♫♪♫Happy Birthday To You...♪♫♪

Happy Birthday to our amazing 7 year old Joel!

A bit of a Star Wars theme going on with Lego, action figures and a Darth Vader costume.

At Joel's party yesterday his mates were well impressed with his Star Wars cake.

This evening we're out for a family tea at Joel's favourite restaurant so we'll post more about the whole day later.

Book Week

It's Book Week at school this week so everyone gets to dress up today as a favourite book character. Joel chose Flat Stanley whilst Eli is Harry from Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs so he's gone to school replete with a bucketful of dinosaurs feeling very proud of himself.

Joel was a bit gutted when he arrived as so many of the kids were dressed as Ben 10 and other TV characters but Mummy pointed out that they'll all be immediately disqualified from the judging when prizes are awarded for the best and most imaginative BOOK characters. He cheered up no end at that news!

Weekend

After two particularly stressful weeks we've had a great weekend and topped it off with lunch out after church at a pizzeria in Stellenbosch.

The boys loved playing with the dough and making lots of mess whilst Mum & Dad just enjoyed the food

Wedding

We don't seem to go to many weddings these days so when the occasional invite comes along it's really good fun to go. Today we were guests of the groom's parents who we've got to know quite well through church. Dean also spends some time each week with Ernest which he really enjoys. Ernest recently had quite a major stroke but looking at him in the pictures one would never know. God has performed an amazing miracle of healing in Ernest's life!

Fantastic Day

Today was a really satisfying and rewarding day in which I can't help but feel tremendously blessed by God.

Through Facebook I recently 'reconnected' (don't you just love social networking speak) with Vanessa a friend from my days at Town Church Sevenoaks. I've known Vanessa since 1984 but last saw her sometime in the late 80's. Paula knew Vanessa from Girl Guides and being baby-sat by her. So after many many years we met up again in Cape Town of all places.

Joel's Bent Arm

Poor Joel, we would really value your continuing prayers for him please.  Paula took him back to the orthopaedic doctor today ever hopeful that the cast would be removed and that would be the end of that story!  He straightaway asked for an X-ray and Paula and Joel went on to wait 2 hours for the same (bit like being back in the UK?!!).  Upon arriving back in the doctor's office with a very tired, bored and hungry boy, we could see straight away that the bone in Joel's arm has in fact bent causing the bowing in the photo.  This was so disappointing when just 2 weeks ago, the X-ray showed a considerable straightening in the bone.  The doctor immediately started to talk about surgery and then got cold feet and decided to seek a second opinion from another surgeon friend.  After 10 minutes on the phone in Afrikaans, they decided to try and persuade Paula to hold off on the surgery as this would be big trauma and it is 90% likely that the arm of a 7 year old will right itself with bone growth within a year.

Star Of The Week

Yes, it's happened!!  Just 1 month into the new school year and our little boy is "Star of the Week"!!!   Perhaps the most amazing thing (for us!) is the reason for the award.... for making a real effort to listen.  Well, all we can say is that he put all his effort into doing so at school!!  What can we say, what a fantastic little boy!!  We are proud of him..... and pray that he starts to put into practice his new skill at home!!

Sweet, he was so proud of himself!!!

Back To School

Thanks for all your prayer over the last week or more for us and particularly for Joel. Thankfully he seems to be well and has returned to school today much to Mum & Dad's relief!

We return to the consultant on Monday to hopefully have his plaster removed which will also delight Mummy & Daddy as we're a bit ground down from being woken at goodness knows what time in the small hours to take him to the toilet as he can't get down from his bunk bed. We had suggested he and Eli swap whilst he was crook but that was not a welcome suggestion.

Please continue to pray for full healing for his arm and hip.

Weekend

We had one of our quietest weekends in a long time mainly due to the fact that Joel isn't allowed to walk so our options were very limited. Still, a boring weekend at home is no bad thing (it certainly makes for a cheaper weekend) as it meant the boys would have to find new ways to entertain themselves. As you might imagine, for Eli that meant getting into all kinds of scrapes and in this pic' he's found a new way to get to the toys on the upper shelves of the toy rack. Joel meanwhile was happy with a bit of colouring and watching TV.

Cracking Friday

One of the things I've always enjoyed about my role in Chris Nissen and now in Macassar and Firgrove is that I get to spend a lot of time sat with folk enjoying a good chat and a cup of tea (although I only drink Rooibos these days).

So on Friday morning it was a real pleasure to watch two worlds collide (not literally) as Ernest came to our house for the morning and Michael joined us too. They got on really well and were swapping plenty of stories about their days as skelms (rogues).

Wounded Soldier Update

Thanks to all for your prayers. Joel is coping much better today. This may be in part as he's relishing the time off school and getting to watch a bit more telly than he would otherwise.

This morning I took him for a blood test, just to rule out the viral possibility. I was dreading it as the last time we took him for injections he was a nightmare. Thankfully however, whilst I was riding in the Cape Epic last year I discovered a local anesthetic cream called Anethaine which was great for my bum (long story which you really don't want to know about!). Anyway, I smeared a generous dash onto Joel's arm a few minutes before the needle so that when the nurse attacked him he couldn't even feel the needle going in. Fantastic!