Blessed Mother’s Day

This morning at 5:30 while I was busy getting Luke a bottle, Nathan came running excitedly into the kitchen and proclaimed he was ready to make his Mommy some breakfast and “spoil” her for Mother’s Day. He’s not yet 6 years old, so we kept it simple – Tea, Cereal and a Handcrafted card.

I proceeded to get Nathan some cereal as well, and while Luke finished his early morning bottle, we enjoyed a family “Breakfast in Bed”.

It brings joy to my heart to see Nathan so excited about loving his Mom’ – Praise the Lord for Him, and ov course, my wonderful wife as well!

All dressed up, and theatre te’ go …

As you can see, Angela is now all dressed up in her purple theatre gown, and we’re ready to go … Just gotta keep ourselves occupied for the next 2 hours or so ’till they call us to theatre.

Excitement building …

‘Twas the night before Christmas … well, not quite Christmas, but definetly to do with a much anticipated birth :-)

All the bags are packed, and Angela has had her last drink before the pre-aneasthetic fast. Off to bed we all go, while the rest of the world watches the Soccer World Cup Final between France and Italy …

We have to be up at 5am tomorrow and at the hospital by 6, ready for the ceasarian which presently is scheduled for 9am.

Ooooh, we just can’t wait … but gotta get some sleep now (half-time score is 1-1) … Sleep tight all!

Breadmaker

Haven’t you always wanted a breadmaker? Nothing like the smell of bread baking filling the house to make it feel all homely …

Anyway, for Mothersday we got Angela a breadmaker, even though it could’ve just as well been a Fathersday present :-)

Really easy to use …

Step 1 - Open the breadmaker

Step 2 – Following the instructions in the enclosed recipe book, add the water (water, below the flour, can’t see it), flour (white stuff all over), yeast (beige in the middle), butter (bottom left corner), sugar (top left corner), salt (top right corner) and powdered milk (bottom right corner).

Step 3 - Please the button for Regular sized loaf (as per the quantities of stuff we used in step 2)

Step 4 – Watch as the ingredients are first mixed together, and then kneeded into a dough

(Had to close the lid now, and waited for just over an hour – First the dough had to “prove” and then start baking)

Step 5 - When the buzzer sounds, wake up from the euphoria of that lovely smell of fresh bread and open the lid … Aaahhh

Final Step – Wait about 30 minutes for it to cool and enjoy this delicious yummy bread … (Not bad for a first attempt)

Having succeeded with the “Regular White” loaf, Angela will now move onto more exciting recipes such as apple cinnemon loaf, whole-wheat honey loaf etc. etc. Oooooooh (Happy Mothers day indeed!)

Angela’s Art

Angela has just completed an introductory course to painting … Amazing this multi-talented bride of mine!

Interesting “Spin” on marriage

Angela has been doing the second of Denise Glenn’s “Motherwise” bible studies (i.e. Freedom for Mothers) these past 8 weeks and a “couples” dinner was held to mark the end of it last night at Mark and Margret’s Villa in Jumeirah.

Although the food (all home cooking) was great and the fellowship with what turned out to be 15 couples (i.e. 30 people) was certainly enjoyed, the highlight of the evening was a talk by John and Keri Folmer about “Marital Bliss”.

What was interesting about the Folmers talk was the simple revelation John shared that if you’re hoping that your marriage will be full of joy and bliss, you’re wrong – According to the bible a marriage is not designed to make us happy. It is in fact there to honour God and bring Him glory. The “spin-off” though, as both John and Keri explained, was the joy and love a couple finds as they honour and worship our Lord and saviour, together as husband and wife … in marriage.

Yours in Him

Roy

Happi Anni’

4 years … 48 months … 1461 days … 2 wonderful children … one funeral … three countries … five homes … and an infinite ammount of happy times …

And that’s just the story so far – Thank you Angela for these wonderful four years of marriage

Love you, and grateful praise to God for the many blessings I have in you

Roy

Angela and Rachel in Hospital

Angela and Rachel left for Hospital at 7:30 this morning. Nathan went for a morning with his friend Sebastian and I went to work …

I got off early (well, sorta early, at 2:30) and headed over to Al Wasl hospital to meet up with them. I easily found Ward 5, Room 2 and woman in life looking rather comforatble.

As Al Wasl is a Government hospital they care only for the medical needs of the patients. In the case of children this means that a woman (very sexist!) needs to be present to care for a baby in hospital 24 hours a day. She is allowed to leave the child and go to the toilet, but only if the child is sleeping and she is not allowed to be away longer than 10 minutes!

I understand now why I’ve never seen a local woman smoke :-)

The only man allowed to visit is the childs father. (Not children either, so unfortunetly Nathan can’t see his sister)

Originally Angela was also a little worried ’bout sharing a room with predominently local Emirati ladies (and their children), or even more to her discovery this morning, Emirati children and their nannies – We enquired to be told a private room costs approx. 500 US $ per day.

However, God is great, and Angela said that after they read her file, and discovered Rachel has CMV (very infections!) the nurses quickly moved them to a private room at the same rate as the general one: As we’re on a government health card, that rate is 0 US$ per day.

The room is blue, even though Angela explained to them that our daughter is a girl *wink*

Angela says it’s better than being at home ’cause theres a TV and Rachel sleeps next to her so at night Angela won’t need to get out of bed, she can just lean over … Jokes aside it looks very comfortable, and I’ll be taking over some more stuff to make it better them, now that they have more space to work in.

It will obviously be very lonely for my poor wife :-(

I doubt Angela will be as comfortable sleeping in the sofa bed they’ve provided, as she would be in our Room here at home, but all in all it seems great. The large window lets in a lot of sun, but sadly only a view of windows of the other side of a courtyard, about 15 meters away. The courtyard is filled with ivy bushes about a meter in height and sealed off on all four sides, which is ok I guess ’cause I couldn’t see any doors leading onto it?

During the course of the morning they drew a lot of blood for various different bloodtests and Rachel also has the unfortable task of producing a urine sample – This is unfortable ’cause they tape a little baggie to her which she constantly fills with the wrong kind of sample …

The doctor told Angela that they may do the liver biopsy (and following that the Kasai procedure) on Monday, but it’s not fixed yet.

Please pray for both Angela and Rachel during this time, and for us men alone at home too

God Bless

Roy

P.S. When I went to pickup Nathan from Julio and Slovanka’s place him and Sebastian were passed out from what Slovanka referred to as a “Hard day of playing”

Meeting the Surgeon

I hope that you all had a good night sleep. I certainly did, and so did Nathan and Rachel – we feed Rachel at 8.30 last night and she only woke at 4.55 this morning!

I met up with Dr. Badriya today and have an appointment with the surgeon on Monday at 10am – They will do the ‘Dye Procedure’ on Wednesday.

If there is excretion (of bile), but the ducts are blocked then they will perform the Kasai procedure immediately (They will take some of her small intestines and attach it
to the part of her liver where the excretion is.)

This is a big op, and after a Kasai procedure is performed Rachel will go straight to ICU
for a couple days. We know that God is in control and whatever he wants to happen will happen, but she’s almost three months old now and has been at home for about a month – without going back to hospital, so of course our human nature is to be a bit upset, but again, God is in
control, and we hang onto that fact.

If however, there is no excretion at all then they will just close her up. Then she will need a liver transplant as soon as she’s old enough to receive one.

I pray that they will be able to perform the Kasai procedure or else find out what the problem is.

But otherwise we’re fine and doing well. Roy’s working hard and will probably be going to Riyahd on business next week sometime.

I’ll update again soon.

Ang.

Arrived

Dr Pistorius, Rachel, Angela, Nathan and Ma in the passport control queue at Dubai Airport.

Saturday Update

Dear Praying Friends

Rachel slept from her 6pm bottle until the 10pm bottle when Ang woke her. Then she slept again until 3am and feed just enough to take away the hunger bite and returned to the Land of Nod until 8 this morning. Then she drank 140 mls instead of 100 mls. And now, she has returned to the Land of Nod.

All seems well and we praise the Lord. Amen?

We have removed Ang’s cases from the rafters in the garage, dusted and washed them, because today is the BIG packing and shorting day. What to take and what to leave.

Remember the tea and refreshments after the morning service tomorrow. This is our way as a family thanking you for your many facetted support and prayers for Rachel. and her mommy and daddy. You are invited and welcome … and if you want … Bishop Warwick Cole-Edwards is preaching on missions. He did this last night expounding Acts 1:8 in context and will be preaching tonight, 6pm at a Bring ‘N Share meal.

Enjoy you day and God Bless

Yours together for His cause

Don

Happy Mothers Day

Almost there

OK – Angela has her “special” clothes on, and her drip, and everything else thats needed Less than an hour to go

To bed …

Angela has been bed-locked. After visitng our really sweet Gynea, Dr Karen Fourie this afternoon is was confirmed – Angela is to stay in bed until babee is born, by Gods Grace during the first week of April.

The only trip she’s allowed to make is to the Gynea (once a week now) and the only thing she’s allowed to lift is her tummy, and she must try and do that as little as possible!

It’s exaclty a situation like this we were expecting and thanks be to Gods that Angela is in an environment where she (and Nathan) can be loved and cared for …

Please continue to pray all goes well, but also join me in bringing Praise to the Lord for being so good to us and having things work out in the way they have.

God Bless

Roy

Angela to stay in bed

Angela (and Babee) were released from Hospital this morning after enjoying what I’m lead to believe was a pleasant breakfast.

Angela is under strict orders to “take it easy” and if possible remain seated, or lying down for the next four weeks or so, or until Babee is born. There was some “loosening” of the mucous membrane and further agitation of it will probably lead to labour. Angela is getting some nice medicine which seems to be relaxing her (maybe a little too much). I have a feeling she’ll be bored pretty soon. Just another three weeks to go and I’ll be there … and Babee too :o)

Please continue to pray for us all

God bless

Roy

Not yet ?

Mixed emotions still running though me ? Excited ’cause we’re going to have a baby but nervious at the same time.

Angela called this evening, didn’t sound too well: She was on her way to the hospital. About two hours, and many SMSs later Dr Fourie had been with and said everything is fine and Babee does infact not seem too keen on an “early arrival” (*phew*)

Angela (and babee) will stay overnight for obsetvation and I will update you in the morning.

God bless and keep you all

Roy

Angela to come to Cape Town

Looks like this job is going to need more time … Can I have my wife please :o)
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