Dolly

Contrary to appearances Lee & Joan have a new puppy. Peet just melts at the sight of her - so do Lee & Joan for that matter. She is very cute - and very young - Lee & Joana nd Louisa have the bite marks to prove it. Her name is Dolly.

Harry's Blessing

Harry was 3 and a half weeks old on his blessing day - and bright eyed, strong of neck and beautiful to look at. We are all a bit enamoured.

Roger blessed Harry - assisted by Tom - with all that is important in life - health - wisdom - family and friends.

We all took turns - Becky and Trav coped well with hardly seeing their baby for a couple of hours.

Now we can look forward to seeing the rest of his very beautiful and blessed life.

Max ...

..slept with us last night. I am not good at teaching children to sleep in their own beds - I think Roger would be better if left to his own devices - at least he would try harder.

He would have turfed Max out last night - but that is only because he didn't have the conversation I had with Max before Roger came to bed.

It seems that Max would like four kids - or at least he definitely wants an even number. Two boys (named Wolf and Fox) and two girls (Pheasant and Finch). It would be weird to call your kids some animal names - like Dog or Horse. Wolf should be the oldest because that way if Max dies there will still be a priesthood holder in the family.

They will have a cool house too - there will be scaffolding around the roof so that you can play on the roof - which will be flat and there will be rope ladders coming off the roof that finish about 2 metres above a foam pit so you can jump into it. Except that when Wolf and Fox and Pheasant and Finch are little they'll make the rope ladder longer.

Also Max is going to make sure that there is always work to do at the house so that the kids learn to work.

If Roger had been there for that conversation he would have tucked him up in bed with us too.

And to top it all off Max saw a snake on the road when he was on the way up to see Robert and Samuel - they weren't home so he ran down to Granny's and phoned us in tears to come get him - but it was ok because Granny gave him Tiny Teddy's while he waited. He broke into tears when he saw me again. It was very traumatic.

He absolutely needed to sleep with us last night. And that's why I am not very good at teaching children to sleep in their own beds.

48 km

Because Max swore he would not be seen in public with them, Jesse and Roger wore lycra to the Pine bike ride. (Roger only wore the pants - but since Tina commented on his 'muscular legs' it may not be the last time!)

It was a long one - 24k each way and Max was the first kid back.

Thomas

A quick Thomas update - he's been going to Melbourne whenever time and funds allow - Kathleen is visiting us this weekend.

The funds are mainly from a labouring job - and the rest of his time is used up around our place - planting a mulberry tree for example.

He is serving as the stake YSA rep and loves it.

Reading and writing fills in the rest of his days - he has a remarkable talent for writing. The script he wrote for the YSA film festival won best screenplay. The film was cute and funny - all about sock puppets.

He also tells great bedtime stories and is in great demand from Max and Louisa.

All of which is to fill in time before he embarks on his honours year at university next year.

The Bovilia's

We spend a lot of time talking and reading about families who have different, often less advantageous, lives than we do. We've been working on this for many years. We spend many Sunday nights talking about war and it's results. We try to understand the causes and the affects on everyday people. Trips to Laos and the middle east have helped too of course.

We often talk about Africa - it features heavily in Jesse's studies and it's a fascinating and though provoking place. But as Louisa said - it's different when someone you know tells you about what happened to them.

The Bovilia family arrived in Brisbane a bit over a week ago. They had spent 6 years in a UN refugee facility in South Africa having left the DRC (the Congo) as refugees. It was pure good fortune that the Department of Immigration put them in a house in our ward until a permanent house is found.

There are 9 people in the family and for many years they were living in one room - not one bedroom - just one room. They joined the church 3 years ago and a member of the church worked to get them a two bedroom flat. They were frequently without food and were always scared to sleep because their flat could be broken into.

When we suggested they go for a walk, Lucie (the Mum) was scared because there was no-one on the streets - which is a bad sign to her.

We took the kids to the park for a play one afternoon - I think they had never been to a park - they didn't know how to swing, or how to play with any of the park swings and climbing stuff. Louisa, Peet and Max demonstrated and they caught on quickly - laughing and screaming with excitement.

The climbing frames were extra hard and they needed help to work out how to climb the tree - but they sure did love it.

But after an hour or so of really hard work playing on the swings they asked 'can we race?' Of course. 'Where can we race?' Anywhere. 'But in South Africa there are many strangers in the park.' It took just a moment for the kids to show them they could race anywhere in the park.

Their family story is so interesting but hopefully from now on it will be less eventful - they will be sent to a permanent house this week which is unlikely to be in our ward - but how lucky are we to have had them in our ward this week.

Lucky

We can't believe our luck - the day before Harry joined us Lindsay Jane's new baby boy arrived. Lindsay is a pro at baby boys and has produced another beauty. We can't wait to see him in person next week.