Birthday Celebrations

Meet NED !

Gold Balloons released with our prayers into the sky on Childhood cancer awareness day, with all our ned warriors, warriors and angels

Deqlan opening his Birthday presies! Enjoying his favorite things cars and helicopters!

Unle Tyler

Watching the hot dog song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Granny

Hot Dog!

What up Conrad and Keaton

Hannah and Reece sharing some popcorn!

Kev, Tyler, Louse and Gaynor sit and watch the kids in action

Meeting Ethan at 13 days old!

Deqlan munching on a balloon Nanna created for him

Hannah sporting the princess crown Nanna designed!

Gianna in loads of giggles on the trampoline

Nannas unique balloon creations were in great demand!

Dada and Tyer taking it easy

Here's one for you Hannah!

Me and my darling Birthday boy!

Reece and Hannah had a ball together!

Megie and Keaton, his first Birthday party!

The girls

Gianna and Reece enjoying some cake

Happy Birthday Darling Deqlan

Hey Gianna, want to have a picture with me?

Reece!

Peek a boo Hannah!

This party stuff is hard work!

Claire and Hannah

Stephan and Ethan











Grandpa and Nanna

Chilling with my Dada

Keaton - Reece, Reece - Keaton

Barney and the girls

Kids table

'Ka Chow, Ka Pow - I am Lightning McQueen!'

Pure delight

I love my Dada!

What an absolute celebration of blessings we had this weekend - celebrating Deqlan turning 2, that he is NED and doing so well.

We had a fantastic party on Saturday, Deqlan thoroughly enjoyed each moment. It started off with our garage door breaking - poor Mark and Bongani tried to fix it for 3 HOURS!!! I was hitting panic stations as we had so much to do before everyone arrived so Mark and I where at each other like chickens ! I took Deqlan to Grandpa and Nanna for the morning so that he could have his normal sleep otherwise , he would be to excited to sleep at home, and fall asleep during his party! He was as good as gold and while Mark and I ran around to get everything ready, our soldier was in dream land getting ready for his big day! Eventually Mark had to throw the towel in as he couldnt get the garage fixed, but luckily got it closed so our cars would be safe at least. We later arranged through some of Tylers contacts for the guys to come and fix in yesterday , which they did!

Our guests arrived and the celebrations got going! We invited a hand full of guests and only three little friends, that dont go to school , to come and join in. We are hoping next yer to invite everyone to a bigger venue and our soldier would have had all his vaccinations by then! The girls all had a great time together enjoying Barney, the ball pit, the jungle gym - which they had no fear to, but especially the trampoline which produced many smiles and giggles. Another favorite was the amazing, Nanna, which mastered the art of balloon blowing and shaping. The kids were fascinated by her talents and Hannah loved sporting the princess crown or telly tubby hat that Nanna so lovingly created for her!

Next the cake appeared and it didnt make it to the table though ..i showed Deqlan the cake hoping he would get up and follow me to the table, but he decided he wanted his Happy Birthday there and then. So in went the hands and feet and Reece to enjoyed sampling the checkered flags! Lots of laughter was had by all and lots of cake to!

Deqlan then got us all into his play room and this is where the fun really started - Dada put Mickey Mouse clubhouse on and fast forward to the Hot Dog song - we must have watched it about ten times and each time couldnt contain our laughter, our pride, our love at just how smart and cute Deqlan is ! Imagine the most exciting thing to you, and how happy you get that you could burst, this is Deqlan times ten, with a huge grin on his face , the most beautiful laughter you have ever heard and round and round he goes in circles of excitement - the most precious thing i have ever seen - to see him so happy, is priceless

We ended off the day with releasing 4 golden helium balloons into the sky. This was to mark International Childhood Cancer awarenes day. Gold signifies neuroblastoma specifically. We had one for Deqlan, we wrote his name and NED forever on the other side. The next was for our warriors in the fight now, we wrote all our brave friends names on this one. We also had one for the angels who are in heaven and another for those who are NED. We said a prayer and i had a special wish i sent up with the balloons that reached the heavens and delivered our prayers. This amazing idea was inspired by Arden's Mom, Arden became an angel little under a month ago after fighting neuroblastoma. Arden's Mom continues to be passionate about raising awareness that will get us to the cure - i know i always ask, but please , please continue to spread the word and support neuroblastoma anyway you possibly can.

We unfortunately did not make build a bear on Saturday afternoon, but decided to go on Sunday to create our own build a bears in support of CHOC and raising awareness. Army, meet NED, NED meet the most wonderful prayer army you could ever imagine. NED was born on the 14th of Sep, weighing just on 400grams and 48 cm tall. He arrived home in a camo outfit, with no shoes on - as you know our gear throughout our journey has been camo signifying our soldier fighting nb - so it was only fiting that NED arrived home in camo with no shoes - Deqlan doesnt do shoes , so him and NED will be best buddies

On Sunday after church i popped past Yolandi and Ruan at Unitas - he was then day 9 into his stem cell transplant - i didnt go into the room to keep him from harm from any possible germs, but saw his head peek around the corner. I took him a party pack from Deqlans birthday and Yolandi was very happy to see me to have a chat and catch up - Ruan is doing very well, and starting to eat a little - he is on 6 different antibiotics to try and prevent any infections while he waits for his immune system to rebuild from scratch. The should still be at Unita for the next 3 weeks or so till its safe for Ruan to leave the room. Please continue to pray for Ruan to continue getting stronger and for Yolandi , the amazing mom she is. Thank you to you both for the gorgeous pilot jacket - to gorgeous, now the boys have matching ones, cant wait to play for them to show them off!

Thank you also for the bithday cards we recieved in the post for our monkey - what a stunning surprise - thank you Aunty Shirl, Aunty Val and Uncle Bill, Aunty Shea and also to Oom Jan and Aunty Helete - you are so special!

Thank you to you all for Deqlans lovely gifts in all shapes and forms from clothes and balls, to helicopters and cars and most of all for the gift of your prayers, support and love, please let them never end, especially your prayers.

Deqlans seems a little better tonight and tommorow is the last dose of his antibiotic, so please pray it has done its job. Please also pray for a more restful night for Deqlan as the coughing keeps our soldier awake most of the night!

Happy 8 month Birthday Keaton! You are such a precious pasrt of our family, and so loved, you continue to grow so beautiful and loving and caring, you are gorgeous and we love you!

Sleep tight everyone, please continue the prayers for our Deqlan and all our warriors , angels , our families and friends

God Bless all our love

Mark, Samm, Deqlan

WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US