A Stay at Home Snow Day!

We built this snow man today and he was about 8 foot tall.  Then none of us could reach the head to make his face, so he had to remain faceless.

It wasnt long though before we noticed that our snow man started to look a bit like the leaning tower of pisa.

Took the kids for a walk and they had loads of fun on the taboggans.

Amy coming down the hill, look at her face, how happy.

Taylor and Huddy rode together...

Dan did alot of pulling up and down the hill....

My beautiful, happy, healthy, fun filled, kind children.  We had such a great day together.

The snow was soft and fluffy and Amy just wanted to eat it all the time.

We took Charlotte with us and she loved playing in the snow, she is 11 now  Our other dog, Jessy at 13yrs can no longer join us on walks.

Daniel is so helpful and this morning the boys all helped me give the house a big clean, hoover, dust, bathrooms - the lot!! We have 2 viewings this weekend - really hoping someone falls in love with our house.

The sunset over the snowy field.

We still have not moved! The seller is delaying things a bit due to a dispute with his bank over a loan on the property.  Really really hoping it all sorts out soon, as I feel a bit in limbo while we wait. But, I am trusting that God's timing is the best and he has this all planned already so there is no use us stressing about it.

Colin is still not well, after a very slow recovery from Pneumonia, he went on to get another chest infection, so had to go on another course of anti-biotics and steriods.  The steriods are making him very hoars, so he talks funny. Coin came home today and went straight to bed, it now looks like he has a bad tummy bug as he has been throwing up all since he came home. He is frustrated, poor boy, with feeling so ill for so long, so all prayers appreciated.

God Bless

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Happy New Year!!

Photos:

My four and my friend Ally's three - she has 1 boy and 2 China beauties and I have 3 boys and 1 China treasure :-)

Li-Na and Amy-Li - Angels

Our Chinese Snow Man :-)

I LOVE this photo!! Poor Huddy just got a snow ball to the face, and just look at the delight on his brother's face!

We spent our Christmas eve creating this ginger bread house with the kids, who were very proud of their creation.

Left Below: Our lovely neighbours the Patterson's came to celebrate Uncle Stevens birthday with us.  They are very special to us and are Amy's God-Parents.

New Years Eve fun with friends...

Grandparents

Pink princess

Christmas Day

What a gloriously happy and achingly sad end to the year.  I trust and pray that God's plans for our family for 2010 are going to be amazing, for good and NOT for evil.  I pray for all our friends and family far and wide - know that you are ALWAYS in our thoughts.  We miss you!! Thank you to those who sent Christmas and New Year wishes and especially to those who spent time with us and made our days special.

Love and God bless

Jules

xxx

Merry Christmas to all

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and fantastic New Year celebrations!!!  We are packing up, hoping to move the first week in January, still praying our house will sell real quick! I am taking a blog break till the New Year.  Lots of Love, hugs and God's blessings to you

Bits and pieces......

Amy-Li the artist, she so loves to paint and I have a confession to make, I so dont love all the mess when she does! :-)  I never was very arty and try as I might, I am not as patient as I would like to be.  But when I do let her loose with some colour and a brush, she is off, painting and happy as can be. Yes, she is left handed!

Taylor is very into juggling at the moment and practices all the time - inside and out! He can juggle 4 balls too.  The irony here is I learnt to juggle at about the same age, as I had a boyfriend that was a clown, ha ha

Aaah, my lovely duo, terrible two, double trouble, terrific pair - they are them all!! And boy is Amy going through a difficult phase at the moment.  She is under my feet all the time and clingy one minute, infuriatingly independant the next, and talking NON stop, esp with the "why" to everything!  But oh so cute and VERY loving.  She has gone from being a child who would not kiss me at all, to one now who asks for kisses and tells me she loves me.  We have both come a long way and I am so so proud of her.  Anyway, how can you resist those two adorable faces?? If butter could melt.....

Hudson with his lovely God-mother, Aunty Lesley who is one of my mom's  best friends. ( She used to be out lovely neighbour when we lived in SA)

Autumn is a great time to go for a walk, breath in the fresh air and kick the leaves and enjoy the amazing colours that God created for us.

My lovely bunch!

Tree climbing is their favourite thing!

And there in the middle of all the pines was a lonely, colourful, beautiful tree.  I just stood looking at it for the longest time, and Im sure it even spoke to me.  "Being different makes you beautiful....being different shows your true colours and allows you to be who you were created to be,...... being on your own does not necessarily mean you have to be lonely,........ when you still have alot of growing to do compared to those around you, you are still special by just being you, ........your colours can shine no matter where you are. 

I SO LOVE this little tree and all it spoke to me.

After spending much of the last three years struggling to deal with the whole grieving thing, a friend told me about a book called The Lonely Tree and it is such a lovely story....such a painful concept to embrace, the circle of life, learning to hold onto good memories and be all that God has called you to be, understanding and accepting death.

Butterflies are everywhere....

God Bless

PS please keep praying our house will sell, we need favour and wisdom - THANKS!!!

A winter beach trip...

My lovely little Nephew, Roman enjoying the beach with his big cousins.

Amy, Hudson and cousin Ethan - brrr the water is COLD!!

The boys are ALL in holding their bits (ha, ha) ready to go in .........

Down they go, well,......... nearly all of them........

Ha ha dad did not get out of it so easy, rugby tackled by his three boys and down he went, into the FREEZING cold, English sea.  They came out red, freezing, but VERY happy!!

God Bless

Moving!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness - WHAT A WEEK it has been!!! We have bought a house!! We were not even looking and it all just happened - "God-happened!"  This house is our dream house and after chatting with my mom about their future and decisions we might need to make, we decided to look on a house website and there it was - calling us!  So last Saturday we went to look at it, fell in love and the out-of-the-boat, experience began.  There were other buyers who had an offer in, they had stalled and messed the seller around so he put house back on the market - and along we came.  Of course, our interest sent the other buyers into action  and soon the house price was increased....way out of what we could afford.  Even being able to afford the house would take a few miracles in itself.  But, in God's timing - every time we hit an obstacle, we stood, prayed and God made a way.  By Wed it looked like buying the house without first selling ours would stretch us beyond what we could manage - the seller was not willing to wait for us to sell ours first.
Thurs the agents rang and said the seller was going with the other buyer.  An hour later Colin rang me to say he has an act of God provide a deposit enabling us to go ahead with the sale, so I rang the agent, who rang the seller, - who had not yet rang the other buyers and he rang me instead to say that it was ours!!!
It was a whirlwind of a week, and I now have LOTS and LOTS to do, de-cluttering my biggest challenge.  Our house is going on the market on Monday and it needs to be uncluttered enough for photos for the brochure :-).  I am a collector and sentimental and struggle to not collect and display everything I love - SO I have a massive amount of work to do.  But, just like Nehemaih - I am going to see this project to completion - even if it means I work through the night till it is done.  I am determined not to keep all this stuff - I cant take it with me to heaven anyway (or China one day) and we def dont NEED it all, so I must sift through it all and be ruthless, might even have recruite a few friends to help me with the ruthless element :-)
Anyway, thats our news!!!!! Its all so exciting and scary all at once, but that just confirms to me that God is in it.  He has renewed my vision and will carry me through the hard work and tough times and bless us in this new house!!! For those who dont live in the UK, the house buying system works differntly here in that the sale is only definate right att he end when contracts are signed - so please PRAY for protection on this house deal, that it all completes smoothly in Jan sometime. 

Above:  looking from the back - pool building on the right, house in middle, clubhouse on left.

Below:  The indoor pool where I can teach from home (yippee!)

Looking accross the bowling green (flood lit), soon to become, cricket pitch, tennis court or pitch and putt (the boys and Colin were having a heated discussion about who wanted what where

Below:  The front drive, gardens and part of the house

The kitchen :-)

The very beautiful conservatory - what an adventure hey?
Please do come and visit us!!!!
God Bless

A special day.....

Today has been an emotional day.  Today is the day that Amy's birth mother left her to be found.  I will never know the exact day that she was born, only her birth mother will know that day and hold it in her heart forever, but today is the first definate date I have, and the only day that I share with her birth mother, the day she lost a daughter and the day I gained one.  What was going through her mind today - 4 years ago??  Its not very long really is it?  I have been so tearful today, feeling her birth mothers pain, feeling the pain that is to come for my little girl as she one day understands and works through the pain of this day for her, the reality of it all, the loss, the trauma.

Amy was estimated to be 6 weeks old.  I work with LOTS of babies every week, as I teach mother and baby swimming and no two 6 week old babies look the same.  I have in my classes a 3 week old baby that looks 3 months old and a 6 month old baby that is so tiny and barely looks 6 weeks old.  Who can tell really?? And why did her mother keep her for so long?  Was she forced to give her up, or did she put it off and stay in hiding for as long as possible?  Did she know about the benefits of breastfeeding for the first 6 weeks and hold out till then?  How do youlove a baby for 6 weeks and then leave her in a park early on a October morning?  I have been praying for this special woman all day, feeling her pain and her loss.  Praying that she will know her daughter is loved and happy.

Four years ago today I was in China, with Daniel - who was only 10 at the time, and I was loving a room full of 4- 6 month old babies.  I remember nuzzling my nose into the neck of one I had nick-named squishy baby and praying for my own baby, feeling so so close to her, and there while I was there praying.... in China, with my heart breaking for the babies I was loving, my own daughter was spending her last days with her birth mother.  It is a mind blowing thought and has had me blubbering all day.

After doing some obligatory chores this morning, we took the kids to the zoo, and then up to Cromer beach for an ice-cream.  I wanted Amy to have a good day, a special day, to have fun.  I explained to the boys why mommy was so teary today, but I did not say anything to her - what do you say?  How do you explain to a 4 year old?  So, we celebrated having this amazing girl in our lives and had a fun day!

I am sure that there will be many a tough day when she will need to mourn what has happened - and her mom understands all about the need to mourn at the moment!

We have a weeks holidays here in the UK and Colin is off, so we want to attempt a de-clutter and a week of family fun.  Anyway, just wanted to share about our day......

God Bless