Back again?

We are heading back to the mother land in a few weeks time and it's not the marmite forcing the visit this time! The kids are all excited and champing at the bit...or wheel in Molly's case!!!

We have 2 teams from America with us at the moment, working in our ministry region in France, evangelisation events, working with the missionaries and church workers to offer practical, spiritual and at times physical support. It is great to get to know them, and to host some of them at our house, in return they are helping with decorating (and demolition) work around our house...
They all leave the beginning of August, which is when we head down to Strasbourg for a week. There is a 2-fold purpose, 1) To see Madeleine, a dear friend, and her family, plus visit others we know there, and 2) To present our mission, work and vision at a conference, hosted by one of the organisions that one of these U.S. teams are with... Got that?

We leave the Alsace on the 13th and stay in Calais for a night in a formula 1 motel, those that have ever stayed in a F1 will appreciate my trepidation...It is a necessary 'evil' as we take the 07:50 train the next morning!

We will drop the girls off at Pete's brother's, they will camp with their 4 cousins, Aunty & Uncle for a week leaving Pete & I to amuse ourselves for the week.

We will be sorting out a schedule for the 2 weeks we are in UK and hope to get to each of our parents, churches and families, also our mission H.Q. plus some friends; what is a holiday for after all?

The rough outline is;
-Pete & I will have a few days recluse in East Sussex to catch up, then try to do some deputation work 'sans enfants'...
-a trip to our HQ in Gerrards Cross and hopefully to Luton for the 1st weekend via Chelmsford. -Back to East Sussex to collect the kids then off to Hereford for a few days.
-On to Essex for the 2nd weekend, Ingatestone Elim on Sunday morning and Chelmsford Elim in the evening.
-We catch the train again on the 28th and head back to Belgium.

plans are always fluid, but we hope to see as many people as possible without caving in!!!

Hope to see some of you. 

Sad day

Without any warning, Poppy died on Monday.
We were still feeding her mornings and evenings with milky water in a syringe, she enjoyed this and had gotten quite proficient drinking this way. She would take too much sometimes and end up sneezing and blowing milk bubbles through her nose!!!

On the day in question it had been really hot, she was a bit warm so we had been encouraging her to drink water more during the day; after one session she was sneezing alot, and by the evening she was not really right. I gave her the evening feed and she sneezed more then started 'bouncing'. Within an hour she had died.
I think the sneezing burst something and she suffered a cerebral bleed causing her to fit.
Poor little thing, she is now buried with her mum in our garden.

Hopefully there will be happier blogs to follow,
enjoy the summer

Bubbles and Poppy

  

The Bubble got too big!

On Friday morning I got a shout from Pete to say that my guinea-pig (Bubbles) had given birth... normally it takes me ages to get up in the morning during school holidays, but on Friday I was up tout suite.
Sadly, of the 6 she had, only one was alive, and only just.
Pete, with his baby nursing background, was giving the tiny baby a warm bath to bring up it's temperature, it was the runt of the litter so concequently the tiniest, it was small, weak and closer to being dead that alive, it didn't even have the energy to squeek but was making a popping noise in it's nose/throat, we've heard it before in other dying guinea-pigs when they couldn't clear air passages... not a good sign, we called her Poppy.
I rubbed Poppy dry then gave her a small syringe full of warm milk with sugar, then gave her back to Bubbles.
Bubbles herself was really weak and rejected this tiny baby, she refused to eat or drink anything and was still losing blood following the births.
I neglected all else to be an intensive care nurse for these 2 weakening pets of ours, Bubbles didn't want to know the baby and Poppy, following all her instincts, followed Bubbles round faithfully.
The first night was the biggest challenge, if they were alive in the morning then there was a high chance of survival. Friday night, we all gave them what we thought might be our last cuddles and said goodnight.
The next morning we were elated to see them both snuggled up together, breathing.
Poppy has stopped popping, has stronger legs so doesn't wobble anymore, she can climb over the hay rather than it causing her to fall over, she now nibbles at the food we put in the cage and has a tiny squeek...
Bubbles, on the other hand, had given up, she was probably bleeding internally from having had so many babies, and couldn't get better, despite our best nursing efforts she died Saturday afternoon, so sad, she was such a beautiful and gentle piggy. We buried her in the garden and Molly made a twig cross to put in the place...
Just to get this in context...
We have had 2 American girls staying for a week, the day they left another arrived for 2 weeks, Pete bought a little girl from our French church round to stay the night, and I was preparing tarte flambe for the 14 guests we were expecting that evening, I was also making a cake, salad, etc for the meal, and rearranging the downstairs to accomodate us all... to throw a guinea-pig funeral into the equasion seemed about right.
Thank you Bubbles for being such a lovely piggy, and thank you for Poppy, she will be loved and looked after well.
piccies to follow