gone in sixty seconds...

The last three weeks have flown by in a blur of feeding, changing nappies and putting loads of washing through! Benjy is growing well and the midwife was very impressed by how much weight he'd put on when she saw him on Tuesday. Nights are a bit chaotic, and I am re-discovering the sinking feeling you get at 4am when after changing a baby who has managed to wet himself, his clothes and the changing mat, he is finally clean and dry ... and fills the new nappy, taking us back to square one! At least with a second child you know that this phase really doesn't last forever!

Simon is enjoying life. His language is coming on very well (in both French and English). He loves verbs, and telling people what to do, so we get lots of "Sit down!" "Close it!" "Catch it!" and of course the very independent "Simon do it!" We can have more coherent conversations with him now, exchanges where his side of things show real understanding, rather than seeming to be random replies to our comments. He likes to tell (and re-tell) stories about things that have happened to him, or books that he has had read to him. He is also a big Postman Pat and In The Night Garden fan, and does a good impression of Iggle Piggle (for those in the know!). He loves jumping in puddles, and we did well to buy him a pair of waterproof dungarees recently, although once his wellies have started filling up with water it isn't long before it rises up to his trousers anyway!

oh dear...

... Bedfordshire only has 5 days of grit left (maybe 4 by now!).

Our garden yesterday:

credit crunch

An interesting article from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity about a Christian response to the current economic crisis:

Read it here

Benjamin Thomas Deneufchâtel

… was born at 4am on Sunday 25th January, weighing 7 lb 2 oz (3.25kg).

I am very thankful to God that my back stayed well right up to the end of the pregnancy, that labour did eventually start naturally so that I didn’t have to be induced, that I was able to stay active throughout labour and didn’t need pain relief … and most of all we are very thankful for the privilege of being parents to this gorgeous little boy!

Simon is fascinated by Benjy, and loves to stroke his head (“tout doux”) and give him kisses and cuddles. He was a bit unsettled by this huge change in our lives (an intruder in his little kingdom!) and was naughtier than usual last week, but he already seems to be adjusting to things.

not just waiting around...

This baby is now officially overdue - according to the English due-by date anyway - but we're keeping busy and enjoying ourselves. There would be no point just sitting around wondering when n°2 was going to turn up!

Today we went and explored the woods at Chicksands with Auntie Ali...

support

I thought I would follow up the last post, where I mentioned the notes I'm writing on support-raising for SIM France, with a quick post about our own support-raising.

I didn't realise how complicated it would be to calculate where we had got to in raising our monthly support. At the moment, we have about 60% promised by people who have given us a definite figure, and most of whom have already started to contribute each month. (The money we currently receive is held in our SIM account to be used for moving costs and necessary purchases on arrival in Benin.) But we also have a church and several individuals who have pledged to support us but not yet given a figure. If you are among them, expect to hear from us soon!

Another thing which makes it complex is that our support is calculated in Euros, but part of it is given in pounds by UK supporters. Apart from the fact that any fluctuation of the exchange rate will have an effect on how much we actually receive in Euros, the recent strength of the Pound means that if someone pledged to give £30 a month a year ago, at the time that gift would have been worth about 45€ ... but on today's exchange rate it would only leave us with 33€ - quite a difference!!

Of course, no one in the UK is earning more because of this, so our solution is not to ask our supporters to increase their giving, but to find more supporters, and this will be our task over the next few months.

Despite this sounding very technical and dry, support-raising has been an exciting time as we've seen so many people interested in becoming partners with us, not only in financial giving but by their prayers and practical help. It's been wonderful to see our team coming together, made up of friends, family and even people we didn't know before! On our side, we want to do our best to make sure that we communicate well with our partners, through our newsletters but also through personal contact. We would like to be able to support them in prayer as they also seek to serve God in their daily lives.

the waiting game?

Although this baby isn't due until Thursday of next week, people are already starting to ask me if I've felt any twinges and saying they hope I won't have to wait too long. I am a bit impatient to see him or her after nearly nine months of pregnancy, and it is a bit weird to know that labour could kick off at any moment, but I'm not in any hurry.

For a start, I'm sleeping well at the moment, and very much enjoying it, knowing that soon sleep will be in short supply! And I'm enjoying time spent with Simon, playing with Duplo or looking at books.

Another consideration is that Simon's birthday is so close to Christmas. This year, with having his first party, I realised that it was a lot to think about birthday and Christmas at the same time. So the further this baby's birthday can be from Christmas, the better! We'll have time to get over Christmas before having to concentrate on organising another birthday party and so on.

I'm also fortunate enough not to have got very big, and not to have a lot of common late-pregnancy niggles. Apart from bad heartburn and feeling a bit heavier than usual, I am in very good health. Even my back is holding up well, praise God!

I'm also working on preparing some notes for SIM France. These will help French missionaries to raise their support. We had some excellent training last year at All Nations from Myles Wilson, whose book on support-raising, "Funding the Family Business" (see website) is available here and we would recommend it to anyone raising their own support. However, it is only available in English, which is an obstacle for some French missionaries and explains why SIM France want to put together their own notes in French.