More Emma pics

This is one of my favourite things to do. In the afternoons we sit on the verandah out the back after our feed and have some chill out time. I think I'm a convert to the newborn as my favourtie baby stage. I get sad when I think that she's not going to stay this size forever. I can totally understand why people have lots of kids!

Holding mummy's finger, I love it, it's such a sweet feeling

The single eyebrow raise is a family trait - Mummy and Emma do it too!

Introducing...

Emma Grace Wetherston

On February 19, 2009 Emma Grace made her (very swift) appearance into the world. She weighed 3.300kg and was 50.5cm in length (I'm sure she's longer now!)
We had a great start with her arriving very quickly (Mummy didn't get to have any pain relief because Emma was too keen to meet us!) and without any complications. It is truly amazing - holding your firstborn child in your arms. I never knew it was possible to feel this much love! We are so thankful to our Father for His kind gift to us.

Mummy meeting Emma for the first time.

She looked exactly like Lyle's dad at birth, I thought "who IS this little person?!"

Daddy time! This made me laugh, he was on my bed as I waited on him for a few minutes!

LOVE this piccy

and this one...it took her a day or two to prove it, but she's SO beautiful!
Emma and I have opposing blood types, so that meant her little body was confused at birth as to which blood type she is (she's positive and I'm negative) causing jaundice. So she had to go into a special crib with UV lights on her. We joke that she's a born beauty queen - tanning in her first solarium at birth! I did find it heartbreaking though - she had some little Zorro glasses to wear to protect her eyes and it was just awful covering her face like that! However, God is so faithful and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn yet again that His power is above all things and He has Emma in His care.

Her Zorro mask

At least we were able to talk with her and touch her while she was in there,

and there were no tubes, so it wasn't that sinister :)
We're home now, and working out all the logistics of life with a newborn! We have some decorating to do (I was so convinced she was a boy that I even had a little boy picture on the wall!! Lyle removed it before we came home though), but the nursery is looking beautiful so far - it's amazing what a few metres of pink organza can do! :)

Ninth months and we're done!

Seriously done. I'm so over this pregnancy thing. Although yesterday I did have a few moments of "awww, I'm going to miss my belly"...here's some more photos as requested. I'm standing on our back verandah, Lyle was in the mood to snap away, needless to say there are quite a few photos that won't be making it onto the blog (mainly the one's with me with my mouth open saying "stop!") I didn't think I was that much bigger than last month, but I really am!

Daddy and Mummy to be! Here are baby's feet, they seem to like this spot!

Chatting to bub. It makes me laugh how much I change shape when I bend over!

Pulling it in as much as I can - I can only hold this pose for a few moments!

Australia Day

Australia Day is January 26th and is always a public holiday for us! Typically we (Aussies) swim, go the beach, play back yard cricket and have a BBQ. For us it was an afternoon of swimming and a BBQ with my family and the Parkinsons. It was really fun to just hang out and relax for the day.
Sorry to say we don't have that many photos - we were too busy having fun!

My gorgeous nephew Finn borrowing Taine's arm floaties!

(he was happier outside the water with the floaties)

Taine! (with a typical 18 month old head bump!)

I believe he was being chased by a sibling and didn't see the door :(

Lyle in the pool with Maiah and Eli
My Mum

My Dad

My nephew

Finn with Grandpa!

EIGHT months already!

Here I am, as big as a house and still 6 weeks to go...sigh...

Photo Shoot

Just before we left South Africa we went to the Crinkley Bottom (a restaurant) with Clint and Kim, where Kim kindly took some photos of us. I was 28 weeks pregnant - between 6-7 months. I'd never thought to do anything like this before, but I'm glad we did, it's really great to have these pics! thanks Kim!

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!