Wales

Our sabbatical is drawing to an end, this past weekend we visited friends in Peterborough and attended their church so see how things are done there. 

We then drove across to Wales to spend a couple of nights with my sister and her husband and to go to see the cottage that we are in the process of buying.

I won't show any photos of the cottage until the purchase has been completed. This is an exciting time for us, back in 1996, partly due to the recession and partly due to a builder not paying his bill, my husbands plumbing business folded. We lost our house and moved into rented property. Soon after this my husband gave up plumbing and went into the ministry.

We never thought we would have the opportunity to own a property again but God has provided, partly from my inheritance and partly through a miracle and we are able to buy a cottage in Wales. My Mother was Welsh and my family on her fathers side were Welsh. So to return to her beloved country is a blessing for us. We don't plan on moving there at this time, but will use the cottage for holidays for us and the family until such a time as we retire or decide to move on from here.

Yesterday the weather wasn't great and so I was unable to get good photos, I have taken these from a website showing some of the beautiful countryside close to where we are buying. I think you will agree Wales has some breath taking countryside. The photos show shots of the Élan Valley and Cambrian Mountains. The final photo is taken of my sister and I. 

                 

baby quilt

I have just finished the quilt for baby Lihle, the little boy that my daughter is caring for in South Africa. She continues to take him to visit his birth mother but at the moment she is not in a position to make decisions for her own life or his.

I made this quilt from fabric I have left over from other baby quilts I have made. I used part of a vintage quilt I had been given, for the backing. It is soft and snugly and I can't wait to see him all wrapped up in it. 

                                

                                

                                 

Care for the helpless

As you will know if you read my blog regularly, that my eldest daughter and her husband are missionaries in South Africa.they have their own two little boys whom they adopted as babies and my daughter, as well as working part time as children's pastor and alongside her husband homeschool their boys, also visits the homeless shelter and helps out wherever she can. 

This shelter is not like those we find in the UK, they are grim places with hundreds of people living in them including families with young children. Many if the tenants are addicts and th women often work the streets to support their habits and/or their families. 

Some tenants are young street children who the older tenants will prey on and sell drugs to. 

My daughter gets to know the women and children who live there and is often the port of call to get people to hospital when need be as ambulances will refuse to go there.

Recently one of the young ladies went into labour, my daughter managed to get her to the hospital where her son was born addicted to the same drugs as his mother uses. She struggled to take care of him as both she and her baby went through withdrawals. My daughter inferred to take him for a couple of nights to give her a break and to give him the love and are he needed. 

She took him back to the shelter last week but was unable to leave him, his mother was in no state to take care of him. She has taken him back for further visits but his mother is now saying that she wishes for him to be adopted. Only she can make that move and talk to social services which at the moment she is in no fit state to do. So my daughter and her husband continue to care for this sweet little baby.

 If you would like to visit her blog www.littlefingersandfrosting.blogspot.co.uk you will get a better story from her. Those of you who pray, please pray for this baby and his mother, for healing for them both. Also please pray for my daughter and her family, the longer they have this baby in their care the more attached they will become and the harder it will be to hand him on to either his mother or an adoptive family. But we know that at his time the place for him to be is with a loving family who know how to care for him and to help him through the withdrawals for his addiction. Thank you.

                       

With my daughter

                        

With his mother

                       

I have started a quilt for him that will hopefully stay with him wherever he goes.

It's been a busy couple of weeks

It seems like I have been away for ages. Tonight I will sit down and catch up on all your posts.

 The beginning of last week we went to a conference which was a great time of Spiritual teaching and blessing. From there we drove to look at a cottage in Wales which we are hoping to buy and then back home for one night before driving down to a sweet little town on the South Coast called Millford on Sea. We lived down on the SC for three years while hubby was at Bible College and really love that area. 

As you know it was hubby's 60th on Sunday so I had booked a weekend at a pottery where we stayed in a lovely little loft above the pottery he spent Saturday joining with five others on a pottery course. During his time I went exploring the beach and a couple of local towns. The weather was glorious and we had a great time.

 We then drove to our friends retreat in East Sussex for a couple of nights, spending yesterday picnicking with them down on the beach. The sea was wild with enormous waves and the sunshine warm and wonderful. 

Last night as we arrived back to house we felt blessed and refreshed, if not a little tired :)

This coming Saturday we will be continuing the birthday celebrations with lunch in London with some of the family. 

                         

The hayloft with its spiral stairs, our evening supper venue The Smugglers Inn, a selection of the pots made at Vinegar Hill Pottery 

                         

Millford on Sea and Lymington

                         

Rottingdean. Hubby pretending to surf on a rock till the waves came crashing in and he had to run for it!