Some brief news updates after a long hiatus:

• Charis had an eye operation in July to correct a squint. She was very brave and the operation was successful! We're grateful. She still wears very cute glasses
• David's off to Japan on a work trip for 10 days. He will be in Tokyo for a week working with partners and clients there, and in Nagoya for a few days seeing friends and sorting out company business.
• James is heading towards the end of his 3-year maintenance chemo treatment at the end of the year, and starting primary school (at Grove) next year.
• Charis has been enjoying a playgroup four mornings a week and is going to the same wonderful preschool that James has been at next year.
• I've posted some photos from David's sister Anni's visit last weekend

Since our holiday it's been the flu season in Cape Town - swine flu, other flu, and serious pneumonia going around. We've all been sick in turns and James has spent quite a while off school - two weeks a few weeks ago, and then the first three days this week. He could have gone back earlier the first time but we didn't want to risk him getting a more serious infection. He's back to school today. Tomorrow is their dress-up-as-a-Letterland-character day which he's really excited about (yes, he's going to be Jumping Jim).

We had lots of fun celebrating Charis's birthday although she was sick around it. One of the highlights was that the International Space Station was flying directly over Cape Town just around sunset - Danielle and I spotted it the night before (when it came past a bit later) and then on the day we all went outside and saw this yellow "star" moving rapidly across the sky until it disappeared in the Earth's shadow. The next day I found out that the space shuttle came past 5 minutes later and that night they docked. It's fantastic thinking "there are people on that thing whizzing round way up there!"

I've put up some photos mostly from Joy's visit in June but also of us being silly - hopefully more will follow soon.

We got back on Saturday from a wonderful holiday in the Eastern Cape. We really benefited from having a concentrated chunk of time together as a family... and we got to see lots of animals, which we loved!

We had been praying particularly that James would be able to see some cheetah as they are his favourite animal ... one evening just before sunset we saw another family who said they had seen some cheetah nearby - we raced off to where they had seen them, and drove along the road but couldn't see them at all! I thought I should turn around to drive back and try find them again, and just as I was doing a U-turn they popped up over the horizon - really special. We also got to go to a cheetah breeding farm where we were all able to stroke a tame cheetah and play with some lion cubs! (Pictures to follow...) Charis's chest cleared up fairly well, but she was fairly distressed by seeing a half-eaten buffalo in Addo ("I don't think it was very good for him...").

Yesterday James had his next bone marrow test (which he wasn't not looking forward to but went fine! results should be back next week some time) and amazingly his great-grandfather was in the same ward for a scheduled check-up at the same time, so we shared a room! Then he started school this morning, and also really enjoyed it - a great relief!

We're just sitting at the airport about to go to PE for an amazing treat - a holiday in the Eastern Cape, going to the Mountain Zebra National Park and Addo Elephant National Park for 9 days!

The last few weeks have been busy in a good way with people and work. We're looking forward to a time of relaxing.

We've just come back from a wonderful four days in Volmoed, in Hermanus (where we've been before a few times). We caught up on sleep (David has only struggled with sleep for one night out of the last two weeks!), had good time with God, praying and reading Tested by Fire by John Piper (available online as The Hidden Smile of God), which gave us fresh encouragement about God's sovereign purpose... cried, played with James and Charis, made spiders, went for walks, went for a family picnic at a beautiful waterfall, collected fir cones, made a braai and some roaring fires to keep us warm in the evenings, watched movies, looked at the stars (and Venus and Jupiter) and felt very very grateful! We've uploaded some photos of the holiday.

At the start of our adventure walk to the waterfall

Peeking through the giraffe tree

Content
(more photos here...)

On the way we were listening to a recording of the story of David and Goliath, which asked the question "David didn't want any armour to protect him. What was David trusting to protect him?" Charis answered "God", and then a few seconds later, "And maybe his monster suit". Both James and Charis have a wonderful sense of humour which really makes us laugh! (Although I think she was serious this time!) When we asked them what they enjoyed most about the holiday, James said "Playing with Charis" and Charis said "The tablecloth"...

James was nervous again going back to school, so we are trying to help him with this...

And we have even more to look forward to because this coming week Joy (Danielle's sister) is coming to visit, which is so exciting!

Last week, James had a bone marrow biopsy, which he has every three months. The hospital called us last Friday to say that they had seen something funny in his bone marrow, from the biopsy and they would like to do more tests. So, on Tuesday he had tests on him for TB of the Bone Marrow, CMV virus and Glandular Fever. The tests have all come back negative and so the doctors have said that they want to do a bigger bone marrow biopsy than usual on James to see what is going on with him. It is tomorrow morning at 8am. We would love some prayer - for peace and grace and healing. We have been trying not to react too much until we know for sure what is going on.

Some other news...

James loved school last term but coming back after the Easter break he has been incredibly anxious about it. It hasn't helped to have lots of public holidays and some time off for medical things which have made it very stop-start and not given him a chance to get used to it again. We've found this very emotional - his teacher has been fantastically helpful.

We have had my parents here this week and we have had a lovely time together. It has been such a blessing to us (Grandad did his famous making of the boats for the kids! Charis is very proud of her pink boat!!) We all felt so sad dropping them off at the airport this evening!

James had a fantastic first day at school today. A bit nervous (the butterflies in his tummy meant he didn't eat much breakfast), but when we went to fetch him he came running out saying "I love school!" It's the honeymoon phase but it's great to start off so well.

Charis had a fun time with Danielle at Rhodes Memorial while he was there which was great; before she left Mama Mavis got a fright from a gecko in the bathroom; Charis and I went to rescue it and in the end she caught it (by accident I think) in the bath mat and was very proud of herself.

We've uploaded photos from the first day (as well as a few from saying goodbye to Andy and Louise and Mia at the airport)

The world awaits (more photos here...)

It's been a month of refocusing and recovery...

Danielle and I have still felt lots of residual stress from November and December ... I've been struggling to sleep very often and we've both been tired ... Positively we feel like this whole period has pushed us to think through what's important in life and again, and actually prioritize what we need to like never before. Putting the big stones in first - for us that means time with God in prayer and the Bible and worship, quality time with each other and the kids, and having time set aside to planning and decision making and sorting out finances (the things we naturally avoid), as well as good time with friends and family. This has been an encouraging process - we're engaging with life in a new way, and we know that in the long term it'll make a great difference to how we live. One step at a time.

James is starting preschool tomorrow - five mornings a week! It's a wonderful place run by an amazing woman - just 2 classes of 8 kids each, and she has a special place for children going through health issues so she has some understanding of the kinds of challenges he has been facing... He's a bit nervous but mostly excited (when we visited the school with him he was surprised that there were no desks to write exams - in his head school was school and he's heard about exams from our matric friends...) This is going to be a big adjustment to the daily schedule. One implication is that hopefully Charis will have good quality time with Danielle in the mornings - something she's lacked.

James's liver has been a lot better over the last two weeks - there's still discussion about whether it was caused by his drugs or a virus - he's stayed off his anti-convulsant and they've adjusted his chemo slightly, and are investigating what they would need to do if it turns out to be the chemo that's the problem (this could be fairly serious if it developed).

It was also sad to say goodbye to Anni and Richard, Debbie and Jonny and Sammy (going back to Joburg and Bedford), and then Andy and Louise and Mia (moving to the UK). James and Charis really bonded with Sammy and love Mia (as well as the grownups!) so this was hard for them. (We're buying Andy and Louise's car through a deal with my work, which is great, but no compensation!)

This last few weeks it's felt as though emotions ranging from joys to griefs have been running hand in hand...

We had a week away with David's family in Vic Bay. The first time we've all gone away together since we all got married... it was really special to all be together.

Unfortunately we all seemed to contract a stomach bug while we were away, one by one (with the except of Andy and Louise and Mia) - on the Friday night James was throwing up half the night, and again once on Saturday evening; Danielle had it on Sunday afternoon (very relieved that we all made the trip down OK); Charis threw up on Sunday night, and David and James's stomachs have both been out of order most of this week... (they finally seem back to normal now)

On the way back last Sunday we heard the shocking news that Tori (one of James's few fellow child patients at the hospital) had a massive cardiac arrest and died. It left us all reeling... she had an infection and was put in ICU but then seemed to be stabilising - this was totally unexpected and hard to understand.

James still seemed very lethargic after he was over the worst of the bug so Danielle took him back to the paediatrician - his blood tests showed that his liver function is abnormal again, and his white blood cell counts were low. So they've taken him off all his oral chemo for this week (to help his blood recover before his intravenous Vincristine due next week) and his anti-convulsant as well, which should help us see if the liver is being affected by either of those drugs.

James also had an ultrasound of his liver on Tuesday morning and it showed no structural problems which is good news. And Charis and Danielle both went for blood tests at the same time so it was a family outing!

In between all of this we were celebrating Christmas. We had a great time on Christmas morning with the kids reading through the story of how Jesus was born - right from the angel appearing to Elizabeth until John the Baptised baptised Jesus. Charis is convinced that Jesus died on the cross for our fins - you know, the things on a fish like a tail - although she is gradually admitting that that's a joke.

Danielle and I are both feeling quite exhausted and stretched. It's felt like there are months that are easier and harder and this last month or two has definitely been harder! We had some good talks while we were away about how to recharge in times of stress - both of us get our energy from keeping our eyes fixed on a big vision of God - but didn't expect to need that battle to intensify straight away! I've been reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper which has been a refreshing and challenging stimulus.

Over the last month James has been feeling nauseous a fair amount (he hasn't really struggled with this over the previous few months) - often retching at the sight of food and/or not wanting to eat, which has been quite stretching... it's been a little bit better the last week but still there. On Thursday they did some blood tests on him and his liver enzyme levels were quite high, which could be a cause, so tomorrow we're taking him to see a gastroenterologist about it (they told us not to worry or panic! Nice reassuring people, these medical folks are :-))

In the mean time we've had Joy (Danielle's sister) staying with us for the last week which has been lovely for all of us. The next few weeks are fairly full of family and friends coming over - we're going away for a week with all of David's immediate family which will be really special (Andrew and Louise and Mia are about to move to England, Debbie and Jonny and Samuel are visiting from England, and Anni and Richard from Joburg - and his parents)