Fostering

Just want to say that I'm so proud of all my children!

We have been fostering now for 10 months (minus a six week break) and my kids have adapted to this life change so graciously. They have loved, fed, changed nappies, read stories to, dressed, bathed, cuddled, and a zillion other things that need to be done for small children and babies. They have done it happily. They have done it willingly. Kaity, Jenna Emily and Jordan do it on a daily basis. Tom and Kylie have done it during the times they have visited. And I am proud of each one of them for the way they have stepped out of their comfort zone to give to these kiddies. Thanks kids for being part of the adventure that we have been on during these last 10 months. There have been DIFFICULT times. But, so glad you guys are here with us on the journey.

As for all that Ken does............................that's another blog.

A blog at last

Ok. I will write a blog! I know it has been a long time, and I'm not sure of the reason. I could think of a few.

I've been busy.
I always think I need a photo and don't have one.

I should be doing something else.

I don't type very fast.
I should be being productive in some other area.

But, I would like to blog if for no other reason than to journal about our family's life as a momento. Goodness knows I won't remember it all.

So, let me see if I can think of what's been happening around here for the last 6 or more months.

The biggest news of course is that Tom and Katie are getting married in October. Yes, Tom is marrying a Katie, so there will be two Katies in the family . Except our Katie is a Kaity, not a Katie. We are all pretty excited about that.

Jenna is now a second year apprentice. She has been working very hard. She is becoming a very accomplished hairdresser and likes to bless her Mum every now and again with a wash/ colour/ head massage/ hand massage/ blow dry. Lucky me!

Kaity hurt her back last September helping an elderly man in the street that had fallen over. It has been a long recovery, and she is still not completely better.

Kylie is happily living with my parents and being well taken care of whilst attending Uni. She had a wonderful 7 weeks overseas visiting India, Malaysia, Switzerland......... during the last holidays. Hoping to see her next month for a week.

Emily started Tafe this year and is completing a Cert 2 in Music 3 days/ week. She do a Cert 4 when she is finished and hopefully this will be her pathway to Uni. She's still homeschooling in between and babysits a 9 mth old, one day a week. She's BUSY!

Jordan is very happy about a friend that has moved back to town. New things on the agenda this year are going to Drama, Circus, a girls group and working at a school canteen one morning a week.

Ken has left his job and is studying for this year. He's doing a Masters of Special Education, specialising with the Hearing Inpaired. He's so much happier away from his job, it was pretty stressful with long hours. He's been doing some work with the hearing impaired teachers here in the local schools, one on one with students and enjoys it. It's a big step of faith for us. God has provided two days work this last week with the HI (hearing impaired).

Last year we completed training to become to become Foster parents of babies 6 mths and under. So this year we are expecting to be looking after babies in our home. We believe God has led us in this direction, so trusting Him for sleepless nights and more that is sure to come.

That will do for now :-) Hopefully there will be more to come.

This Week

Some random thoughts from the last week.

White chocolate and macadamia muffins

White chocolate and raspberry muffins :-)

Holding other gals babies.

A warm fire.

Homemade spring rolls.

Talking with my Mum and Dad on the phone.

A horrendously sore neck.

Rain.

Growing sprouts.

Homemade bread.

A chat with a very old school friend.

Washing, washing, washing.

Coriander...love it!


A VERY BAD SHOPPING TROLLEY.


Eggs from friends.


Time with my family.


Oh yes, and school!



Ken preached at the church this morning. I am very proud of him as I know he really dislikes public speaking! He did great.


He spoke on 1 Peter 4:10



Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA

Happy 18th Birthday Jenna!!

Thoughts of Jenna growing up..................

Her beautiful curly hair! (which we couldn't control)

Her chumpy cheeks everyone would pinch

Her "bath" look (only selected few have seen this)

Honiaria

Honest and loyal

And now???? Hairdresser extraordinaire! A wonderful friend! A woman of God!

I hope you had an awesome day, and know that we all LOVE you very much!

20 Years Ago

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TOM!

Last Wednesday was twenty years since I gave birth to my only son.

I was only 24, and already had two daughters.

His temperature was low, so the nurses put him in a humidicrib to warm him up.

When he was younger he loved cricket, ball games, reading, computers, and playing outside.

Now he's older, he loves playing the guitar, computers, and spending time with his lovely girlfriend Katie.

Happy Birthday Tom!

We all love you.

This is a little late due to the fact that getting good photos of Tom is very hard. Oh there's plenty I could have used, but I would be in trouble! Sorry Katie about "stealing" this photo. :-)

Bad Mumma

I know, I've been so bad at blogging.

So much has happened since Kylie arrived home last month. I really enjoyed having her here. We didn't do alot. Except hang out here at home, cook together (she's good), laugh lots, hug lots, and generally just thank God for my beautiful daughter and the adventure she had over the last 16 months.

She has left now to move 1000kms away to start Uni and another adventure in sunny QLD. And I miss you Kylie. Now my Mum and Dad get to spend time with her instead. I know they'll be loving that.

During the time since my last blog we've had MANY visitors. Some here for dinner, some for the night, some for the week, some for two weeks.
You know what that means......washing sheets and cooking. It's all been good, but busy, and now I just need a breather.
During the last three weeks, we had school holidays. Two of those weeks we had our friend's three daughters here to stay, while their parents travelled in Europe.

So, there was a 10yr old, two 13 yr olds, two 15 yr olds, a 17 yr old, a 21 yr old. And all girls!!!!
I took five of them to Bourke for a couple of days just to give us all a break. It worked well.

School started for us yesterday, it went well. The girls are motivated, and I'm proud of them! We are still working on our first part of World History until the end of the year. At the end of last term we made a trip to Orange which is about 1 1/2 hrs away to a Bell Shakespeare production. We had been reading through "Twelth Night" with another homeschool family in preparation for the performance. I didn't understand it! I don't recall doing Shakespeare at school and I didn't understand what we were reading. The girls did though. They are smarter than me! After seeing the perfomance (which was very funny) and reading the "Lamb's book of Shakespeare", I finally got it! I love that I'm still learning, and I really believe that homeschooling has everything to do with that.

Today I went to the dentist. It's been six years! I needed two fillings and got one today. My face and tongue are numb and it's dinner time. Not sure how that's going to go. My pocket is numb too!

I visited Tom when we were in Bourke. He nearly fell off a roof at work a couple of weeks ago, but hit his lag rather badly and ended up with a haematoma. He was off work when I was there so I was able to spend some time with him, which is always nice. He's my favourite son! :-)

Well that will do for now.

Will try to do better at blogging. I do have family photos, but Kylie has already posted them I think. Better go serve up dinner!

Home at last

Yes, at last after 16 months away, Kylie is home from her wonderful adventure overseas

The day she arrived, she was meant to fly in at around 9.30am

We were there (well those of us that weren't working) at the airport very excited.

Until, the plane arrived and we watched through the window, the passengers disembarking one by one.

"There she is" became, "no, that's not her" as the plane emptied and we were slowly disapointed . She obviously wasn't on the plane we expected.

Then we saw this sign.......

And realised that her plane wouldn't be in for another couple of hours, and since we live only about a 7 minute drive from the airport, we went home.

I checked online throughout the day and saw that the plane continued to be delayed and then at last it left Sydney, for the hour flight out to Dubbo.

We watched again as the plane emptied and saw someone get out holding one of these.......

Kylie had just come from China, so, seeing the chinese hat, we (ran) walked quickly down to where the passengers enter the airport.

Three people entered wearing the hat and not one of them was her!

There were a few happy tears......

I had a special dinner planned. Kylie's favourite with lasagna and pavalova!

I can't show you the lasagna picture, I might cry.

As I pulled it from the oven, it fell from my hand upside down and made a huge mess all over the oven door. Thanks to Ken, we salvaged enough for dinner, but the sight wasn't pretty. Thanks honey, for cleaning up the mess.

But the pav was great!

Welcome home Kylie, we missed you!