Photos of the boys

Here are a few photos from the last weeks.

Zekiah

Azariah

Zemiel

And now... some incredibly rare photographs of all three boys actually getting along with each other.

Zekiah is now five months old. He has started eating rice cereal, and loves pear added to it. I guess that makes him a bit of a sweet tooth. He has just started to roll over from tummy to back and has recently had some restless nights with sore gums. Unless he is in a growth spurt, he generally sleeps through the night.

Zemiel and Azariah both love Zekiah. Zemiel has a special bond though and is so very gentle with him. One of Zemi's big joys is to hold Ki for a while, or have Ki lie on his tummy.

Answered Prayers

Hi everyone. Yes, it has been a while since I posted. No, we didn't get that house previously pictured. It was a bit of a sore point for a while and every time I pulled up the blog intending to write something, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So there it stayed. Suffice to say that the building inspection showed some issues that our finances couldn't rectify. Instead, we have spent the last six weeks looking for a new place to live and we finally found one. Well actually, we found two. One in Pleystowe and one in Andergrove. We put an offer on our favourite (Andergrove) yesterday and last night the agent rang and said that the owner's accepted. Hooray! We think that this is God's pick for us. We think this for a couple of reasons.

First: Two days ago, I was going to make an offer on the Pleystowe property and God 'lightning bolted' me - twice. I was dialling the number of the agent and I was praying: 'God, if you don't want me to ring, you need to do something major like crash my computer' - and the program I was working on suddenly flashed and gave up the ghost. Okay, I thought. perhaps a coincidence, but if Sally (my co-worker) walks into my office now, then I know something is up. Within 3 seconds, Sally walked into the office.

Second: We put in quite a low offer - about 30 000 dollars less than asked. About 20 past 7 in the evening, I said a prayer with the boys and then at 7:30, the agent rang and said that the contract was signed. I asked her what time the owners had said yes, and she said, 7:20. That's a testament to the power of prayer and I think a clear sign that God wants us to get this place. The agent later said that she really didn't think it would work and that, at best, the owners would need to think about it overnight. But God had other plans.

This morning I opened my Bible randomly to Psalm 38 (about the power of prayer) and hasn't our faith been refreshed by this experience! Praise God for his goodness.

White House

Yesterday we made an offer on a house here in Mackay and today it was accepted. All going well, we should be starting to move in the next few weeks. It is a small house, quite old, but with a big yard - space for gardens. Sharlene and I will have fun fixing it up. It is in a good position for access to the rest of Mackay - for Zem's schooling and for my own work. It is all very exciting and we are looking forward to the challenge of fitting our stuff into much smaller house than we have now. It is a good reason to cull our stuff (again). We are calling it the 'white house' to distinguish it from the 'new house' that the boys have called the house we have been enjoying for the last 6 months.

Some other interesting events have occurred recently relating to Zemiel. His reports have come through after Sharlene's trip to Brisbane. Some more details on these in the next post. Zemiel has been working on the iPad for the last few weeks and he has gotten a lot clearer with his speech. He has a long way to go yet though, and his social skills are still lacking. We have been toying with the idea of home schooling him as we really don't think he would cope in a classroom.

We'll have more on that as things develop also. Alright, it's been a big day. Time for bed.

Merry Christmas!

We left Mackay straight after work on Friday to drive to Bundy and arrived shortly after midnight and both of us so very tired. Sabbath started out alright and Bon's family and ours began to drive to Tin Can Bay to meet up with Trev and Roni. Just out of Maryborough the rain came and it stayed all the way to Tin Can. We met Trev on one of the most exposed parts of the entire coastline (although there was a decent shelter there). We decided to look further down the road for a better option. Fortunately we found one. We had a bit of lunch and shared gifts. The cousins had a great time playing together. Zemiel drank too much juice. Azariah ate too many green lychees and ended up landing the contents of his lunch on my shoes.
On Sunday, the boys great grandma and great-great grandma drove up from Gympie to see us. It took a while before the day got going. Bon and Lindon arrived after lunch and stayed a while. Azariah and Zemiel had unwrapped their gifts, so a hurried rewrapping and swift discipline was necessary. Great grandma brought her dog Sammy with her and so we let her play with Diesel. Zemiel and Azariah took turns throwing the ball using a long stick with a scoop on the end.
Grandma spent some time showing off her new Wii and suffered almost everyone to create an account.

Sickness...

We've had a couple of tough weeks. Sharlene has been quite ill with tonsillitis or strep throat or whatever it is that is causing her tongue to swell up and unable to swallow.  I've had ear infections and the boys have had conjunctivitis. My staff at work have also been sick which has been a bother.

Nightmares

Riah woke up the other night. He was frightened due to a dream he had just experienced. He was adamant that there was a green crocodile outside and that it had 'chomped' his shorts. I finally convinced him that the crocodile was now gone and after putting a pair of shorts on him (he went to bed without any), he went back to sleep. No harm done...but he has continued to talk about the crocodile for several days now. On Sabbath he was all for running out into the rain to find it. Today he used the memory to joke about the crocodile eating his shorts. Such a funny fellow!

Zeki's first month

It's been a busy life for the last few weeks. Work has been hectic with orientation days, information nights, meetings and newsletters to organise. Sharlene has taken Zemi and Ki down to Brisbane for a series of tests. They'll be there for about 10 days. Riah is finding the change a bit difficult and keeps wanting the plane to return so that he can hop on.

Ki @ two weeks

We have been blessed to have had our new baby now for two week and two days. He has been a fantastic addition to the family. He has put on weight and is now 3.9 kilos. He is great during the day for Sharlene but does have a 'witching hour' during the night, where he is very unsettled and windy. When this is over he sleeps well again.

Zemiel and Azariah adore their little brother. They still try to pick him up at opportune moments. Their first thought in the morning isn't 'where is mum' anymore, but rather 'where's Ki'. We have even noticed an improvement in Zem and Riah's playing behaviour, in that they are getting along better. Of both of them, Azi is having the most trouble adjusting. He has been supplanted as the baby and he has regressed a little. He wants to be picked up and cuddled, calling himself the 'big baby'.

Sharlene has spent a total of 3 days at home in the last 15 days, so it really is 'business as usual' from her point of view.

Comparisons

So...Sharlene and I were curious who Zekiah is most similar to. So we thought that we would look back on our blog photos and get some perspective.

This is Zemiel in his first week.

Azariah, also in the first few days.

Zekiah at four days.

There you have it. A look into the future perhaps? See any similarities? Let us know what you think.

Meet Zekiah David Cole

Zekiah's been with us for a couple of days now. We came home at 8:00 pm on Thursday night and he slept the night beside us. I had to work on Friday, so I took Zemiel with me and Azariah stayed with Nana for the day. Sharlene got to spend the day recovering and relaxing. The boys didn't see the new baby until Thursday night. We decided that we would have a nice birthday party for him. So we all sang happy birthday and ate pizza.
The boys loved Zekiah from the beginning. Generally, they have been very gentle. Azariah has already tried to cover (smother) him with bubble wrap and walk the pram out the door (and down the hill onto the road). Zemiel has been quite protective too, by not allowing the dog to get close to the baby or the pram.
We've had visitors this afternoon and a barbecue tonight already, so a lot of our family and friends have already seen him.
The jury is still out concerning who he looks like. However, it does look like his eyes might be the same colour as Zemiel's.

This picture is of Zekiah just before we left the birthing centre. Approx. 5 hours old.

 This picture was taken Friday morning. Approx. 16 hours old.