Hi friends
Please forgive me, but it is 5 weeks since my last blog!! Sounds a bit like Catholic confession - but once you hear about our crazy life, hopefully you will excuse my lack of correspondence!
I left you just before Christmas. We had just flown to Sydney for a CMS mission camp which was wonderful. We met so many faithful missionaries with great stories to tell about life on the field. They were unedited, and not as positive as those churches would hear, but they were sincere and emotional and realistic! The campsite at Katoomba was beautiful and we could look out of our room and see the 3 sisters (when the fog lifted!)
When we flew back to Brisbane we were able to spend a few days with Shane's sisters giving the kids valuable "cousin time". We went swimming, bowling (I nearly won until the last frame when Shane got a strike, and under pressure I hit a lousy 3. Man was I ticked off. My competitive nature gets the better of me sometimes!)and just hung out, creating memories for the future.

From here we hit the farm and had a lovely Christmas with all Shanes family. God was so good to allow us this time- which may be our last for quite awhile! We spent time playing cricket, riding motor bikes and socialising. There were 17 of us in his parents 3 bedroom, one bathroom home for 5 days.....and we all survived and stayed friends (well family actually).

The favourite toy of all time - the quad bike!!

From Chinchilla we were southbound heading for home. We stopped at Forbes to spend a few days with Shanes cousin (Glen and Margo, Mitch and Cam) on their farm. We arrived with both Tom and Oli in the throws of gastro! Talk about testing family loyalty! I became completely obsessive compulsive washing my hands every 2 minutes and disinfecting everything and everyone in sight. Thankfully it was 24 hrs and no-one came down with it.....but poor little Oli was quite traumatised thinking the Salmonella had come back! We were able to speak at their church, and share with them all our plans. We had New Years with them then headed to Adelaide!!

New Year drinks on the porch.

We stoppped at Mildura the next night and it was 43 degress at 7pm when Shane went out and got us pizza for tea!! The kids swam in the park pool from the time we arrived until bed (3hours) and loved every minute of it. They really miss our pool in Kadina!

When we arrived in Adelaide we were able to stay at Rebekahs for 5 days while they were at Victor. We used the time to prepare for Summer Conference, and tried to settle the kids down a little after so much time away and with others!! They however wanted company after one day - they were so used to being entertained and with others they didn't know what to do with themselves. It augers well for living on the school compound in Addis with lots of others staff and kids!!

 From here it was time to head to Victor for New Creation Summer School. This year we 'stayed in' at Adare with other campers rather than at Mum and Dads. It was great to spend time with so many friends we've had over the years and each day we went to the beach with people. We did have an info afternoon on Wednesday for those interested in Ethiopia and we were really gratified to have about 70 come and listen to us. The kids helped with our presentation and were fantastic.It was lovely to know there are so many that will support and in particular be praying for us.

The kids loved New Creation kids program and celebrated at the end!

CMS kids program asked questions of Oli!!

We then had just under a week before our CMS summer conference where we were quite involved. Again we spent the time catching up with people down at Victor and poor Mum and Dad got the short end of the stick, and really saw little of us.....although that may have been more positive than negative for them!!*#
At CMS conference we shared about what we're heading to, led some sessions and generally mingled with supporters to highlight our work. It was a great time with everyone being super friendly and interested, but I must admit to being completely "people out" by the end of it!! I'm not normally rude..but all the same, being super polite and friendly was hard work!

So there you have it - the last 5 weeks. We have been so thankful to God for helping us through it, and that the kids have managed really well with constant people and moving. We have just moved into a house in Adelaide.....but this will be another blog!! This is enough for tonight!

Goodnight!