Count your blessings one by one...or 30 by 30 as the case may be

We’re back in Australia and my is it ever HOT!!!
Our trip back from South Africa went well – very surprisingly well! The day before we were due to get on the plane I had a terrible bug – couldn’t keep any food or fluids down...at first I thought it was just being overwhelmed with the move/flight/baby etc. But as the day went on I continued to be sick. So we ended up in the emergency room so I could have an IV drip to regain fluids. 1am that morning we finally went back to the Gillons house (friends from church who were hosting us) to rise the next morning for our flight. I still felt quite sick in the morning. When we arrived at Durban airport we discovered (not surprisingly) that we were about 30kgs overweight! (that’s around 60lbs) so we had to pay a fine and were a little worried that we were going to be fined a LOT in Australia. But at the same time, it was a blessing because they didn’t say “you can’t take this” it was just a matter of a fine – which frankly we were quite prepared for!
Thankfully by the time we were in Joburg I ate a little bit of lunch and it stayed down!! I was so excited. We made our way over to the international terminal (if you’ve ever been to the Joburg int’l airport – it isn’t pretty. The lines are always SOOOOOOOOOOOO long. But again the Lord blessed us and we came to an empty available desk as soon as we found our QANTAS check-in desk! We went straight through (again with way too much luggage, but she said it was ok and we didn’t have to pay a fine)!
The flight to Australia was typically yucky – I’m not a good ‘flyer’ and Lyle has long legs...But I must say I was blessed to be sitting in a newer class called “premium economy” it’s not business class, but has much bigger seats and is far more comfortable than cattle class where my poor hubby was! I asked the flight attendant if I could have a leftover vegetarian meal – explaining I hadn’t been well and being pregnant simply HAD to eat something. He was a gem, he went to first class and asked them to make me a specially prepared meal that was perfect for me – something bland but food nonetheless and I was able to eat for baby.
We arrived late in Sydney, but were placed on the next available flight, so from arrival to departure there was only 30 minutes! With customs I was given a complimentary express pass that I and anyone travelling with me could use. So again we whisked our way passed the long, long lines and went straight to the front. We then collected our luggage and our express pass was valid through the customs baggage section too! So we flew past the lines and even though it seemed that everyone was being pulled aside for baggage checks and scans we were waved through without question.
So on to Brisbane we went to be met by my parents and a very hot climate!
We’re finally settling in to our house – another amazing provision from the Lord – but I must admit I am not coping with the heat. Today is 33 degrees (Celsius) and I don’t even want to know what the humidity is – probably around the 80% mark again. We’re at mum and dads using the internet (and air conditioning!) our internet won’t be connected for another week or so.
God has blessed us so much and we are so thankful for all His generous provision, it really has blown us out of the water. We have a kind, faithful heavenly Father from whom all blessings flow!
Hopefully I’ll be able to write updates more frequently when we have internet. For now, know that we’re well, baby is growing perfectly – we’ve met my new obstetrician and she’s very happy with the progress – and I’m hating the heat...did I mention that? :)
In the mean time here’s a 30 week piccy of the bump! (with a very fake smile, because I battling the heat)

Proverbs 16:9

Well, we're heading back to Australia! A few people have asked what we're doing and where we're heading in life! So in the midst of packing boxes I'm quickly going to try and fill you in!
This week we're moving out of our rental and staying for a week with friends from church. We leave here on December 8 and will be living in Brisbane for somewhere between 18 months to 2 years while Lyle finishes his Bachelor of Theology. Once that is complete we are hoping to attend TMS - The Master's Seminary in the USA, hopefully 2010. After that...another (at least) four years...we would love to come back here to South Africa. But of course the Lord will guide our steps and we're open to go where He wills.
Proverbs 16:9 "The heart of man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps" It's the verse that is constantly running through my mind when I tell people what we're wanting to do. We believe we're making wise decisions in all our moving around - we want to spend time with our families before Lyle completes his studies because we don't know where we will be in the future. We may well end up in Europe for all we know! But for now it's the first of many big transitions for us, and as hard as it all is - we're thankful we know the Lord!!

26 Weeks

Here I am . . .getting fat . . .

I can't say I'm a fan of all this weight gain!

But it is really exciting to know

our little one is growing healthily :)

Foundations

Our foundations group (teenagers) had a social a couple of weeks ago. We decided to do a progressive dinner. So we met at church and headed out to 3 different houses for appetisers, dinner and dessert! It was a great night.

All we told the kids was: wear a funny hat and have an empty stomach.

We started at the Websters where Lyle made them all walk in one by one with their eyes closed as he lead them each to a chair. He made Shane keep his eyes closed while all the others were allowed to open theirs. THEN he made an elaborate story, implying that they were going to be forced to eat strange things all night long! Poor Shane was not impressed, but he was a great sport and ate what Lyle gave him - thankfully it was just a chip and dip! :)

After starters we jumped back into the cars and headed to the Browns where we played a rousing game of signs. It's a foundations favourite. We were allowed to remove hats for the game, much to the relief of some (as you can see Shane's was a bit of a burden), but as soon as we were done with the game the hats went back on and after eating some delicious chicken we headed back to the cars to our next destination - we arrived at our house for DESSERT! We gave the kids each a bowl of icecream with a couple of choc chip cookies and..... a fork :) they did a great job - Lyle, Vicky and I used spoons, not very sporting of us, but we decided we had earned it after driving around all night! We finished off the night playing celebrity head - poor Dane was "Lord Voldemort" a character from Harry Potter - he did very well, but I'm pretty sure he was still one of the last to finish. Lyle had to guess that he was "Lyle Wetherston" :) it was a lot harder than you'd think!

Here we are with Stan and Tilly after enjoying our starters

The obligatory silly shot

We really love the foundations kids - I think our little group is going to be one of the 'most missed' things about South Africa for me.

BABY photos!

So today is our 10 month anniversary, and I'm 5 months pregnant. :)
We had our 22 week scan and everything is perfect. It was sucking it's thumb, stretching it's legs and touching its toes! TOO cute. I'm amazed that black and white relative blur can be so darn cute!! We are so thankful to the Lord for the health of our little one. Here are some piccy's.

A Foot

(it has flat feet like daddy)

Close up of the flat foot
profile shot:

if you're confused, it's head is at the left and a long leg at the right

it's little hand is up near its head (this was just before it started sucking it's thumb)

you can even see it's spine and heart!
this was from our previous scan, you're looking at it from a birds eye view

the maternal unit

Ushaka Marine World!

A couple of weeks ago Antonio, a pastor from Mozambique, was in Durban with his wife Gladys and son Danny. Lyle knows them from his missions trips to the church there with Westville Methodist a few years ago. Antonio has such a great heart for the Lord and is persevering so faithfully in his ministry there. It was a blessing to chat with the family and hear the work that the Lord is doing. We had our Monday off and took them to Ushaka for the day. There's an amazing aquarium there with some beautiful marine life.

Antonio, Gladys and Danny

In the background here you can see a shark on the right,

and at the top left there's 2 giant bass, they weigh 400kgs!!!!
This is my favourite piccy - very artistic

that's me on the left :)

We're not sure who had more fun, Antonio or Danny.

Both of them were wide eyed and grinning all afternoon!

Reforming Spurgeon

We currently have Spurgeon living with us. A frightful thought considering he’s been dead for 116 years. No, not that Spurgeon. This one doesn’t have any initials due to the fact that he is of the canine variety. He’s a 2 year old Lab who belongs to Clint and Kim. They moved into their new house earlier this year and while the grass was growing Spurgeon was fostered out to a couple of church families (talk about committed support to church leadership).

It’s lots of fun having him with us – he adds some more life to our quiet home and we have a MASSIVE back yard in which he may frolic to his hearts content. The odd (now deceased) mole sometimes finds their way into our yard – another reason he’s a great dog.

A little history: As a puppy Spurgeon was deprived of playing with any types of balls. Whether they be tennis balls, plastic balls, squeaky balls, the balls from the preschool next door or even avocados which functioned as ball type objects when the bought balls were destroyed by...GENEVA! She was the other dog the Archers owned. She ruled the manse yard with an iron paw (quite by nature as an Alsatian). So effectively Spurg grew up without having any toys. Sadly, Geneva needed to go to doggy heaven (another illusion – see my previous post) because of her health, leaving all the tennis balls, plastic balls, squeaky balls, lost preschool balls and yes, even avocados in the world to Spurgeon! Now that he’s on his own he is truly in the groove of over-compensating his deprived puppy-hood by being THOROUGHLY obsessed with any balls he finds!!!

Of course the favourite is fetch. However, removing the ball from his mouth at first proved impossible, leaving all the balls to merely be destroyed. However, the first stage of reformed Spurgeon after the endless effort Lyle made, was Spurgeon actually releasing the ball!
Once the slobbered ball is collected poor Spurg is in such a frenzied state that he stops at nothing to attain his precious ball!!

So much so that he has crashed (HEAD ON) into numerous items. These include the outside table, many pairs of legs (almost taking us out a few times), the bushes that outline our yard, the shed and at one point he also crashed into the lemon tree, again head on, sending lemons flying in all directions. I think though, my favourite was when he jumped into a bush in efforts to retrieve his favourite red ball only to discover a cat in the undergrowth obliviously hunting for a gecko. The cat took off and Spurgeon fled, with neither ball nor dignity back to Lyle with his tail between his legs.

The launch before the cat incident

Spot the Dog

(he's just right of centre - that white speck in the bushes)

The lemon tree

He also lays claim to any balls that land in our yard. Many a soccer ball, much to the neighbourhood children’s dismay, has been promptly claimed and popped within moments. Even our soccer ball used for the youth kids at church was lost to Spurgeon’s obsession.
When we go out to feed him he grabs the nearest ball in case we forget why we were going outside and are drawn in to his scheme to have us throw the ball instead. This rarely happens. As a result the ball remains in his mouth as he approaches his food bowl. He never seems to know what to do with the ball, so it inevitably ends up in the bowl and he manages to eat is food around it. Now this creates a problem with soccer balls because they fill the entire bowl covering his food. I kid you not. He does not know what to do when this happens! He looks up at you helplessly, even displaying a quizzical brow... as much as a labrador has a brow... But of course as we approach him to remove it he picks it up again in hopes that he’s going to have it thrown for him... so all that to say he’s still in the reformation process.

This makes me laugh

This is one of the funnier sides to pregnancy. These jeans are one of two pairs of pants I wear... like every day! But thankfully they're super comfortable.

Heaven and Hell

Yesterday morning I was hanging the clothes on the line (it was a deceptively day – the rain came with no warning!) and was thinking of and praying for salvation for loved ones. As I mulled over the topic I realised that people who have a view of ‘being good enough’ to get into Heaven, must have an extremely mediocre view of Heaven. If all it takes is looking after an ill parent, being kind to the poor, small children and animals, working hard in your job, but also allows for you to be selfish, hold a grudge, break the law, lie, commit adultery, be self indulgent and racist, then .....Heaven must be just like earth (just without the people you hold grudges against, because of course they don’t deserve to be there). At the same time their view of Hell would be just as much of an illusion. Spending time with friends, being debaucherous, giving Satan (dressed appropriately in his red spandex) high fives.... it’s distressing to realise that there is such a great extent of indifference in the hearts and minds of those who don’t know Christ. Hell is a frightening place. The rejection of God has serious consequences – it isn’t “eternal death” it’s “eternal separation from God”. Death implies the end, whereas eternal separation implies all things opposite to God – darkness, loneliness, torture, fear, confusion, forever and ever and ever. I praise God for the hope which I have been blessed to have in Him. There are some excellent sermons from this year’s Resolved conference on Heaven and Hell. The website is www.resolved.org look for the 2008 messages. It is such a blessed reminder of what we as believers look forward to!

A Wedding

This last Saturday Lyle's friend Neville married his sweetheart Amy. It was lovely to witness them share their vows. The location was inland from Ballito, a place called Collisheen Estate, about an hour north of Durban.

The Bridal Party

(the kids on each end had an absolute blast dancing!

Apparently they had been practicing all week)

The handsome couple - Amy looked simply magnificent!

Thankfully Raqel was so kind as to lend me her matric (year 12 formal/senior prom) dress for the wedding. My bump wasn't quite as obvious as I'd hoped, but I suppose that's where I'm at right now, it's the "is that girl pregnant or just fat?" stage :) hehe

Baby 'bump'?

Here's me and baby at 20 weeks....boring as anything. But I officially cannot fit into any of my old pants . . .

Youth and Gladiators

This term with the Pebbles and Rockies (grades 1-6) at church we have been learning about the armour of God in Ephesians 6. Each week the kids were learning so much which was displayed in their recall when answering Lyles questions. Here's an example:

Lyle: why do soldiers wear helmets?"

Ezra (10yrs):"so we are protected from the fiery darts that Satan throws at us"

Lyle: . . . (moving on to ask a younger child who hopefully would respond more simply) This last

Friday we had our last meeting for the term (we're quite excited for our Friday nights over the next 3 weeks!!) and we made the armour of God that we've been learning about. I must say, I have SO much admiration for teachers! We (I) made paper mache helmets, which, due to 2 days of freezing weather and rain I needed to dry in the oven. We started with hair dryers, but it wasn't effective enough.

In the midst of blowing up balloons, Steve (our parrot) was a little jumpy. At one point he flew off his perch, only to land beak-first on the floor and break it (his beak not the floor)! THANKFULLY it was only about a millimetre so it didn't stop him from eating and he was absolutely fine. I did take him to the vet the next day and the vet cut it off and Steve's fine. However, in the same afternoon, one of the balloons (on which the paper mache helmet's were being made) popped! Steve FREAKED, he jumped/fell off his perch, landed in the middle of the balloons, (keep in mind that a blown up balloon is the same size as an African Grey parrot...) and with wings lifted high was squawking madly at all the evil balloons...now if he's ever making too much noise and we feel irritated with him, we blow up a balloon and he 'growls' then remains silent. It's quite hilarious.

SO back to Friday evening. Lyle rented some Roman armour and the kids were so impressed. I have to admit he did look quite similar to Gladiators actors.

Yes, that is a brush on his helmet...

Colouring the breastplates of righteousness

Ezra and Harley Rose posing in almost all their gear

Wearing the complete armour of God
(that's tin foil on their feet for shoes)

Baby photos

This is our little peanut upside down. This was our 9 week scan. it was SO exciting to hear the heartbeat.

My first belly shot! not a lot happening I know!
It was taken Thursday, August 7


Friday, August 29


This was last Saturday, September 6
(I have to admit I ate a big meal, so I'm sure that part of it is food and part is baby) :)

Hillcrest Baptist Church Camp 2008!

We went to El Olam (about 45 mins away...in the cold direction, which ever that is) to our annual church camp this weekend. It was delightfully refreshing. Lyle and I borrowed a tent (much to the frown of Vicky, for making his pregnant wife camp in a tent when there were dorms a-plenty!! (thanks for the support, Vix!) Below is the view from the campsite, it was very beautiful!


Mike Abendroth was our speaker. He studied at TMS so we (mostly being myself, Lyle, Clint and Kim) were SUPER excited to have a speaker who we had some connections with! He was very dynamic and gave some excellent talks. We did a race through, Ecclesiates, Ephesians and Hebrews (my FAVOURITE book of all time) and they were a fantastic overview of the power of God's word. Lyle does the CD ministry and usually there are about 8-10 orders for CD's of Clint's sermons. From camp, there were 75!! So I won't be seeing much of Lyle this week!

Mike in action

Mike is blurry in this picture . . .because he tends to move . . .a lot!

Vicky and I led music, which I really love doing. It is such a blessing to be up the front listening to the congregation worshiping the Lord. It was fun to have a good sing too, I'm usually doing piano (we used guitars on camp) and I can't seem to coordinate singing and piano-ing just yet!

Myself with Kim and Noah. Kim and I are due to have our babies at the same time!
I love this pic because it's proof that Noah likes me, but honestly, he's such an awesome kid he likes everyone!

Some of our gorgeous youth girls, Jamie, Laurie (sisters, as if you couldn't already tell) and Angelica.
Jake lost a tooth on the trampoline
Then he lost two! (but I think he pulled hard on the second one for the money!)

In other news . . .

We're going to be a daddy and mummy!

Baby Wetherston is expected at the end of February 2009.

Debate is still open as to whether it will play for the Wallabies or Springboks . . .