January is coming to a close and it has been a really special month for us. I thought I’d share some photos so you can see what we have been up to. Of course we’ve been continuing to adjust to having our sweet new baby, Jessah. I can’t believe she is three months old on Monday! We have been thoroughly enjoying having this new little person in our family. In a way it feels like she’s always been here and on the other hand, we are still adjusting to the more demanding schedule that is life with a newborn! Ministry wise, this month has included a Cor Deo level two intensive, Peter’s trip to the OM conference in Germany and of course serving at our church, Trinity Chippenham. We were also able to welcome my sister, Amy, for a joyful week visiting with our family. And on a more sad note, we had to say goodbye to our dear friends and colleagues in Cor Deo, the Searights, as they moved back to the USA. Here are some photos that give you a peek into our month:
It hardly seems possible that Christmas was just over a month ago. We had a precious time together. Everyone agreed it was the best Christmas ever!
Jessah’s first Christmas!
This isn’t a great quality photo but it’s a special memory. Peter was dancing with Jessah to some Christmas music and she just LOVED it!
We feel privileged that Grandpa and Grandma Mead live close enough to join us for holidays and birthdays.
Just after Christmas, my sister, Amy, joined us for one very special week. Here she is meeting Jessah and getting reacquainted with Kaylah.
We had so many joyful moments!
Here we are having a yummy lunch in a Bradford-on-Avon tea room.
What a treat!
Lovely ladies!
Auntie Amy has a special bond with her nieces.
Cuddles with Kaylah in a phone booth!
While the rest of us went inside a very old church from Saxon times, Mariah and Joel found something more interesting to do – climb a wall outside! They had a lot easier time getting up than getting down! 🙂 (I still think the Mead children are part mountain goat with all the climbing they have done over the years! They come by it honestly though as I was exactly the same way as a child!)
Amy helped me a bit with beautifying our house (she has a great eye for interior design!) and even found time to paint and decorate our little bathroom with the help of the girls. Thanks Amy!
I love my sister so much and feel so grateful that she came to visit us! (Note – she was having a cuddle with Jessah in a baby carrier under the blanket!)
Thank you for coming to visit us Amy! We love you!
Jessah loves to be in the baby carrier and the girls love to hold her in it.
Kaylah is too little to use the baby carrier but she still loves to hold her sister!
We are all enjoying her so much!
Sister love . . . Jessah is cooing and smiling all the time and becoming a lot more aware of her surroundings!
And Joel loves to spend time with her too. . . it’s still a competition about who will hold her next!
What a joy this little person is!
The most precious moments in life always revolve around our relationships. We were created by a relational God to be relational creatures!
I love it that our girls all have a close relationship with their Dad.
Our neighbour, Alex, spends a lot of time here with our family. We are so thankful for our friendship with her!
And it’s because we are relational people that goodbyes hurt so much. We had to say goodbye yesterday to our friends and colleagues in Cor Deo, the Searight family. Here they are with a “we love the Searights” heart cake we made for them.
The Mead and Searight children will miss each other so much! There were lots of tears last night.
The girls plus their American girl dolls. They will miss playing together. (If you look closely, one of the babies is not a doll!)
The newest Mead and the newest Searight – 5 weeks apart in age.
Here’s Aliyah holding them both.
Sweet babies
The kids had a fun last day of playing together in the woods near our house.
It was a beautiful day.
We won’t say goodbye, we will just say Au Revoir Searights – or as Erin put it – God be with you until we meet again.
As we turn the calendar over to February, we are looking forward to birthday season (four girls in four weeks, starting with Miss Kaylah turning four on Monday!) and also the start of the first ever women’s Cor Deo programme which starts on Tuesday. Our dear friend, Gretchen, is flying in from Portland tomorrow to lead this group. We would very much value your prayers for life change in each woman who is part of the programme including several from our church and one coming from as far away as Slovenia.
Peter just came back from a very encouraging time teaching at the OM entry conference in Germany (this is where the new recruits to OM gather before heading out to their various mission fields). However, he came home with a nasty cold/flu (his third major virus in the past month or so) so we’d appreciate prayer for a quick recovery for him. As a wife and mummy, I don’t always find it easy to juggle everything that is on my plate, so I always appreciate prayer for patience and physical strength to keep serving and loving the people God puts in my path (especially those under my own roof!). I am very aware at the power I have as a mother to set the tone in my home and how often I fail in that role. I truly desire the Lord to let His peace and joy fill me and flow out of me.
In other news, we hope to sign papers on the purchase of our house (we are co-buying with someone else) next week. This has been a LONG process so please pray it all comes together as it should.
One more tidbit that you may find interesting . . . Peter was interviewed on the Janet Parshall radio show last night about his new book, Foundations. Thankfully he managed not to cough or sneeze during the interview! If you are interested, you can listen here. His interview starts about 4:21 minutes into the show.
As always, thank you for your prayers for our family and let us know how we can pray for you!
