Hannah recently won a short story competition with the Evangelical Alliance. Her story, “Resurrection of Hope” is in the EA magazine and also you can read it here.
She has also just written a prayer letter in anticipation of going on another missions trip in March – if you’d like to read her letter, click here and it should take you to it. But do let us know by email or by commenting on this post so that Hannah can know you have read it!
We can hardly believe Jessah is a month old! She has brought incredible joy to our household. The children are constantly asking to hold her; they have been such an amazing help to me. People keep telling me I am super-mum for having six kids and to that I say – no, in a lot of ways it just gets easier the more children you have! 🙂 I am definitely not super-mum . . . I have lots of helpers and I have a good God who loves me and gives me the strength even when I am often weak and very inadequate. I love to watch how much my older children love Jessah and see how good they are in taking care of her. God knew what He was doing when He designed the family.
Hannah loves to write and sweetly wrote this little piece (see below) after giving Jessah a bath the other night:
Splash, Plash, “Hic”…. Tiny hands flail, little toes curl. Bubbles on round cheeks, covering little fists. Blue, blue eyes stare at the shiny rail. “What are you thinking little one?” “Hic”, little round belly jerks. Chubby legs kick in the warm water. “Hic”, arms shudder, then relax in the water. Baby coos warble from little lips. “Hic.” She seems surprised by the hiccups that are shaking her. I scoop water over her tiny, soft head, and marvel at its fragility. Water runs down her neck rolls, and back into the bath. Blue eyes stare entranced at the shiny rail. She feels the water with her minute hands, fingers curling to pick up… What? Feet kick, sending tidal waves of warm, scented bath water over her round tummy. They recede, leaving only a puddle of water in the little hole that is her belly-button. “Hic.” Tiny body shakes, drops of water rolling into the bath. Lips part, letting out a little cry. “Is it time to be done, sweetie?” Towel in my lap, I lift her slippery body. Wrapped in the towel, blue, blue eyes peeping out, she smiles. “Hic.”
Jessah is starting to do some longer stretches of sleep at night which is wonderful. I maintain I am the world’s worst person at coping with sleep deprivation! So along with the joy this past month, there have been tears of exhaustion and challenges in trying to keep my head above water. I still think that the first 6-8 weeks with a newborn are much harder than the labour and birth! But with my family’s help and lots of grace from our Father, I am feeling more human these days and functioning much better, despite the broken nights. God is helping me realise it’s OK to rest and also to be OK with letting things go undone. I have realised again recently how much I love to be in control (!) and having a newborn plus 5 other busy children is helping me to let things go a bit and embrace the chaos and imperfections of life.
Jessah’s smiles make it all worth it!
We’ve taken hundreds of photos over the past month. Here are just a few . . . Please pray for Peter as he leaves for four days of mentoring his ELF students in Athens tomorrow. Also, please pray for him as he prepares to speak at our Trinity Chippenham Christmas carol services the next two Sundays.
Thank you for praying for our family!
On Monday, our family was able to go on a canal boat for the day. Our Grandma came with us and we had a lovely day. It was very sunny, quite warm, and by the end of it some of us had got a bit sun burned! We were on a 30 foot long boat called ‘Cheers’ Here are some pictures from our day:
Dad drove mostly, but we all took turns trying it out. Here is Kay-Kay having a go. 🙂
Our trip took us through 4 swing bridges, and 3 locks. Here is 4 of us on a swing bridge.
We would have to moor up on the side of the river, so we could open the bridge to get through. Kaylah tried valiantly to help!
Aliyah taking a rest after working one side of a lock.
Mariah and I hanging out on the beam of a lock gate after we shut it.
Between working locks and swing bridges, we had plenty of time for R&R! That’s me reading (surprise, surprise!) on the roof of the boat. 🙂
Joel reading his book about warships. He had great fun pretending that the canalboat was a ‘Higgins PT-71 fast attack boat’! 🙂
We saw lots of birds including this beautiful heron.
Mariah was our official moor-er upper (is that a word?). She was always one of the first ones off the boat, ready to tie us up.
Of course, what would a blog post be without a ridiculously cute picture of Kaylah! As you can tell, she LOVED the boat!
Taking a break before moving on again. (Don’t worry we were tied to the bank, you just can’t see!)
All us Meadlings with our Grandma.
All in all, we had a fantastic day, full of fun. Of course, we kids are already trying to convince Mum and Dad to let us do it again!
I know this has been a picture heavy post, but bear with me for a couple more showing what’s been happening recently.
On June 6, Joel did a little presentation in honour of the D-Day 71rst anniversary. Kaylah helped!
Also, for school, I made a pavlova, which surprisingly turned out all right!
And of course Kaylah is so cute, I just can’t resist one last photo of her!
Our family is all very busy at the moment. Cor Deo finishes this week, we’re finishing off school for the summer (hurray!!!!!), and it’s Mum’s birthday and my parents 16th anniversary this weekend. Also, Trinity Chippenham is hosting a Mark Drama (here’s 2 links if you want to know more about it: themarkdrama.com and Trinity Chippenham’s page), and Dad, Aliyah and I are in it. Rehersals start tomorrow evening, and our first performance is Saturday evening. Please pray that it will be a really good experience for the actors, and that many people will come and be changed by the gospel.
If you’ve got this far in this very long post, Congratulations! Thank you for reading, and hopefully there will be more posts as the summer adventures unfold!
