It Still Seems Like Yesterday

It's one day of the year that is special because of them...

but it's every day of the year that we think of them.

It's two little girls that we miss so much, BGW & SJW...

but it's so many children for so many families.

It's been three years since they were born straight into heaven...

and it'll be every year that we cry again and again.

Please pray today for all the families whose lives have been changed forever because of stillbirth. Please also pray for Aunty Kate, Uncle Wilbie and Little Wilbie as they remember the two little girls they lost 3 years ago today.

Please also pray that God will keep safe their two little babies due in March, growing stronger every day.

PRAISE GOD

Benn has been found and is okay!!!

He was found late this afternoon and was dehydrated but okay. The rescue helicopter spotted him and he was airlifted to hospital.

God was absolutely looking after him. He was found so late in the afternoon that there was probably an hour of light left for searching today. The rescue helicopter spotted him which they doubted would happen because of the incredibly dense canopy in the area. Disorientation and dehydration seem to be the biggest problems he had.

The area he was lost in has drop offs that just creep up on you. The tracks are rough enough to walk along, the ground off the track is a cobweb of hidden tree roots and rocks and vines to get you an injury quick smart. It's quite an elevated area so it's a lot cooler there than in town here and he spent two nights out there wearing shorts, shirt and a jumper (I'm assuming it wasn't anything particularly warm since no one round here actually owns anything particularly warm).

Thank you for your prayers for Benn and Michelle. Please also pray that Benn's mum will see God's hand in the protection of her son and will open her heart to the Son of God.

Please Pray.

Please pray for this guy.

Search on for Man Missing in North Queensland

His name is Benn, he is the husband of a friend Michelle. They were married in January and Wolf and I attended their wedding. Michelle and her sister volunteered in our bookshop about 6 years ago and she has also sold Tupperware with me for a short time. Michelle's mum was my midwife at the start of my labour with Lion.

I'm not sure what sort of updates I'll hear, probably through the news and through facebook friends so it may be bits and pieces here and there. I'll be sure to update if I know anything more.

*The ABC website was down for maintenance over night so if you tried to read the article you probably only got some piece on Gordon Nuttall's dramas come up. The article is back now.

The Cuteness

It's no secret that I think my kids are just the cutest around! I thought I would share the cuteness with you a bit more...

The front yard was REALLY overgrown before Wolf got to it last week. To the point where Lion and Dragon were walking from the front yard through to the back and I was keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't run back to the path of the whipper-snipper and I took my eyes off them for a second and when I looked back Dragon was GONE! My mummy heart did that skip a beat thing and then his little head popped up from the grass. He had tripped over and had completely disappeared! Well with a job like that you need more than your average lawn mower... a chainsaw is more Dragon's style.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening. Not in a position that made it easy to take photos of it though. There was the clothes line, the fence, the trees, the cubby house... you get the idea. I took a few of the brilliant colours reflecting off the clouds though.

We also took some photos of our non-scary garden inhabitants. The boys were playing in the sandpit and started freaking out about a spider... I start thinking bird spider strolling through the sandpit to devour my boys type thing... They came running to get me and took me to see the spider THAT THEY HAD SEEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE YARD at least 10 metres away from them that was just a St Andrews Cross Spider. It was a mummy spider with it's fancy schmancy egg sac all trussed up in it's web. The boys were quite intrigued once I explained that it wont hurt them and we can look at it if we want and it's little baby spiders are in that big white bundle and we had a chat about how it stitches patterns in it's web and helps us by eating the bugs off the heliconias etc. We grabbed the camera to take a few photos but it was seeming to get a bit agitated by then so we tried to find other insects to take photos of but they kept running away from all our noise and our garden boots. So any photos we did take were pretty rubbish.

Dragon had me in stitches this morning in church, tears running out of my eyes kind of laughing, IN CHURCH. I know God has nothing against laughter, he has proved to me over and over again that he has a sense of humor, after all he gave me 2 little boys. But laugh-till-you're-in-tears type laughter is hard to hide during a quiet church service. Kids stay in for the service in our church. Early in the service they do a kids talk and then the kids all grab a folder to take back to their seats. Each folder has a pencil, some crayons and some multi-age worksheets with puzzles, colouring-in etc. Dragon grabbed his folder and brought it back, after a bit he opened it up... The absolute shock on his face when there were no papers in his folder, just crayons! I had a giggle and told him to duck to the front and grab another folder... he started to leave but I said he needed to take this folder back with him... off he goes and grabs a new folder returning to excitedly open it and find... ALL it has is paper, nothing to write with! His little face couldn't decide if he should cry or laugh about it, ahh, perhaps it was a "be there" thing because it's not sounding so funny now... He then gave me an accusing look to let me know that he knew best and he should have kept the other folder here! I told him to just share Lion's crayons.

Lion wanted to wear his dress shoes to church this morning and that was fine but I told him he had to be careful of other peoples toes because those shoes hurt if you stand on anyones toes. He said he would be careful no to stand on his friends toes. I let him know that he needed to watch out for grown up toes too because ladies wear sandals to church and their toes stick out and get stood on too! He assured me he would be careful (yes, these shoes are THAT dangerous, I almost lost a toe nail). Half way through church he gets right up close to me and points to the lady sitting next to us "hey mum, THAT GIRL ISN'T WEARING SANDALS!!!" oh the scandal! I then had to explain that not ALL ladies wore sandals to church.

*********

Please pray also for Mary C. She is one of the older ladies of our congregation and she has had a long list of things preventing her from attending church recently as her dementia and other medical problems have been having good days and bad days but the last few weeks she has been able to come along! It's been great to see her there and although she doesn't act so spritely anymore she has been doing better. This morning she had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance when she had some troubles towards the end of the service. Thankfully we seem to have medical type people all through the church and she was well cared for until the ambo's arrived. She is a grandma type figure to a bunch of the "kids" my age since her grandchildren didn't attend our church she loved to "grandma" all of us when we were growing up. Please pray for her today!

A Proud Mummy Responds

Dragon and Lion this winter in their matching "Army Jarmies"

Taken on Wolf's phone so not the best quality.

After we had a few questions/comments that needed a response from yesterday's post on prayer and we then had another lovely little bonding/prayer moment this morning I thought I would write a whole new post instead of just adding my extras to the comments section of the previous post...

Boy Mom - If it's ok, I added you to my blog roll.

No, No, please dont make a link to our blog, please NOOOOOO... Oh, alright then, go ahead. ***she says secretly trying to hide the fact that she is over the moon if anyone even comments so linking to her just about sends her into fits of "happy dancing"***

Julie B. - That is really cute!! How old are Lion and Dragon?

Lion turned 4 in October and Dragon turned 2 in October 4 days later. Yes he is terrible twoing at the moment but we are getting out of it pretty easily, they are generally so delightful to be around.

Grannysaurus - That would have brought a tear to my eye if I had been there. He is soooo lovable!

I did have a huge chunk in my throat (sounds like I was about to hurl, let me rephrase that...) I had a huge LUMP in my throat, it was so sweet I just wanted to pick them up and eat them!

Saint Bernard - It's an old but true saying - "The family that prays together, stays together" - so keep on encouraging the boys (and one day you'll have three wolves). I thought it was wonderful too.

I do believe a wise old man told us something along these lines at our wedding :)

*****

SO... Today at lunch time I asked Dragon to put something in the bin for me and he did his "wanchoo, waaanchooooo, wanchoo, waaaanchoo" thing. That means "I want you" and it can be translated to mean "pick me up" "come with me" "you do it for me" "I am just being totally disagreable and I dont really want anything other than to stop you doing whatever it is you are doing"
I told him it's okay he can go and put it in the kitchen bin by himself, he'll be fine. Lion came up and put his hand on Dragon's arm and said "It's okay, all you have to do is pray all the way there then you can pray all the way back" So I told Lion that I thought he should go with Dragon to show him and they both wandered off, Lion sang a song for God on the way (he wouldnt tell me which song but I have an inkling it was probably something by Roxette) and Dragon wandered off eyes pinched together so he could only just see out of them saying "God.......God...God.........God.........God....God......God.....MEN" Lion got back first and when Dragon got back he put his hand on Dragons shoulder and says in a very matter of fact voice... "so did you run all the way back?"


What sweet boys we have.

Dear God,

Come with me... I am going to get a nappy for Mummy and Dragon from Dragon's room... Now I have a nappy... I am going back to take it to Mummy... I'm not scared. Amen

That was Lion's prayer as he went to do something responsible for me and get a fresh nappy for Dragon. At first he ran off and came back an instant later and said he was scared (we were all in the lounge room and the rest of the house was empty), I told him he didnt need to be scared. He decided himself that he should pray while he went and I told him that was a great idea and can he pray loud enough so that I can hear what he is saying... off he goes... It is just like a letter a little kid would dictate for their mum to write. He even said it like that, like it was bullet points on a list.

He is getting better with the idea that mummy and daddy dont have to pray for him, he can say the words himself beyond "Dear God, thank you for Jesus, Amen" (the prayer he learnt first day of Sunday School this year) and saying grace. I am loving the things he comes up with to pray about...

Dear God, My Mummy smells lovely, Amen. -yep, God needed to know that one!

Dear God, Please help the naughty trucks to not run over me flat and squish me in my dreams, Amen. -we are trying to get him to be the one that prays after his nightmares.

Dear God, my shoes are nice, Amen. -um, and Dragon is the one with the shoe fettish, not sure where this came from.

Dragon is catching on too (second ones always get these things faster)
*closes eyes, bows head, clutches hands together infront of his pudgy little nose, stays silent for a second or two* "Men" (translation "Amen")

I am proud of my little boys. I was so proud of Lion that he thought himself that it would be a great time to pray and his first instinct was to pray HIMSELF!


***completely off topic... thank you to everyone who has given me awards, I will post them all (at least the ones I can find/have kept track of) eventually, I am getting there, I have a post half written, so much to blog, so little time.***