With furlough fast approaching we are all trying to tick as many items as possible off our ‘to do’ lists before we head to UK.

Last week Sarah headed out to the hangar for the day.  I was helping Mark by organising a couple of the drawers in his tool box.  My task… to cut out shapes in a foam insert that the tools fit into.  This way, Mark can look in his drawer and immediately tell if a tool is missing and ensure that none get left in a plane when maintenance is being done.

organised tool box drawer

At the weekend the girls got down to some more DIY.  We painted the frame that Mark made for the dolls house to stand on.

"Paint the wood too Amy"

Mark has also been busy working on the roof rack for the car, trying to get the neighbours internet set up and studying for his exam.  There has been a lot of maintenance to do in the hangar recently but he would really like to take his exam before furlough - please pray that schedules would allow this to happen.

There is one other big item still on our ‘to do’ list that we really must get working on… putting a presentation together for Home Assignment!

I hope you had a very special easter break with your families.  It was quite cold and wet all weekend in Kampala but we had a good weekend none the less.

Mark was on holiday the week prior to Easter.  He was able to make some progress on a work bench he is building in the garage and also on a roof rack he is making for our car. All done under the watchful eye of Joshua!!

We also had some fun family times!  We went swimming, had water fights, went out for some meals (thanks to the generous gift of one of our supporters) and relaxed together.

On Good Friday Mark & I were able to spend time with the married couples from church while the children spent the morning with baby sittters.  Easter Saturday the children were invited to a birthday party where they had great fun painting eggs and doing an easter egg hunt.  On Sunday we celebrated at church with our Ugandan friends.  Many people greet each other here with the phrase ‘He is Risen’ rather than ‘happy easter’.  A good reminder that we serve a living saviour.

On 17th March our son celebrated his 2nd Birthday.  At 15kg and 95cm tall he is a pretty large 2 year old!!

Last Saturday we had a little party to celebrate the occasion and invited several of his best frinds over to play and eat cake.  Since he has recently got into Thomas the Tank Engine I decided to have a go at making a train cake.  I think it was a pretty good effort, although I am a little biased, so you can judge for yourselves.

This coming week Amy will participate in her very first sports day at school - I shall be there as the proud mother to cheer her along.

Mark continues to study hard for his upcoming exam.  He is not really a morning peson but has been doing a really good job of getting up at 5.30am to study several mornings a week before he heads off to the hangar for the day.

I am also still doing a fair bit of ‘running’ around town (often I am sitting in traffic jams trying not to get too frustrated)  gathering  the last pieces of paperwork needed to file for the childrens adoption.  We hope to get a court date in May.  The judges have become stricter recently and we are not certain that we will be granted Joshua’s adoption as we have not had him for the full 36 months required.  We are praying the judge will look on us favourably and grant the final adoption of both children (Amy’s should not be a problem).

Thank you for your prayers for us. Please keep lifting us up as life is very busy right now and we have a lot of different things on our minds, especially with Home Assignment coming up in June too.

If you have known Mark for any length of time then you will know that he has two things he is passionate about.  One is quite obviously planes and  Mark has spent quite a bit of time studying for his ‘caravan engine’ type rating recently.

His other passion is motorbikes. Last Saturday he decided to have abreak from the study and go for a bike ride with a couple of other friends.  When he arrived back all dirty and sweaty the children were eager to jump up on the bike.  As a mother I know I am not going to be able to keep them from riding on bikes for very long!!!

budding bikers

a good read

I am sure Mark won’t thank me for sharing this picture of our son with the world but I can’t resist.

When one has a big sister who likes high heels, pink and all things girly then it’s hard not to join in sometimes!  So, last week I discovered that I had two little fairies dancing in our livivng room.  Joshua’s dancing is not all that graceful though - more of a stomping technique really.

To be fair to my son, I shall point out that he is very much a boy and just one day after dancing like a fairy things went very quiet.  That means trouble…

The joy’s of being a mum… and it is mostly joy even if it is jolly hard work.

Right now we are in the middle of gathering the final round of reports from probation officers, Interpol and the British High Commission so that we can apply for the final adoption of Amy & Joshua.  We hope to get a court date in April/May.  Pray for us as we go through this process.

My dough rising technique

Recently I have been trying to find ways to cut back on our grocery bill and one thing i have been doing is baking my own bread.

Mum taught me the basics when she was in Uganda for Christmas.  We quickly discovered that although it is warm in Uganda, it is definitely not as hot as Chad and therefore my dough did not rise as quickly as mum was used to.

Never mind - we like a challenge.  I quickly discovered that the best place for ‘dough rising’ round here is on top of the car.  So on a sunny day I put the dough in a plastic bag and place it on top of the car - it works brilliantly!

At the end I have some lovely home made bread.  The only problem then is keeping it away from Mark - for some reason he eats more bread when its home made?

Home made bread

Boat Ride - Source of the Nile

It has been a very special Christmas season for us.  We enjoyed having both Mark’s & Sarah’s parents with us to celebrate Christmas in Uganda.  We all went away to Jinja for three nights just before Christmas and were able to enjoy a boat ride at the source of the Nile, go swimming and eat some delious food.

We came home for Christmas itself and celebrated at church with fellow believers in the morning before eating a superb Christmas dinner - Turkey and all the trimmings.  The Christmas pudding was very well travelled having gone from UK to Chad/Cameroon and then over to Uganda with Sarah’s parents!  It will always seem a bit strange to celebrate Christmas in the heat but how special it was to all be together.

The children have been having so much fun playing with their grandparents.  We have played at home, gone to the play ground, and had an outing to the zoo.  Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Mark’s parents on 29th Dec although my parents are around until 15th Jan.  The good bye’s are never easy but we have a furlough to look forward to this summer.

As we begin a new year we have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to as a family and in our role with MAF.  Mark has gone back to work today - as always there is plenty to do in the hangar! The beginning of 2009 promises to be very busy for me with Speech Therapy and MAF commitments.  Thank you so much for all your prayers for us and may God Bless you richly in the year ahead.

Fun with Nana & Grandad

Time is flying and our little girl is growing up.  On Dec 4th Amy celebrated her 3rd Birthday.  She was thrilled with all the balloons and banners when she woke up in the morning.  We had a Birthday tea complete with chocolate cake, when Daddy came home from work.  Her favorite present was  her new baby Annabelle doll - mummy and daddy have not yet told her that Annabelle laughs and cries! We will save that surprise for later.

Joshua is also growing up fast and although only 20 months old he is just as tall and two kg heavier than Amy.  They have their days when all they seem to do is fight but there are also beginning to be more special moments when they play together too.  I found them in Amy’s bed having a wonderful time just the other day and could not resist taking a picture.

If you have received our latest newsletter then you would have read about the incident with our Cessna 210 where the propeller was damaged. Well, Kees (Chief Engineer) and I went to the Island where the plane was stranded in order to carry out some checks and install a new propeller in order to fly it back to our hangar.

Once the plane was inspected and the new propeller was installed the plane had a safe flight back to Kajjansi. Now we will have to remove the engine and ship it to the States for it to be thoroughly inspected by the manufacturer. We estimate that the plane will not be flying again until at least January ‘09.

At the end of September we carried out a medevac from Matany in Northern Uganda for International Hospital Kampala.
Moses had been involved in a motorbike accident in which he sustained head injuries and needed urgent medical attention.
Pilot, Dave Rogers helped load him onto the plane so he could be brought back to Kampala and quickly receive the treatment he desperately needed that was not available in the small hospital at Matany. He also received a quantity of blood that we had transported up to Matany hospital earlier in the week. Moses was unconscious and in Intensive Care for a couple of weeks but last week was released from hospital and is making a good recovery.