Saturday, August 22, 2009

Slow road to recovery ... but we're full steam ahead now!

Having a 48 hour bug is not great ... we said in our last entry that we were feeling a lot better ... but it took another whole week to get back to 100% ... very frustrating!! We're pleased to say that Mark never did succumb to the lurgy ... however we did end up sharing it with Jenny's mum, Auntie Betty next door and Mark's sister ... oops ... sorry!!!
Since then we've been back on the case ... and catching up with more friends and family ... above is a photo of a group of good friends that Jenny has known for 15 years ... thank you to Tim and Anna for having a BBQ so we could all get together and catch up for the afternoon!
We also made a trip to the MAF UK office in Folkestone last week ... and had a chance to meet more of the UK based staff who we've been busy emailing and speaking to on the phone over the last few months! (we forgot to take any photos of that day ... even though we had our camera with us!!! ... oops!)
The final stage of our application process to MAF was a medical up at Interhealth in London which we had at the beginning of this week ... it's Abigail's second trip up to the 'big smoke' and we took the opportunity to walk along the Thames afterwards and take some photos with her by some of the tourist spots ... (for those of you non-Brits reading this ... the first photo is Mark & Abigail with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament behind and the second is Jenny & Abigail right under the London Eye!)
Abigail has been doing really well with her walking over the last couple of weeks ... and with some early Birthday money she received last week we took her to get measured for her first pair of proper shoes!! She's growing in confidence every day ... and we can see that she won't be relying on us for much longer to get from A to B on her feet!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Our First Roadtrip!

Fun with friends has been the theme of the last month or so ... catching up and passing on our news ... as we've mentioned before ... it's such a privilege to have this time before we head overseas. The week before last we had the chance to catch up with Justine, an old school friend of Jenny's and her three children ... we had a great day out together at Tilgate park ... with all four of the kids having lots of fun!!
We had a great first roadtrip too ... and managed to catch up with a whole host of people ... we visited our little village in Dorset and went back to our church down there (Yeovil Community Church) one last time! We also visited one of Abigail's little friends ... Isabelle ... they were born just two days apart last September ... they both enjoyed playing with each others toys!!!Here is Abigail with Jack and Meta ... a top couple who we got to know well when we lived in Dorset ... they let us come and stay with them for a few nights while we were down that way! Our schedule was jam-packed but they were the perfect hosts while we there ... as always! We then headed up to Birmingham and stayed with the lovely Lynch's (see below!) as well as meeting up with other friends ... Abigail and Toby had fun playing together while we were there! We drove home via Chorleywood and were able to spend some time with the Rivards (one of Jenny's closest friends and her husband who live in Canada!) while they were in the UK which was a real bonus ... can't wait to live it bit nearer them in a couple of months time!!
Unfortunately ... we did manage to pick up something we hadn't bargained for ... and that was some kind of bug which floored both Jenny and Abigail as soon as we got back ... so both have been feeling a bit blue ... and Mark has been running around looking after them along with Jenny's mum (it has been a real bonus to have that extra pair of hands!) Please pray for a quick recovery for all ... Abigail's still quite under the weather but Jenny's up and about again ... if not at a slower pace! It has meant that our second roadtrip due to start tomorrow has been cancelled for the time being ... we're hoping we can still make it north again before we go though.
For those of you interested in our target percentage ... the latest news is 78% ... woohoo ... this means that plans are being put in place for visa's and tickets for the fourth week in September!! Exciting stuff!! Love to all!