Adoption Update

The 60 day consent period has now ended which means that the birth mother can no longer change her mind and request her child back. This is great for us but must be awful for her. Please pray for her as she seeks to rebuild her life, also, give thanks as she is a Christian and knows Jesus as her saviour!.

The social worker was in court this morning and we're waiting to hear what the next step is. As you could imagine we're really excited to know that Eli is now ours pending the technical formalities of the legal process.

Please keep praying that all would go smoothly and quickly!

We're Back Online!

We've had an eventful few days moving house, as ever with such ventures, whatever can go wrong does go wrong, so our washing machine decided that it didn't like the new house and gave up on us, but not before it flooded the kitchen! Dean fell through the stairs on his way down, one step completely collapsed, but thankfully gravity was stronger than velocity so other than a gashed leg there was no real damage. In the midst of packing and moving we enjoyed a series of prolonged power cuts, generally losing the electricity for 7+ hours at a time which had a really negative impact on the jobs we needed to get done before and during the move. The cuts have finished for now but are due again in the next few months as the nuclear generators are repaired. Our phone eventually started working today only 10 days after it was supposed to!

That's A Good One!

Eskom (South Africa's monopoly electricity provider) has just blamed a massive 12 hour blackout across the Western Cape on the recent fires and the mist which covered Cape Town this morning! Incredible!

We always thought that British Rail was pushing it when they blamed delays on 'leaves' or the 'wrong kind of snow' but Eskom really has BR licked when it comes to pathetic excuses!

Yes we're cross that we couldn't have a cup of tea when we got up this morning! At least church was interesting and our guest preacher (Adrian Holloway) coped admirably and lead 6 people Christ. Praise God!!!!!!

Another Taster

Here's a couple more photos to give you another taster of the photos we've just posted at Finnie's in Focus.

We hope you enjoy them

A Passage I Love

JN 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

I love this passage simply because Jesus let's his followers know that troubles are guaranteed (not promised) for no particular reason (not for character building or testing etc) other than we are of this world and have to live in it. So being robbed or living through Hurricane Katrina are not judgement by some vindictive deity but rather just part and parcel of life on this planet.

Photo Update

Here are a few 'taster' photographs, you can see more on our Photoblog 'Finnie's in Focus'.

We'll post some more over the next few days too.

Catch Up

We've finally managed to get back onto Blogger after 3 days, apparently our monopoly phone company messed up and barred access to the service which is about what you'd expect from a monolithic uncompetitive monopoly. Gripe over and on with the posting...

Quite a lot has happened and we'll try and give a brief update on each thing...

Can't Access Blogger

We're emailing this post through in the hope that it will be posted automatically.

We haven't been able to log onto Blogger for over 24 hours despite trying several different computers.

Hopefully all will be back to normal soon, but if you happen to know why Blogger is down, please email us.

Action in CNP

Dean has just been to an excellent meeting at the municipality with Dina & Mama Jane regarding the vegetable garden in CNP and the proposed netball court for the community. Amazingly, the parks dept have agreed to give the community R1000 towards the vegetable garden for seeds, fertiliser etc so after almost 2 years the garden will now be utilised properly. The parks department have also agreed to fund the construction of the netball court and to supply the basic equipment such as hoops and balls. Needless to say Dina & Mama Jane were delighted and the community will be thrilled when they hear about this.

The Law Is An Ass

Dean accompanied Michael & Joyce to court this morning for the final eviction hearing. You may recall that Michael & Joyce are living with Michael's father (Douglas) who wants them to leave the house, primarily because he's an alcoholic and they've been trying to address this issue with him. As expected, the court made it's decision based purely on the law thus ignoring the moral arguments for Michael & Joyce remaining in the house.

Dean was quite angry afterwards as he feels that Michael & Joyce were steamrollered by Douglas's lawyer as they had no legal representation themselves (legal aid was refused and they can't afford legal fees) into signing a settlement document. This then allowed the lawyer to make direct representations to the chief magistrate in his chamber rather than having to go into court.

Emyezweni Pre School

Debs has just updated her Blog with some cute photos of one or two of the kids at the pre-school. Take a look at Deb's SA News

Here's one to whet your appetite