We have arrived...

... safe and sound and even settled in already. It is great, weird, awesome, crazy, normal, funny, exciting and many more things to be back on board Logos Hope here in Malta. When we first arrived I thought: "Man, WHY did we come???" But that's a notion I have most of the times when arriving after travelling and being exhausted and tired. The travel was neither bad nor long, but still exhausting. My big bro Daniel brought us to the airport (Thanks!!) and I was busy on the back seat entertaining Ned and trying to keep Ced sleeping and was wondering how I would survive. Arriving on the airport, Ned insisted on pushing his own stroller, and as we had our hands full with baby, thousands of suitcases and two trolleys we just let him do it, and he managed not to run anyone over, but there were a couple of close shaves :o).

On the airport already I realized that his nose started to run a bit, and later-on the eyes started to water, and the next day he had a cold, fully on, a real waterfall coming out of his nose and his eyes were so teary, that he would tell me: "Eyes, crying!" and he wanted me to wipe them, poor little chap.

He was a good little boy most of the time, but hadn't slept all day, and slowly we were able to feel that. Luckily the flight was only 2 1/2h, unfortunately though, we were delayed for 1/2h, and for you and me 1/2h isn't much but for you or me travelling with one or even two kids 1/2h feel like eternity, but we did survive and Ned happily entertained several other passengers on the flight while running up and down the aisle for the first half of the flight up until dinner. Unfortunately our row was the very last one to have dinner cleared away and we'd noticed quite some time before we could get up and out, that someone was, uhm, a bit SMELLY, but we had to sit there and wait and then he had fallen sleep... only 1/2h before touch down!! He was NOT pleased with us waking him up to get out of the plane, NOT at all, and he let us and everyone within50 miles know about it. We were the last passengers to leave the air plane and the Capitan actually carried my carry-on case down the stairs as Ben had his hands full with an upset two year old :o)

Getting our luggage and getting out happened really quickly and within no time we were sitting in the car, heading towards the ship and getting out at the other end again, still with a not very happy two year old. He was so scared, I think, that he was clinging to me like a little monkey and every time someone wanted to say hello to me the siren would go on again... I felt soooo sorry for him, being sick, tired and all... once we were in the cabin he refused to have his shoes taken off, or as a matter of fact anything taken off, but he still, uhm, smelled really badly, so I had to, and ou how signal-red that poor butt of his was. I finally managed to get him in bed, snuggle in next to him and help him fall asleep which he did until 9 o'clock only waking up once at 5. Ben camped on the floor in Ned's cabin for the first night.

Well, and now we're here and it feels like we'd never left, okay some people are different, but there still heaps of people around we know (or who know Ned) and it's great to chat and catch up. Ned's been soooooooooo much better, made already a couple of new friends and his nose isn't as runny anymore. Ced's as easy-going as can be, he let us sleep for 8h last night (good on ya boy!!) and is just happy watching people and smiling at them.

My dis-likes and likes...

I'm thinking about our going to the ship a lot lately (fancy that, I mean d-day is tomorrow) and I wondered what I was looking forward to and what, uhm, not so. Somehow often it is so much easier to focus on dis-likes, on the uncomfortable, the not so nice, the things one hates:

• the travel to get there... okay it is very short compared with what we have travelled before, but still, this time we have two kiddos
• not being able to cook myself
• living in a small cabin
• lots of noise around
• Ben being gone from Saturday until Wednesday and I have to deal with two kids on my own in a new environment AND a voyage (okay, I do know the ship, but it'll be so different now, e.g. having two kids, living there only temporarily, many new people)
• food with tuna in it
• chicken and rice (or hopefully they don't have that on Logos Hope..???)
• not being able to go out by myself
• having to wear cultural appropriate clothing (long sleeves and long pants and high neck line)
• and last but not least, still having to finish packing

BUT, I do NOT want to focus on the negative aspects, I want to be positive, encouraging, rejoicing, radiating joy and the love of Jesus, humorous, flexible, teachable, open.

• My friends... man, I'm SO much looking forward catching up with you guys, uhm, girls :o)
• Christian input every day
• being able to go down to deck 4 and just have a chat with people
• fundeck (hahaha) he hasn't had to many opportunities to play with others his own age
• experience new cultures and people
• Adventure
• Seeing God at work in my life as well as in the ministry and in people around me
• the library
• great photography opportunities and maybe being able to learn from others
• seeing God's amazing creation, His signature
• international community
• English worship
• having many babysitters at hand, hahaha
• unique food experiences (uhm, I hope I can cope)
• seeing the changes of the last year... I'm sure there must have been many changes, hopefully more positive ones than negative ones
• catching up :o)
• the voyage
  (hopefully it'll be smooth)

See?? There are many more positive points, and I'm pretty sure there are many more which I've forgotten. I am very grateful that we have this opportunity to visit the ship again, once I see beyond all the things which still needed to be done before leaving, that is:o)))). Well, I should go now and get done those many hundreds of things I have to get done before we'll be picked up by my brother tomorrow at 1430h, sigh... it'll be a late night once again....

Life just snaps back into "normal", but with a grateful heart

One moments your life is shaken to the core and the next you're busy again being concerned getting all those millions of things packed which I deem to need in our 6 weeks on board the Logos Hope.

My dad was discharged out of hospital on Wednesday, I even had the honour of taking him home after staying with him for the afternoon together with Cedric. He's doing really fine, he is very, VERY grateful to have bit longer here on good old earth and he's happy to be back home again. It's weird that he's back home within 2 days of discovering his heart condition. Theoretically he would have been able to even leave on Tuesday, but the wound, where they had stuck in the heart catheter had been bleeding a bit, so he had to stay one more day. He's still a bit sore and has problems walking, which was to be expected (but came as a surprise for my good old dad), but heart-wise no problem whatsoever. Mum and dad wanted to spend some more time with Ned before we leave for the ship so I left Ned with them on Wednesday and picked him up again today. I tried to explain to him that Opa has a bad AUA on his tummy, and he really was concerned about Opa and would say now and then: "Opa, aua, belly" but once he saw my dad and was shown the band-aid, which isn't very big nor impressive, he couldn't really understand, why Opa could carry him, or bend down to him or do all the things Opa normally would do with him. When I was leaving from their place, I told Ned again that he had to be "lieb" (nice) to Opa, because Opa was sick, and when my mum called me yesterday she told me, that at one point he remembered that he had to be nice and said: "Opa, lieb!" (Heart-melting-moment).

Well, and I am busy getting ready to leave for 6 weeks again, how I despise packing my life in a couple of suitcases, but I guess that's the price you pay for living a rather not-so-normal life, but rather one which is a bit more adventurous. I have to admit, sometimes it overcomes me and I would love to be a bit more normal, living in a home, not just a temporary place which we call home but doesn't really feel like a home because you don't wanna put much finances or effort into making it nice an comfy because you know you'll be leaving again soon. Here I am, admitting it, that at times I do COVET a normal life, living in your own house, being able to hamster things (or resources how my dad-in-law calls it.... you never know when you might need it again). The weeks leading up to a travel, no matter where it goes and for how long I will be gone, is always the worst. I do NOT want to go (no matter how exciting the travel destination might be), I do NOT want to PACK, I do NOT want to do all those things need doing before you leave for some time, but I guess that's a necessary part of my rather adventurous life... at least partially adventurous, at times it can be rather boring and normal, which I do enjoy as well :o)

One thing which I had to get done before leaving is getting started with vaccinations for Ced, so yesterday we made our way to the Paediatrician for a generally check up.... Well, I have to tell you that my 3 months old is "Mr. Micheline-Man 2010", I knew he was, uhm, rather big, but not that big: he sports proud 8,4kg on the scales with 64cm in hight. Ned is 15kg.... so Ced weighs already more than half of Ned's weight. Ned was big when he was a baby, but I think Ced's bigger, he wears cloths for babies double his age, hmmm .... but he's a happy chappy and I hope he'll stretch out once he's walking :o)))) (Maybe it runs the family: When my big brother was a baby he could have won the award "Mr. Buddah 1974", and I have to admit, I wasn't no small baby either). Well, Mr. Micheline-man is generally a very happy bubba, doesn't cry much, loves to smile at you (especially with his milk bottle in his mouth) and makes the cutest baby noises ever, and he's quite a good sleeper, yesterday he let us sleep until almost 6:30am :o)

Well, as it is already 2 am I should go to bed now, I really should, my brain starts doing funny things to me, and hopefully bubba will let us sleep until 6:30 again... well, good night world....

Quick update

My dad had his surgery, the Stent is in place and he is recovering really well and might be discharged from hospital on Wednesday already, Praise and Thanks be to our God!!!!! They discovered that he even had a minor heart attack on Saturday. I am so grateful that I can have my dad bit longer, and Ned and Ced their Opa !!!

Could you pray??

Life happens!! One moment all you kind of worry about is those suitcases which need to be packed again (I hate packing) and then you get a phone call the the suitcases loose their significance and everything falls out of focus.

My dad's in hospital. My healthy dad, my dad who always jokes around, my dad who looks much younger then he is, MY dad. He had a feeling of pressure on his chest for the last couple of weeks now and then, but didn't really worry about it, because it would always go away again. I also wasn't too much worried, because bad things only happen to people we don't know, not to oneself or ones family, right?? I did ask him if it was in the area of the heart, but he said no, so I left it with that. Maybe I should have kicked my brain in gear and make him go to the doctor, but I didn't, because he said it wasn't in the area of the heart. He went to the doctor today though and my mum just called that he was send straight to the hospital to have surgery today. One of his heart vessel is narrowed, not totally blocked and he'll have one of those surgeries where they put a catheter in, don't know what it is called in English, but it isn't an open heart surgery or anything. It's such a shock. I guess all those things always come as a shock. We'll pray that everything will work out okay, but it is a comfort to know, that my dad is in God's almighty hands, no matter what happens, his name is written in the book of life, he knows that something better comes after he dies, that he will be with his Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. I don't wanna loose my dad, but if it was his time to go, I know where he's going and that I will see him again, once it is my time to go.

Do you know, where you will be going?? Where do YOU stand with God, the creator of heaven and earth?? I want to challenge YOU to think about it, because things like that don't have a pre-warning, they just happen and then it might be too late to think about it.

Old friends

I have to admit, I am a natural loner. I can do things alone without a problem, I don't suffer too much if I don't have contact with another human being, which is another human being besides my lovely husband or someone with whom you can have a normal conversation with sentences longer than 2 words (animal sounds, vehicle imitations and machinery noises do NOT count as words).

Honestly I don't mind! Sometimes I realize that I haven't had a conversation with anyone besides my husband and maybe our landlady in several days. I love to go roller balding alone, or for walks alone, or running alone (the other day I went for a run in the forest, at night and I was wondering if I'm kind of a bit "psycho", running alone in the dark in the forest, but I love it), in fact sometimes I think people can be so distracting and irritating :o) Often with strangers I feel uncomfortable and awkward, especially if you don't *CLICK* and all you can think of is talking about the weather (which of course is a very important topic, but after a couple of minutes you, again, don't have anything to say). Hmm, as you can see, I'm not so much a people person. I know I can talk like a book and "hide" behind it, saying many silly things just to avoid the dreaded silence, but still, everything feels stiff and awkward. With friends it's a totally different picture. If I have the chance to meet friends, meaning REAL friends, I love it. And with real friends you can even be silent together without feeling stupid or strange.

I have many friends all over the world and often we don't have much contact because of the great distance (another silly thing about me is that I hate phoning), but once we are together again, we pick up were we left it off. And I do soo much appreciate those friendships and wished those wonderful people weren't spread all over the world and we wouldn't have to have those breaks in between contact.

On Friday though I had a chance to pack my two boys in the car and go and meet one of my oldest and best of friends. She's one of four girls and as a teenager I loved visiting them A LOT. It had a feeling of "Pride and Prejudice", although I didn't know and love that novel back them. But imagine a house full with a mum who has problems hearing and four talkative girls who have to speak loudly, so that the mum would understand, I guess you get the picture :o). Sometimes it felt really good to be back in my quiet home again.

Well, my friend Liane got married and moved up north, and of course I also got married and moved around all over the place, so we don't have a chance to meet to often. Well, she's down south for a visit, and I grabbed the opportunity and packed the car with my two boys and all those couple thousands of things you really need for two kids and went to visit them. And it was like in the good old times: three of the four girls were present, the mum whose hearing hasn't improved, the quiet dad (whom you often forget because he is so quiet) and additional one husband and several kids. If I thought that it was loud back then, it was nothing compared with how it is nowadays:o)))) But nonetheless it was such a blessing catching up with old friends and knowing you're still friends although your lives have gone so different from each others.

Ned is much better with people than me, I think, he immediately grabbed Liane's husband Guido's finger and dragged him to the toys to play with him. Liane's dad got the same treatment. His comment was: "I never held a little boy!". Understandable, he himself had 4 daughters, and so far there are only granddaughters:o)))). Which might excuse the fact, that -when we went for a walk- Ned got himself a bright pink doll stroller and fell deeply in love with it :o)

P.S.

I just thought I need to let you know: it's now a couple hours later, I DID fight the laundry monster and everything is washed, hung up on the line or folded and put away in the drawers, the dishes are done, I'm out of my PJs AND the weather did a turn to the better.... although looking out right now again, I can see some dark clouds coming over those hills over there, hmmmmm