These are the days of our lives....

Megans 9th birthday party

Rachel and friends, Space Expo at school.
Rachel, Meg and Sandy - seeing if they could fry an egg on the ground on 46 deg. day. (Didn't work)
Sandy off to work, Girls off to school.
Happy Easter Friends!

Hello good friends around the world. We hope you all had a beautiful easter time.

 It has been so long since i have written anything on this blog, but it is now the Easter holidays so thing have quieted down enough to reflect a little and write about the last few months.

February saw our state confronted with some of the hottest weather in 50 years. It was awful, especially one horrific week that got up to 47 degrees her in Melbourne. In desperation, we dragged out mattresses into out dining room ( the only space in the house with a air conditioner), in order to get a little sleep at night. The whole state was quite literally in ‘melt down’. Trains stopped working, electrical plants blew up, we had ambulance shortages and hospitals were full of sick over heated people...it really was horrible.

On one of the hottest days in February, the fires came. 172 people lost their lives as the fires swept through a number of our communities. My (Narelle) uncle and aunt in Marysville lost their home (the entire town was wiped out). Another family friend lost his two teenage daughters. Everyone seems to know someone who was affected by the fires. 

It was a terrible couple of weeks following the fires. Our whole country morned for those who lost loved ones and property, and as the high temperatures persisted and fires still burned, we worried about flying embers. It was hard not to stress. The air was still full of smoke haze, and we could smell the smoke from the back burning.

We were not in any direct danger, but our kids school is situated at the base of a mountain area and in a dense bush area. The school closed on a few occasions for fear that the fires might come too close. Fortunately for us, it never came too close. 

During all of this, the kids had got back into school life. Both Rachel and Meg love their new school teachers, and are making some lovely friendship with their school mates. Their little lives are full of school, after school activities, sports, dance and music.

I also started my new job at a local school as a Teaches Aide in February. This has been the perfect job for me right now. Keeps me well and truly busy, but also lets me be around for the children after school finishes each day. I am really enjoying the work, great co-workers, fantastic kids and plenty of work that is challenging me and it is very rewarding.

So we are all working hard at new relationships and new jobs. We are still very much in the typical first year of re-entry. We sometimes feel overwhelmed by life and exhausted by all there is to do... but we understand that it takes time to adjust back into ‘normal’ life, and we are trying to give ourselves space and grace.

Anyway, we just wanted to say hi - and thank you again if you have been praying for us. Drop us a line, we would love to know how your doing! xxx