Car Upgrade

It's time to break radio silence. Zemiel and I have grown closer over the last few weeks while we were spending so much time together in New South Wales. We spent a day at CCAS catching up with past students and friends. We also attended a few playgroups with Leia and Becky.

I am greatly indebted to Ben and Becky for letting me stay at their place for (what ended up being) a week, and also to Sue and Glynn who let me housesit for few more days until our car loan was ready. Gaining said loan was really a comedy of errors. Between misunderstandings, delays, signing and faxing pages and a lot of phone calls made to the bank, we finally got our approval on Tuesday 24th May. I picked up the car on the Wednesday and started on the way home and arrived in Bowen on Saturday night. It sounds shorter than it really was, however, when the original plan was to be away for two weeks and that time doubles to 4, it takes its toll.

We believe, however, that the time away was used by God. For example, Zemiel has come back from the trip verbally expressing himself so much more than before. I've had a number of comments on how much he is now talking compared to the beginning of this year. He is also joining in with action songs and singing along. He is also sitting better for stories.

While we were away, Zem and I practiced a lot of remembering the events of the day and last night it all paid off. Yesterday, we went to the beach for a few hours and the boys swam and played at the park. At one point, we were eating lunch and a seagull landed on a post nearby, calling for food. Azariah took his piece of mandarin, walked over to the bird and reached up to offer it on his hand. The seagull refused and flew away. But that was the story that Zem retold us last night. It was a real break-through for us, as Zemiel has not told many stories. He continued to tell the story several times, adding more detail each time.

Azariah also has moved forward while Zem and I were gone. He spent a lot of his time with some family friends who also have little children. His spoken language and vocabulary has become quite outstanding. He helps with vacuuming the house and doing the laundry.