Life as we know it.

We're always going somewhere...

2009-11-11T18:09:00.002+11:00

The lesson: Just do it!

2009-11-08T20:58:00.003+11:00

We're baaack

2009-11-07T18:34:00.002+11:00

Islands are not for (small) children.

2009-10-24T00:28:00.009+11:00

There are many things we are learning as we travel around Vietnam; one such lesson is that islands are not for small children.

No matter how hard you try, it's virtually impossible to find yourself on a remote, idyllic, unpopulated island and not want to relax. Children, particularly our endlessly energetic ones likes ours, are not conducive to such an experience...

Particularly when travelling by boat (with other people)

I'm having some trouble uploading pics but hope you like this taste of our holiday so far!

Monday morning 5.57am

2009-10-19T09:56:00.005+11:00

2 t-shirts is NOT enough
A pram IS a useful thing in an airport
You WILL be the biggest tourist attraction around when you have one of the smallest minorities with you. Yes, a red headed toddler is a minority, esp in Asia! Since we arrived people have given us food, just randomly grab her for a cuddle, wanted to have endless photos with her and HH. I think I need a note written up that says "Her name is LP. She is 1 and a half. She is a girl." :)

Oh Asia, I do love you!

2009-10-17T22:35:00.002+11:00

The wheels on the bus go round and round and round...and then fall off.

2009-10-16T09:00:00.004+11:00

So I would understand if You were out of patience
And I would understand if I was out of chances

Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new

The whole song is amazing, but these words had me driving along with tears streaming down as I was reminded by how great and huge and encompassing God's love is.

It didn't magically "fix" the afternoon, I was still tired and frustrated but I was also greatly aware that I was loved.

I wanted to include a youtube video of the song but can't find one. If you don't know, it's worth getting hold of!

Surprised myself!

2009-10-14T21:13:00.002+11:00

Travelling with a Toddler

2009-10-12T13:44:00.000+11:00

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As I've mentioned, we are about to head on our first real holiday with LP...to Vietnam! We're going for 3 weeks, flying into Hanoi and our of Ho Chi Minh City and visiting a variety of cities in between...fun, fun, fun!

As well as the usual, clothes, swimmers etc these are the other fun things we need to take..
- Baby life jacket for the boat trips
- Toy backpack (as in backpack with toys)
- Backpack Carrier (as in the backpack the HH will carry her around in each day)
- Travel Port a cot
- Baby Panadol etc.
- Nappies, wipes, barrier creams
- RID and lots of it!
- Some food
- About a hundred dummies!
- Laundry soap bar
...and goodness knows what else we'll add to this!

Our "cheap" holiday to Vietnam has incurred the following incidentals
- Port a cot ($150 - ebay!)
- Backpack Carrier ($170 - half price sale!)
- Passport for LP and renewal for me ($300)
- Visas for all of us ($200)
- Hep A and Typhoid boosters for HH and me ($230)
- New swimmers for me (it's been 7 years! $185)
- Sandals for me ($75)
- Travel bag/Suitcase ($150 - half price sale!)

TOTAL: $1460 OUCH!!! That's almost as much as the flights cost!!

(I am sure there's more...and I haven't yet counted all the nappies etc I still have to get...I don't really want to think about it!!)

I am glad we are going for 3 weeks now!

5 more sleeps!

2009-10-11T11:26:00.005+11:00

Our first "encounter"

2009-10-02T14:40:00.007+10:00

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LP and I went shopping yesterday with two of our "besties" and had our first "encounter" with another mother and her daughter.

We entered the small, very cool shop just as it opened and were the only people there. It's a kids shop and is set up really well for kids so our two went over to the kids table and started playing while us Mums got busy looking for Christmas presents. It didn't take long for the shop to be quite full but all the kids were around the toddler mark and were cruising doing their own thing. As LP will do, she hugged a couple of the other kids, who got a bit of a shock but went along with it (she was quite gentle...which was good!) as did their parents.

After we'd been there for a little while a woman arrived with her mother and her toddler and baby girl (maybe 10months old). LP went over to the toddler and hugged him, I moved her away and the Mum was kind of OK about it but seemed a bit unimpressed that the shop was so full. She proceeded to take her baby out of the pram and put her on the fall to crawl around. LP of course made a beeline for her and I moved her before she could get to attached. The mother picked her baby up. A few moments later and the baby was on the floor and LP was heading over again. Again, I picked LP up, explained that she had to be careful and gentle with babies and we moved away. Again, the baby gets put on the floor and the scenario happens all over again.

In the meantime LP (& I) have become quite enamored with these awesome PINTOY toys...

As I am talking with my friend about whether they would be good for LP for Christmas we are watching LP play and then looking at each other as we talk, then looking at LP. Next thing I hear the other mother shrieking "OH MY G**" and I turn to see LP behind the baby (who is on the OTHER SIDE of the store to her mother and grandmother) giving her a cuddle. The baby has gotten a bit of a shock and is crying but the mother rushes over, grabs her baby and suddenly the baby becomes hysterical and won't calm down.

I didn't react very well. I was quite annoyed by what I considered to be a complete overreaction of the other mother, combined with the fact that she was on the other side of the shop to her 10month old, when I was standing not a meter from my own daughter keeping a regular eye on her AND maybe this is out of line but seriously, she'd put the baby down 3 times already and LP had headed to her - maybe don't put her on the floor in a room full of people when she's so little if you don't want the kids to want to play with her?!?!

Normally if a child cried when LP cuddled them, even though she's not being malicious, I'd apologise and explain to the parent that she's just being friendly, and I'd ask LP to give a 'pat pat' to the child to say sorry to teach her empathy and help her realise that she needs to be gentle and not cuddle people she doesn't know. This time the mother was so rude and withdrew (while she and her mother gave me the 'evil eye') that there was no way I was going to apologise nor ask LP to do that!

AGH! I left the store feeling really frustrated and a bit humiliated. LP was just being friendly, she was being gentle and I am the FIRST to acknowledge the she can be overly enthusiastic and overwhelming but she wasn't being like that with the baby and if the mother had just said to her child "It's OK, she's just giving you a cuddle" and let me help LP to say sorry it was have been a MUCH better experience for everyone.

Double AGH!!

On the upside I think I found Christmas presents!

** p.s. I recognise that this was just my observation and interpretation of events and that everyone else there will see things differently. Not trying to present a perfect picture of it just sharing the story as I feel it!

17 Month Update

2009-09-24T09:05:00.006+10:00

If you have a child or more...

2009-07-14T09:19:00.001+10:00

The BESTEST Kisses!

2009-07-04T19:21:00.000+10:00

My baby is amazing...but I feel so guilty.

2009-07-03T08:45:00.003+10:00

It's been a while

2009-06-11T07:48:00.004+10:00

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Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors, the girl is stirring so no time for editing!

Hi friends, it's been a while I realise, but I just want to thank those of you who commented or emailed after my last post - I really appreciated your love, support and prayers. Last week was rotten.

I read a post by Carly last night and her words are far more eloquent than mine when she talks about trying to understand how God works through tragic and horrific circumstances. It's a beautiful post but she starts with a story of a family who were caught in the fires and, without wanting to deny the suffering of this family, if you are in an emotionally vulnerable state at the moment I suggest you skip the first part of the post and start in the fifth or sixth paragraph.

These words of hers probably best sum up how I have been feeling over the past little while, "I am trying to believe that God is love, its just so hard when there is so much hurt. My heart is damaged, damaged from all the pain that so many people in this world are enduring. I am not asking for anyone to assure me that God is real. I believe He is. You don't need to tell me that He loves me." Thanks Carly, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

And yet through it all God is faithful and there, nudging me along, reminding me of his love, faithfulness and presence in this world - love, faithfulness and presence that I have not just read about but experienced firsthand, and yet letting me rage, in my case, a bit like a kid having a tantrum.

I don't know if it's because of my line or work, my stage of life, or the extent of my "network" but I have been really confronted of late about the number of families who are being broken or down right destroyed due to disease, accident, tragedy. I've been challenged to ask "Why pray? What's the point?" It's been an overwhelming time which became too close to home last week.

I was struggling to understand how God works in times like this and then it just got way too personal.*

This was also during the final week of semester where I was getting up at 5.30am to get my final assessment submitted and my darling daughter seemed to have a radar that led to her waking up whenever I was trying to get the work done. It was VERY frustrating, sleep deprived, anguished week.**

THEN I went to a Skin Specialist to have my moles checked and was told that one needed to come off ASAP and another should come off too.

These last two things are relatively minor but on top of everything led to me feeling continually anxious and stressed, waking up with anxiety dreams. My husband has been truly AMAZING because quite frankly, I have been a bitch of a wife lately. Not that he would say so :)

But God IS at work, and this past week I have seen it again. I have been praying for a future and a hope (Jer 29:11) and God has given it. I will keep praying and more importantly, keep trusting that prayer does matter, humbled by His immense Grace and patience, in the face of my doubts, despair and demands.

Last night I prayed for Carly, Jaci and Sarah - three women I know only via blogland who are all facing various challenges at this time, whom I committed into the hands of God, marveling at how amazing it is to have been covered by many of your prayers of late, and to be doing the same for others through this thing called the internet. I awoke this morning to great encouragement at Jaci's most recent post. More encouragement, more grace and incredible wisdom, a further example of a gracious God at work in His world.

Perhaps none of this makes sense to you, perhaps it resonates closely - I don't know. I do know that wherever you are today and whatever you are doing, there is a God, a maker who created and sustains the world, despite the many many ways we are destroying it, who loves you, personally and deeply, who can be known and made himself known in Jesus Christ, and who would love you to say Hello and help you get through the day.

God Bless

*The HH, LP and myself are all fine and, as far as we know, in good health. I don't feel that it's appropriate for me to share the details of this situation here, at least not yet, I know you understand - we choose to blog, not our families and sometimes that boundary needs to be respected.

**Amazing but I received a distinction, which I don't say to boast but because it was an encouragement to me that not only did I learn a HUGE amount through this course both academically and in terms of my own personal, spiritual growth but this learning is based on a "theology" and "exegesis (understanding of the Bible from it's original translation and applying it to our context today)" that makes sense. Who would have thought?!

Dogs go to heaven...?

2009-06-03T18:01:00.001+10:00

Personality Transplant, Anyone?

2009-05-28T17:13:00.005+10:00

Stunned Silence

2009-05-28T06:40:00.002+10:00

A special hello to the SITS girls (and guys) with my first vlog!

2009-05-26T15:35:00.003+10:00

Subscribe & Win June - we're back!!

2009-05-26T08:04:00.007+10:00

These are two of the ones the HH has

and I really like this one (for me)!!

The winner will be announced at the end of June!

So, what do you do all day?

2009-05-25T07:43:00.004+10:00

She says "I love you"

2009-05-24T11:09:00.003+10:00

Blog Giveaway...around the corner

2009-05-22T06:41:00.003+10:00

About Me?

2009-05-20T16:35:00.005+10:00