Baby Of The Year Finalist!

Paula entered Eli into the Johnson & Johnson Baby of the Year Competition a couple of months ago, primarily to take up the offer of cheap baby portraits of Eli. When we arrived home we had a message on the answerphone to say that Eli was a finalist in the competition. The entrants had been whittled down from thousands to 30 in his age category.

Break... What Break?

We certainly hit the ground running when we got home. Joel is back in the swing of nursery and friends which is great, he certainly seems to have got his rhythm back. Eli is about to start at a weekly baby group with Paula, whilst Paula has had to debrief our last FYP volunteer as well as juggle life.

Dean spent Monday afternoon in Chris Nissen visiting his friends and saying 'Hello' & catching up with many people. It was great to be there again and we definitely feel affirmed that this is where God wants us to be which is great as there is no better place to be!

People

We had a god time back in Blighty although it is good to be back home here in Somerset West. We didn't get to spend as much time with friends as we would have liked (hopefully we've not offended too many of you) but we were able to spend some quality time with a few friends who are special to the kids and we hope you enjoy the photos below.

Praise God!

The most excellent news on our arrival home was that Eli's name change is now 100% legal as we have his new birth certificate and ID number stating that Eli Thomas Finnie is here!

We are so grateful to God for this massive answer to prayer as it means we can now crack on and get other bits of paperwork sorted such as passports, residency etc.

Arrived Home!

After an 11½ hour flight we're home and in one piece with no missing or damaged luggage!

We arrived at Heathrow quite early and had to wait to check in which went smoothly once it happened. We managed to find the only bit of terminal 4 from which you can watch the planes coming and going and Joel really enjoyed that. We had some dinner before boarding and that's when our evening started to go downhill. The manager of the restaurant told us that we'd have to take our trolley out of the restaurant (though it was causing less obstruction than the pushchair) and we had a bit of an argument over this. We couldn't believe how pedantic he was being, plus we didn't want to lose the trolley, so eventually we agreed that he could take the trolley on the condition that he finds us one after our meal. To cut it short, he stored the trolley in the entrance to the restaurant which caused mayhem and resulted in them losing several customers! Pathetic really.

Final Countdown

We're in the last 24 hours of our time here in the UK as we fly out of Heathrow around 7pm on Saturday. Things are getting a bit tense in our house as we struggle with the packing and making sure that we're within our weight allowance, thankful we have just over 100Kgs allowance to return with which is a blessing.

Photo Update

Here's a quick update on what we've been up to in the last few days. On Monday we had a great Christmas dinner with all the trimmings (no photos to post!), we all had fun and were very stuffed afterwards.

On Tuesday Dad, Grandad and Joel went on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, a real boys day out. We had a lot of fun and hopefully will repeat the event next time we're home, so that Eli can join us.

Hectic!

Life has been very hectic since leaving the Lakes. We had an excellent Sunday with Holy Trinity at Gee Cross, and it was a pleasure staying overnight with Norma! After giving our Powerpoint presentation in the morning service we had a shared lunch in the church hall which was a great opportunity to meet people and to renew old acquaintances. Straight after lunch we shot off to Sheffield to stay with Roger, George, Yas' & Theo which was brilliant. Sadly it was a real flying visit as we had to get home on the Monday afternoon as we had a commitment on the Tue morning.

Our Week In The Lakes

We've had a fantastic week in the Lakes, staying at Santon Bridge near Wast Water. This was a short break sandwiched in between our visits to St.Mary's Cheadle and Holy Trinity Gee Cross. We really enjoyed having some time and space just to ourselves. 

Right Text

Below is the text which should have accompanied the post below:

We arrived in Cheadle on Saturday afternoon and just had time to settle the boys down before we were off to the Upper Room in Cheadle to speak at an evening meeting which was part of the Stockport ‘Big Deal’. The evening was excellent and despite a slight technical glitch with the laptop and data projector the presentation went well. We had a lot of positive feedback and were encouraged by the response. It was also great to see some old friends such as John & Helen.

Mission Education Update

We've had a busy time giving our powerpoint presentation, having spoken on Saturday evening at St. Mary's Cheadle and again at the 11.15 service on Sunday morning. We were also interviewed in the 9.30 service, so we were really pleased to be in the Lake district for a week after that before speaking at Gee Cross next Sunday.

The Boys have been an absolute credit to us as they cope with so many new and different people almost daily, they've also carried on in their routines brilliantly which makes our lives much easier. We know many of you are praying for Joel & Eli in this respect and we know that God is faithfully answering these prayers.

Below are some photos of our time in then Lakes so far.