This has been a big week for us. We've committed to leasing our own house with mixed feelings - it will be great to have a place of our own, but we've been really spoiled by Pamela's (the friend we have been staying with) kindness (and swimming pool!).

Work is going well, getting budgets done and plans for the coming year completed.

Here are some pics from the last week.








Jude looking very grown up














Evie pulling some big moves on the rope swing













Pizza's on the beach.















Portrait by Evie
















Jude developing some good habits.

We had an outing to the zoo last week










Evie and Jude narrowly escaped from a fierce koala...







A 10 week old Asian elephant















.

We are coming to the end of our third week here, but it seems a lot longer. People have been very friendly, the weather is still great (but people keep warning us that winter is going to make a come back) and we are not getting lost quite so often. Here are a few recent pics:

Jude's hair is still refusing to lie down.

Evie doing some rock climbing

Evie, Elle and Jude making their way to church along Manly beach this morning. Evie is very proud of her new bike which Elle got from a charity shop - knocked down to $6 because the tyres needed pumping up!

Elle and Jude on Shelly beach near Manly. Beautiful spot, but still quite chilly for swimming

Evie on Shelly beach, in full sun protection gear.

We had INF's annual conference yesterday. About 100 people came from all over the state and it was great to meet a lot of faithful supporters. Elle and I spoke to introduce ourselves, and I also gave a short talk about the organisation's vision: a bit presumptious having only been there two weeks, but had some ood feedback. These pictures show the conference hall, and a couple of Nepali dancers who performed there.

Nealy a year and half a world away from our last post, Phil, Elle, Evie and Jude find themselves in Sydney, Australia, where Phil is due to take up a new role as Development Director with the International Nepal Fellowship (INF Australia).

We have recieved a great welcome and here are a few pics of our first outing.

Phil and Jude coming into the harbour on the ferry.

Elle, Evie and our host, Pamela walking in the botanical gardens.

Enjoying great views over the harbour despite the very English weather.

'Interesting' times for us. Firstly, great encouragement from the Doctors during a recent hospital check up for Jude.  They are very happy with his progress, and although we still need to be careful about infections, they are confident that he can develop normally. That leaves us slightly confused about our future - Phil is looking for work and we are trying hard to use this time together productively.  

The following is a copy of our Christmas newsletter:

Dear friends and family

It has been quite a year for us, with our plans and fears rarely keeping up with events. Our verse for the year is probably Proverbs 16.9: 'In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps'. Here are a few of our steps from the last year...

We came back to the UK in June, and Jude arrived five weeks early on 18^th July 2008. We were so grateful for the excellent NHS care and for so many people from around the world praying for us. This picture shows Evie meeting her little brother and realising that life will never be quite the same again!

What a change four months make – Jude is now three times the size and just starting on solid food. He has a problem with his bladder that prevented us from going back to Nepal, but he is otherwise developing brilliantly. He will continue to have regular scans to keep an eye on the condition.

Evie is growing into a fantastic daughter and a loving big sister, learning new things every day. One of our favourite Evie sayings is 'I am the best me in the world'!

We have really enjoyed this summer, settling back into life in the UK and spending time with family and friends while continuing to support INF. Jude had his first foreign holiday in September, when we drove over to the Netherlands for a family wedding.

Phil went back to Nepal in early November to hand over work and sort out our house. The picture on the left is the sign that greets visitors toKathmandu airport. It was a hectic couple of weeks and saying goodbye to friends was hard, but reinforced our decision to stay in the UK.

The chickens we were keeping in Nepal had been eaten by time Phil went back. Apparently they were ekdum meeto (very tasty) so at least the 4.00am alarm calls the rooster used to give us weren't in vain!!

Nepal is an incredibly beautiful country: this view of the Annapurna Himalayas towering over Pokhara and INF's Greenpastures hospital will always stay with us. We have a lot of friends there and would love to return.

Our future is still uncertain – Phil is looking for work and job applications have so far been mailed to Glasgow, Sydney and many places in between – but we are so grateful for what we have: family, friends and the knowledge that God has a plan for us!

Thank you so much for coming on this journey with us. Your prayers and support continue to mean a huge amount and the last two years have been a real blessing for us.

We hope that you have a peaceful Christmas and an exciting new year.

Love from us

peej

We are experiencing our first proper UK winter in three years (and Evie's first ever...!), and I am convinced that we are losing not just daylight. It seems that there are just not enough hours in the day any more, or maybe we are missing the slightly slower pace of life in Nepal. 

So, not much text, but here are few a pics we have taken recently...

We are all well. Phil is job hunting and still doing some INF work

Jude is developing brilliantly - he has even slept thought the night a couple of times recently. We go back to the hospital in a couple of weeks for more scans, but right now all is well - PTL! 

This is Evie's staged 'angry face'. They do get on really... 

As well mastering the potty, Evie's great leap forward has been the ability to lie down in the bath, making hairwashing much less of a battle!