Nathan’s Nemo Party

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Nathan turned 3 years old today and celebrated (as he calls it) his “Happy Birthday”

Last night as he went to sleep Angela and I started transforming our living room into a “Nemo Underwater Sea-bed”.

Nathan woke up at 8 this morning and got his first present, a Bicycle, from Ang, Rachel and I. The “Weed-eater” from Dad and Ma was next.

We then had a bath and Nathan put on his present from Julio, Slovanka and Sebastian: A new shirt especially delivered last night so that he could wear it today.

At 11 his friends started arriving. At about 11:30 we played “pass-the-parsel”, which was followed at around 11:50 with “Jumping on the Jellies”.

The kids then all “fished” and got a sweetie for each fish they caught (shell’s and star fish didn’t count)

At 12:20 the Pizza arrived and by 12:30 everyone was happily eating lunch.

Lunch was followed but the dropping of the balloons and after that we sang “Happy Birthday” as Nathan blew out the three candles on his Nemo cake.

The party then moved to his room for a while and then it was pretty much the end of party as his friends started to go home at around 2.

We all had good time (especially Nathan) and thank the Lord for blessing us and letting us have such a fun time.

We also thank the Lord for our wonderfully caring and loving boy, Nathan, and pray Gods grace into his life for what we pray many years to come, and also that Nathan will continue to be our “Gift from God” as his name suggests.

Yours in Him

A rather tired, but we’ll enjoyed, Verrips family.

Bathtime for Rachel

Look how much Rachel enjoys her bath – Click on the image for more pics …

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To the Movies

After church we took Nathan to watch a movie – ‘Home on the Ranch’ by Disney. Nathan enjoyed it so much, I think he liked the whole ‘big screen’ concept. He especially liked that he got his own box of popcorn and could eat it while he watched the movie.

The movie was about cows and how they catch a nutorious cattle thief and use the reward money to save their owner’s farm – their home. After the movie Nathan told us how much he liked the cows and that he wanted to watch them again.

Later, when we were home Roy and I decided to order some home delivery Burger King – As Roy said “I’d like to place and order please …” Nathan (who hadn’t heard us decide to order BK) excitedly came running up saying “Tell him to bring me a burger … a small burger!”

About the Verrips Family

We are a Christian family currently living in an apartment at Sahari Villiage, Ras al Khor, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Roy is an Information Systems Manager for the Grand Hyatt Dubai – Aside from spending time with his family he loves anything Linux if he can steal a few minutes a week enjoys reading, currently (still) the Chronicles of Narnia.

Angela works from home (i.e. is a housewife ) raising Nathan and Rachel – When the kids are asleep and if Roy is working late you’ll probably find here doing cross-stitch or reading Meave Binchy.

Nathan is three, going on five and loves to talk, dance and sing. At the moment his favourite DVDs are “Meno” (how he pronounces Finding Nemo) and “Thumbelina” – When he grows up he wants to be a Boo-tiful Butterfly. :-)

Rachel was born in March 2004 with a rather bad congenital infection, CMV (i.e. Cytomegalo Virus) – Are present her liver and spleen are distending at an alarming rate. This along with the cronic hepitites/jaundice she’s had since birth has dramatically lowered her life-expectancy. The doctors believe she will not see her first birthday.

We’ve lived in Dubai for just over 2 years now, but Angela and Nathan have spent about 10 months in total living with our parents (Don and Jenny Kirkwood) in Pretoria on two seperate occasions. 10 weeks in March/April 2002 while Angela got her driving license and I worked 24/7 opening the hotel, and again from November 2003 through May 2004 during a complicated pregnancy with Rachel, and an even more complicated first two months, mostly spent in hospitals.

We are a bible beliving Christian family who put God at the centre of our household. We still maintain spiritual ties with St Pauls Church, Arcadia, Pretoria South Africa where both Angela and I served as members and youth leaders, and where we were married.

During the summer we have been regular attendants at the United Christian Church of Dubai who meet at the Dubai Evangelical Church Centre in Jebel Ali.

The last quarter of this year will be a trying time for our family as we serve the Lord during a season with Rachel which is a lot shorter than we had anticipated – We pray and trust that He will continue to strengthen us in His mercy and grace.

Our God is an awesome God!

Yours in Him

The Verrips Family

Busy week…

It’s been a busy week! Rachel’s started on cereal, Nathan’s started swimming (kinda properly), Roy’s been busy at work and I’ve been busy sorting things out at home.

Rachel and I went to see the doctor on Sunday and told her that our decision was to stay here in Dubai. The doctor told us that Rachel only has between 3 and 4 months – maybe 6 at the most, before she goes to be with our Saviour and Lord.

Because of this we’ve started on alot of different preperations.
Dad and Ma will be coming to see us – hopefully at the end of the month.
We’ve also contacted the South African Consulate and notified them of Rachel’s condition. They’re helping us by getting us copies of the paperwork etc, so that we’ll know what to do when the time comes.
Roy and I have also started going though songs and are choosing songs which we feel are appropriate and are meaningful for the funeral. We at least have the priviledge of being able to plan the funeral while we can still think logically (and Rachel has a preview of the songs that will be played – she has in say in them too!).

Nathan is doing well, he’s started swimming really well for his age. He’s able to kick his legs and turn around. He’s quite happy and willing to go into the deep end with Daddy and swims there on his own (of course with water wings!) . He’s been really cute lately and is just loving Rachel as often as he can. He loves holding her and talking to her, he’s always willing and ready to give her hugs and kisses.

Roy and I are well. Roy’s busy at work, and I’m busy at home. We’re both enjoying spending time with the kids and together.

Thank you all for yours prayers and kind words. Please pray that souls will be saved through Rachel’s journey.

Rachel

Dear praying friends,

This is a bit of an explaination on what’s going to be happening in our lives in the next few months … Our decision is to stay here in Dubai as a family.

Firstly, there is obviously a chance that a liver transplant for Rachel won’t work. If it does succeed, it is still a painful process, and will be complicated by things like her weak clotting profile. Also, if she managed to get through the transplant the likelihood of Nathan, Rachel and I staying in South Africa is very great as there is probably not the facilities and doctors to follow up on Rachel here, as organ transplants isn’t a field of medicine often practiced in the Middle East. We do not want to be separated again!

Secondly, we know the implications of staying here in Dubai. We know that unless a miracle happens our little Rachel will go and be with the Lord, and we know that this will mean watching her deteriorate. But we also know that this way, she is not in pain and she will pass peacefully. It’s not easy chosing the passive route, but we know Our father will strengthen us in this.

We have prayed about this and it was not an easy decision to make. We want to be a family and honour God’s family ideal and stay together – not be separated. We also want to remember Rachel the way she is now. She’s had a hard life and at some time we have to face the fact that God is in control and carrying on doing what is ‘humanly possible’ is perhaps just fighting against the Lord’s will. God will have His way – whatever that may be.

The prayers we ask for at this time is that Rachel will not experience pain, that Nathan can understand and that us as parents can explain to him in a way that it could shape his character not destroy it. Also our biggest prayer is for all of you. A prayer of thankfulness for the blessing you have been to us through these past 4 months. But also a prayer of comfort for you all. We realise that this may be harder for you all as you cannot see her and appreciate her smiles and ‘chats’ as we can. Please help each other through this, and support each other.

We are all family of the Lord and would this not be what He would like and require us to do? Yes, it’s hard – but should it be this hard when we know that one of God’s children are soon going to be with Him?

What a privilege Rachel will have to be praising the Lord for all eternity! To be in His awesome presence for eternity! What a blessing.

I know you’ve probably heard it before, but perhaps God is a little bit like us – We pick the pretty flowers first.

May we all strive to lead a closer walk with the Lord, that when our time comes, we may be ready!

Thank you all once again for your prayers and support and love.

All our love!
Roy, Angela, Nathan and Rachel.

Our lil’ Angel

Today was a little bit of a hard day. Following on the blood tests they did three days ago we were hoping for some good news when Angela and Rachel met with Dr Badriya today. However things aren’t as positive as we were praying for.

Firstly, after the blood tests it took a long time for Rachel to stop bleeding, which was probably the first sign that something isn’t right – Her clotting profile isn’t too good. The tests showed that her billiruben was high, which is the opposite from what it should be considering Angela has been giving her ursodeoxycholic acid (Medicine for patients with liver disease) for the past few weeks.

Rachel’s weight, although increasing doesn’t seem to be in the way of bodyfat, but rather just the enlarging of her organs, in particular her spleen.

For the short term Rachel will be getting some Caloreen and Liquigen which should increase her bodyfat.

Dr Badriya suggested we start investigating possibilities for intensive liver investigations, treatment and probably even transplantation, outside of Dubai. Further, a liver transplant would be problematic due to the CM’Virus which whould need to be surpressed by another course of Cymevene before the transplant.

For us this would mean that Angela, Nathan and Rachel would need to return to South Africa for Rachel to receive treatment in the Government Acedemic Facilities in Cape Town. Pending on investigations, treatments, availability of a liver donor etc. followup after a transplant, etc. we’re guessing they’ll need to be there for 18 months or so … A very long time for us to be apart and a financial burden we’re no-where near able to carry at the moment.

Through all this we remain positive though and know that God is excersizing His will in our lives. Because we stand firm on His words in the Bible, Angela and I are both affirmed by the Holy Spirit that the circumstance we’re in as family are exactly where God wants us to be. It’s hard at times like these when we feel we’d rather be somewhere else but I guess that’s what faith is all about … One thing we are certain about is that Rachel’s salvation – Perhaps not from the effects of the CM’Virus she was with, but definetly from sin … And which is more important?

Please pray for God to continue to strengthen us during this time, to keep drawing us closer to Him and to continue encouraging us by His words.

Rachel’s first Roll

Rachel is doing extremely well. After getting over her lil’ cough and tight chest more than a week ago she’s just blossemed – She is however still teething and a bit grumpy at times.

She has been able to lift her head and control it rather well for a couple days now, but this evening for the first time we got her pushing herself over and rolling … Click on the picture below to see the gallery of photo’s of her in action.

Can you believe she’s already 4 months old?

God Bless and keep you all

Yours in Him

Roy, Angela, Nathan and Rachel

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