I’m learning just what a waste of time and energy that really is… especially when I’ve got God on my side!

Are you sensing a theme here?

This is a mash-up of a couple of scriptures… Jeremiah 29:11, Joshua 1:15 and John 16:33. They were all used in a sermon I heard a few weeks ago, and I love their encouragement!

Like I said, I’m only new at this, and I’m looking forward to practising a bit more and seeing what I can come up with!

If you want to see some other fabulous printables, check out A Step in the Journey, Arian Armstrong, and Everything Etsy’s list of 101 pretty printables!

Enjoy!

Reuben’s Dedication

We had Reuben dedicated last weekend. I intended to blog about it much sooner, but all of a sudden here we are, nearly two weeks after the fact! Where does the time go?

Reuben’s dedication was absolutely wonderful. In case anyone is wondering, a dedication is somewhere between a baby baptism or christening and a naming ceremony.

Reuben was beautifully behaved, and barely made a peep for the entire service.

It was about Peter and I affirming our intentions to raise Reuben in the ways of God and entrusting him to the plans that God has for his life. We also had Reuben’s Godparents (my sister, Alexie and our lovely friends Brad & Petrina) alongside us, and they made a promise to help us to do these things, as well as making their own commitment to praying for him, and helping to guide him along life’s path.

The service was incredibly beautiful. I’ve been to many such services in my time, and I can honestly say that this was my favourite… Our pastor did such a lovely job at interweaving the dedication into the service, instead of just tacking the dedication part on at the end. His sermon was about what it means to be a parent, and the concept of ‘it takes a village’ and how much more true and important it is in the church. I loved it, and I loved that our church family was part of our special day too.

We were so blessed to have many family and friends join us for the day. Members from both sides of our family (including extended and adopted!) travelled to be with us.

It meant a lot for me to have my Pop with us at the church service.

Some of our favourite friends, the Johansens (Mayana’s Godparents) travelled all the way from Brisbane to be with us… this was made even more special by the fact that they brought their beautiful son Max with them. It was the first time we had met Max, and he is soooo precious and my heart melted watching our beautiful friends be such beautiful parents.

Reuben & Max are destined to be best friends. Mayana in fact declared that they will be “Best buddies forever and ever!” Katherine & I wholeheartedly agree! (By the way, Max is 8 weeks old to Reuben’s 16 in this photo! My kid is a runt!!)

Mayana used her sweet big-sister skills to love up her ‘fairy-god-brother’

After the dedication service, our friends and family joined us for a picnic in the rose gardens across from our house. There was fun and laughter and delicious cake, and a lovely afternoon was had by all.

Thank you to everyone who came to be a part of Reuben’s big day. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to support us in our parenthood journey.

A Peek at My Week

This week has been a huge and exciting and very happy one for the Friend family!

We’ve had plenty of adventures this week… visits with friends, a trip to the beach, we built a dress-up box, played, hung out in Pete’s awesome hammock. Mayana has enjoyed her second day at Kindy, where she wowed her teachers with her ability to write and name so many letters. But this week has been a very special week, with some very big news…

Last Sunday night, Peter and I were feeling a little down-in-the-dumps. It was really dawning on us how little time we really had before I go on maternity leave and become basically income-less. Peter has been applying for jobs like a mad-man, but despite a few interviews, no offers had come his way. So Sunday night, Peter was checking out the internet for the eleventy-billionth time when a Kindy Teacher position caught his eye. At the kindy that is practically across our back fence!

On Monday morning he gathered his resume and all the bits and pieces that go with it, and stopped by to drop it off. He hadn’t even gotten home when his phone rang. It was the director asking if he would like to come in for an interview on Tuesday, at 10am. The next morning, at 10.09am, Peter called me at work with the amazing and awesome news that HE HAS A JOB!!!!! He basically had walked in, been given an overview of the position, and told that if he wants it, it’s all his.

God is so good. Mayana is able to go to ‘Papa’s Kindy’ on the days that she isn’t at her normal kindy (at least until I’m on maternity leave), and we get a discounted rate for her fees because Pete will be working there. The whole hassle of having to get another car is now a non-issue, because Pete will only need to walk about 200m to get to work. It’s amazing to look back at how stressed we were when we had to unexpectedly move house last year, but now we know that in God’s bigger picture, this house would be perfect for the situation in which we now find ourselves. Pete starts his new job tomorrow, and will be working 34 hours a week over Tuesday-Friday. We feel like such a weight has been lifted from our shoulders, and are once again a living testimony of how God provides. 

So we had plenty of mid-week celebrations, including when my awesome family drove 1.5 hours just to have a celebratory dinner for Peter and congratulate him in person. It was so lovely. I have loved seeing the grin on my husband’s face all week, I’m so proud of him!

In other Friend Family News, I have officially crossed over into the third trimester (insane!!!) and am still loving being pregnant… Especially now that I finally got to have a physio appointment and can walk semi-normally again. But I’ll do a proper pregnancy update later with more on that.

Mayana’s big news is that she has added yet another big-ticket item to her list of reasons why she is now officially a Big Girl: she has stopped wearing nappies to bed! I still haven’t gotten brave enough to not put a towel down underneath her every night, but so far (*touch wood*) we have had no whoopsies. She has told pretty much everyone she knows, “I’m a big girl now because I wore NO nappies, ONLY Noonies (her word for undies), and I had NO whoopsies!!!!” Sigh. My little girl is definitely growing up. And maybe one day I will be able to sleep deeply again without half listening out for her calling me or trying to go to the toilet on her own in the middle of the night. For now, she is doing a great job, and is excitedly working towards going shopping for a Justine Clarke CD, which she will earn with five stickers – one for each morning her bed is dry when she wakes up.

Another lovely week full of wonderful memories for our family.

If you want to play along, please do! And make sure you leave a link in my comments, because I’d love to see what you’ve been up to too!

I love my little family so much!

SO looked after.

We had one of those weird adventures this evening... you know, one of those annoying things you'd rather not have happened at all. But the cool thing was, in spite of it all, God found a way to show me that he was looking out for us.

We've been having annoying issues with our car. Like, we'll be driving along and the car suddenly stops. Not so cool. It always comes good in the end, and we have been asking around about a good mechanic in our new town to try and organise to get it fixed.

So anyway, we randomly decided to go out to Subway for dinner with my sister. We got our sandwiches, jumped in the car to come home and ... nothing. That car wasn't going nowhere. So we decided to give it a bit of time. We went back inside and ate our dinner, back out and guess what.... still no cigar!

RACQ time. Only problem is, stupid me hadn't paid my membership fee. Drats. An extra $28 on top of my annual fee to waive the 24 hour waiting period, and we're sitting waiting for the RACQ man... who will take up to 60 minutes. With my sister and my starting-to-get-tired-and-cranky toddler.

Thankfully, only waited less than 20 minutes. Bad news was that the car was not going to start. The word 'towing' was mentioned. C-rap! Here we are on a rainy night, a good few kms from home, with no pram. Argh!

I was mere seconds away from a full-blown anxiety attack when - and this is the awesome part - one of my work colleagues ever-so-randomly pulls up next to us! "Can I take you somewhere?" she says. How wonderful! So we got home, and we didn't even have to walk! Pretty awesome stuff!

Just at that moment when it was all just about to get too much for me, God turns up and says, "Zoey, it's all good, I will stand by my promise and I will never leave you!" He's so awesome!

So the car is in the shop, and tomorrow we'll be a little bit poorer, but our car will start, and will hopefully not stop when we're in the middle of driving it.

And one day soon, because God looked after me with this awesome job and we can finally afford it, we will get ourselves an awesome and much newer car.

And I know God will look after us with that one too. Can't wait!

a moment in time…

You know, those moments where your world stops a bit. That dread encroaches, and your brain refuses to process what’s being said.

Monday… on the phone to my dad and another call comes in. I can hear snatches of the female voice on the other end… police… daughter… hospital…

And my dad’s side… Is she okay! Where is she? I’m leaving now.

Just enough to know what’s going on. And that it’s not good.

My sister was driving to my grandparent’s house. A patch of road, only a couple of km’s long, in-between where the roads have been fixed up. Narrow bitumen and dusty, dry gravel on either side. A long stretch, with one blind corner. And a truck.

You know those roads, you have to drive onto the gravel when something else comes toward you – and trucks don’t usually move. So Bethanie did. And hit the gravel badly. Her car rolled.

The truck driver saw it happen in his rear-view mirror. Saw her lose it on the gravel, her car disappear over a ditch. He couldn’t stop, he couldn’t turn around. He kept driving to find some space.

Bethanie finds herself in her car, which has rolled onto its passenger door. Her seatbelt locked in with the pressure of her body. She wedges her feet against the passenger door to take the weight off, and her seatbelt clicks. She realises her window is down. Unusual, because usually they are up, tight, with the A/C blowing. But today, she felt like the wind in her hair, and she wound it down. She manoeuvres her body out the window, and climbs up onto the side of her car. Stands on her door, crying, screaming. A farmer is across the road, on his slasher. He doesn’t see her and he can’t hear her. She screams anyway, Help me.. please.  She can’t jump – it’s too high. She can’t slide down – the car is still so hot. Help! No phone reception – can’t call anyone. Minutes roll by. Fifteen of them. And then the rumble of a truck. The truck. He had to find somewhere to turn around, but he came back as fast as he could. He jumps out. Are you okay? He helps Bethanie from her car, calls for help – police, firemen and ambulance.

And then they called my dad – while I was on the phone to him. And told him that my sister had been in an accident. Rolled her car. She’s okay – in shock but not hurt. The ambulance has her, they’re going to the hospital. Meet us there.

And my heart stops. My brain knows she’s okay… but she might not have been. And she didn’t hug me goodbye. It could have been so bad.

God and His angels were watching my sister. If not for Him – well it doesn’t bear thinking about. So glory be to Him.

And we never leave without hugging goodbye ever again.

Bethanie is fine. They gave her some oxygen to pick her back up. Her voice was raw – from that and the screaming. She spent a few hours at the hospital, then my parents took her on to my grandparents for some TLC.

Bethanie told the police that she was driving well below the speed limit, because those gravel bits on the side of the road make her nervous. Their investigations show that she indeed was. And that it probably saved her life.

Miraculously, her car is barely damaged. No broken glass, even her side mirror is intact. The steering column and drive shaft have had it, but all up there is under $700 of work to be done!

What a day.

I just finished reading…

Well not *just* but recently. ‘The Shack’ by William P Young.

It was a Christmas gift from Peter.

I really enjoyed this book. It weaves the tale of ‘Mack’, a man struggling with a Great Sadness: His daughter, Missy, was abducted and brutally murdered during a family camping trip.

Mack struggles with the question, “why”. Why does God let bad things happen? Why his family? I guess he mostly blames God.

And then he receives a note from ‘Papa’, inviting him to meet Him at the shack. The place where his daughter was murdered.

Mack goes to the shack, and meets Papa – who is God, Jesus, and Sarayu – a representation of the Holy Spirit.

I have to say, I LOVE the way this book portrayed the holy trinity. Papa, Jesus & Sarayu, they all love and laugh and live. They make you want to love them. And I think that was a revelation that I really needed. God is not the big scary guy up there, He LOVES us. Loves me.

Mack has a number of days in the shack with these three. Learning so much about them, about why God gave us a free will, and how that relates to why bad things happen in this world. Some pages I had to read over and over again to get them to sink in. It gets pretty deep.

The trinity help Mack to battle his demons, get some answers, and some of the closure he needs. But most importantly he learns the importance of relationship, and why that is the true basis of Christianity.

This book isn’t theology. It’s one man’s interpretation of how things work. There were some things that I didn’t fully understand or agree with. But there is a lot of truth in there. I guess that’s where your own discernment has to come in.

I would definitely recommend this book. It is a really good read, even if you only want to read it for fiction’s sake.

Oma

Okay, so as promised, here is the story of my Oma and why she ended up spending most of our Perth holiday in hospital.

So the background of the story is that Oma has had this terrible cough for months and months now, and it has been progressively getting worse. My uncle, who is a doctor, had been chasing this up and getting her booked in for various check-ups and investigations to get to the bottom of it.

Two weeks before we left for Perth, we were told that Oma had been in for scans looking at her lungs etc. for this cough (which by the way turned out to be totally unrelated to what happened next), and they’d found something they hadn’t expected to see at all. A large growth, nestled around a major artery that runs from the heart to the leg. There was a possibility it may be cancerous. It was a bit of a blow to us all, especially considering that in the same week we also received news that one of my dad’s sisters had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and would be having a partial mastectomy while we were in W.A.

About a week before we were scheduled to leave, another phone call. My (doctor) uncle called to suggest that Papa leave early. Doctor’s had decided that the vein on which the tumour was growing made surgery to remove it too risky, and as such the had planned a biopsy, so that they could look further into treatment. By this point they had fairly well established that it was a malignant tumour. The biopsy was set to take place on Tuesday – just as we arrived in town. And there was a possibility that she wouldn’t make it through the surgery. There was also evidence of clotting, and as such Oma was a ‘walking time bomb’ as a clot at any time could travel into the heart. She was ordered to rest, with feet up at all times.

Papa left for Perth early, and my Oom Sace continued to meet with doctors and try to understand more about what was going on with Oma. Eventually, he managed a meeting with several doctors, one of whom specialises in the area of veins. After looking at scans etc. he decided that he was in fact confident that he could remove the growth entirely, and rather than doing an invasive biopsy to look at things and then decide, he would rather go in and do the one operation.  The surgery was booked for Saturday, four days after our arrival in Perth.

When we got to Perth, and got to see Oma, she was just the same Oma she had always been. She told us that it was so weird for her, as she still felt really well, the same way she had felt before any of this had happened, yet her body was so sick!

Oma was admitted to hospital on Friday night to prepare for surgery, which was scheduled at 8am the following morning. We were told that night there were three possibilities for the surgery: 1) a two hour surgery. Bad. This would mean they opened her up, and things were worse than they thought and they’d have to close her back up and go back to square one; 2) a five hour surgery. Best case. The tumour would be removed successfully, and further treatment would be looked at once the tumour was biopsied; 3) an eight or more hour surgery. Bad. Would mean that one of the kidneys had also been affected and would be removed along with the tumour.

We prayed.

The surgery, praise God, was successful. Possibility two, with a few complications, ended up being our outcome. The tumour was removed successfully, however they found that the vein in question was basically filled with clotting, and the decision was made to remove some 40cm of vein, replacing it with an artificial graft.

That evening, my family joined Oom Sace’s family as the guest artists at a local carols by candlelight. Just before our last set, my uncle received a phone call from another aunty, who said she’d tried to ring the hospital for an update, only to be told that they would prefer to talk to the brother who was a doctor.

Oom Sace wasn’t able to make contact with the doctor until after the carols, and he returned to us with sombre news. Oma had nearly died numerous times throughout the evening. The new vein had started off working well, but with the pressure of renewed blood flow, a number of new clots had been released, resulting in pulmonary embolism. Her kidneys also had not resumed function since the operation, and her blood pressure wasn’t stabilising. At this point she was deemed to be in a critical condition. After an impromptu prayer meeting in the car park, we headed back to Oom Sace’s to wait for more news.

Eventually the brothers and sisters decided to go to Oma’s bedside to pray and be with her. It was a very emotional time for them, and things were scarily touch and go for Oma that night.

The next day, my family went to visit Oma in ICU. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever seen. She was full of tubes, surrounded by machines.. still heavily sedated… she just wasn’t Oma. We talked to her, held her hand. She was awake, but only just. She was ventilated and couldn’t speak, but she smiled and mouthed that she loved us and held our hands and kissed us. She doesn’t remember anything of that visit, but I will never forget it.

The days ticked passed and we eagerly looked forward to new updates. Oom Sace had told us that we could expect for her to be in ICU for weeks.. in hospital for likely a month and then to some kind of respite care for another month. The tumour was indeed cancerous, and they believed that pieces had possibly broken off and travelled to the lungs. The new vein became filled with clots, as well as veins associated with the kidneys, and she had to go on dialysis.
Then the miracles began. She started breathing on her own… her blood pressure stabilised, and stayed that way even as they weaned her from medication. Then her kidneys slowly began to function again.

On Christmas Eve, after our trip to Margaret River, we travelled to Oma’s bedside in ICU to sing her a Christmas carol. She told me later that she will never forget the image of me walking in with Mayana, who was asleep, and then looking behind me and seeing our whole family. I laid Mayana onto her legs where she continued to sleep as we visited. Oma kept telling us how happy she was to be alive, to be given a special chance. “To God be the glory!”, she kept proclaiming. Indeed! She wept as we sang to her, and we struggled to keep it together. She was still attached to machines – though less than before, but she was Oma again.

Her recovery since then has been nothing short of miraculous. Her kidneys and blood pressure are back to normal, she’s eating, walking, talking, and LOVING life. The grafted vein is still clotted, but other veins have taken over the blood flow. As time goes on those veins will get stronger and bigger and the swelling in her legs should go down.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we held our Camp Buma church service at the hospital the day after Oma was released from ICU. There wasn’t a dry eye as Oma was wheeled in, and it really hit us what she had been through and how blessed we are to still have her in our lives.

We were all amazed at her attitude – that she wasn’t pining to be with us at our camp which she had so looked forward to, but rather rejoicing in the fact that we were all together and having so much fun.

The day before we left, we visited with her and she was well and truly back to her old self… joking and teasing, loving, hugging, playing with Mayana. God is so amazing, and it is inspirational and incredible to listen to Oma proclaim her faith that God will continue to heal and strengthen her.

It looks like Oma will be allowed to go home by this weekend! Home! There is still quite a road ahead to recovery, and I’m not sure on the status of any cancer treatment that will be related to the tumour, but there is no doubt in my mind that my strong Oma will pull through whatever comes her way. She is a walking miracle, and a tangible reminder that anything is possible with God.

Watoto

Today we visited our old church to see the Watoto Children's Choir. If you haven't heard about the Watoto organisation, you should visit www.watoto.com to read more about it. It is an orphanage in Uganda, which is home to children mainly orphaned by HIV/AIDS, some of whom are also former child-soldiers. It is set up a bit differently to the conventional orphange. Watoto is set up as a series of 'children villages'. Funds are raised to build houses, and in each one lives a 'mother' (single women who are often widows) and eight children -they become a family. There are a number of homes in each community, as well as schools, a church and community hall, a water project and a medical clinic. The homes have running water and bathrooms, the children are well fed and cared for, and education extends from kindergarten to vocational training. It's really awesome!

The Children's Choir is a group of children from the Watoto villages who travel around the world, sharing their stories, singing songs, dancing and raising awareness.

Aside from being very talented singers and dancers (you couldn't watch them and NOT move), these children are so incredibly inspirational. Every time one of them spoke and shared their story, I was moved to tears. These children have been through things that we could never even imagine. One little boy spoke of being abandoned by his mother at the hospital after his birth. He has never seen his father. He was initially taken in by his grandmother, but he was a sick baby and she feared that he was infected with HIV/AIDS, and she too abandoned him. Watoto heard about him, and brought him to one of their villages. He tested negative to HIV/AIDS. He now lives in a house with a new mother, seven brothers, and has aspirations to be a pilot.

They also showed a clip of an interview with a teenaged former child-soldier. Can I just say, we should all be grateful every single day that we were born into the world we live in. There are projections that by the year 2011, there will be over 50 million HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Many of these will be targets to be brain-washed as child soldiers, and essentially trained to be terrorists.

We worry about the stupidest things; we think we've got it hard when fuel goes up 10cents; yet we live an incredibly blessed and abundant lifestyle. Here are these kids, who have been through more horror and heartache in their 10 odd years of life than we will ever know in a life time, and they're praising God for the hope they have found in Him, for His grace and love. It made me feel so small. And challenged. Inspired.

I hope they inspire you too.

Renovator's Delight

I heard this little snippet on our local Christian radio the other day, and it has stuck with me - I found it very hopeful...

... the renovator's delight. You have this old house, that has been lived in, seen many families, been used, become run down... needs a bit of TLC. To some, it may look like just an old house, that probably just needs knocking down. But to someone, that house is a renovator's delight. Someone looks at that house, and sees its potential - sees that with the right kind of care and work, this house can be something amazing, that can be lived in again, that basically has a new life ahead of it.

It's the same with me. I may have gone through some really crappy times, been run down, sinned, done the wrong things and be feeling really awful, undeserving and broken. Other people might look at me and think: "lost cause!" But God, He looks at me and sees potential. Sees something amazing that He can mold into something awesome- something He can breathe new life into. I am God's renovator delight. And all it takes is for me to turn to Him, and tell Him I need some help, and He's there in a heartbeat, ready to make improvements, make my life something beautiful again.

I love it!!!

(photo from flickr)