Mark Poppins

Happy Birthday Gianna!

Me with Elriza and the gorgeous Caden on his Christening day

Loren and i! we missed you Kai!

The centre of attention!

Nix & Deqlan

This is MY Dadda!

Nats the pregnant fairy and Megs

Bron,the other pregnant fairy and Keaton

Us and our boys!

Mark Poppins!

It wouldnt be the same without water somewhere in our day!

All the space in the world to run!












Deqlans first official drawing!

We had a fabulous weekend!

the first excitment was Deqlan doing his first drawing! We have tried numerous times with paper and crayons but Deqlan was not to interested - Nanna happen to leave the crayons out and we watched with delight as Deqlan pick up a green crayon, yes green! He decided that paper was to boring and he started to make his mark on Nanna's tv cabinet - for those of you in South Africa, that have seen the Dulux ad - the one where picasso goes into a restaurant and draws on the wall? It reminded me so much of that, so perhaps we have a famous artist on our hands! Nanna has being going to so much effort introducing new games and activities each day for our inquisitive boy and we are hoping he will grab onto them as he enjoys them!

Friday night was wonderful to have Mark home early for a change and we enjoyed some pizza and a few rounds of ring a ring a rosey , Deqlan new favorite game. He even brings my hand towards Mark then holds both of our hands to ask for the game!

On Saturday morning we went to Irene farm to meet up with my friend Bronwin and her gorgeous son Matt. Bron moved to Cape Town around 12 years ago, we last saw her when she got married up here in Jan, so it was lovely to see her and Matt and introduce them to the soldier the have been supporting for so long! Matt even wears camo on Deqlans surgery and check up days!

Matt is the sweetest, gorgeous, 3 year old and he loves the springboks! He is very excited about his baby sister due next year, and he told me he was going to take very good care of her and even bath her!

Deqlan dragged me to water fountain so i only managed to catch up with Bron, Nats , Nix and Megs once Mark came to the rescue! He played the great role of Mark Poppins for the morning as he entertained Deqlan and Matt. Because Deqlan is not used to this, he would let go of Marks hand and not want to move until Mark let go of Matts hand to fetch Deqlan - do we sense a bit of jealously? We are actually glad at this emotion, its a very great sign, that Deqlan understands this! We all had a lovely morning together catching up with all our dear friends and i told Bron i wished we all stayed closer together - oh well, its an excuse for us to get down to Cape Town !

We came home and Deqlan had a lovely afternoon nap while Mamma read and caught up on some books she has been wanting to get into!

I then went to mass with great grandpa and Nanna on Saturday evening , where Nanna came down with a terrible migraine! Luckily she took a magic pill for the migraine and was able to look after Mr Keaton for the evening, as Meggie and Conrad went to Meggies 10 year school reunion. Now that makes we realise how quickly time is going - that my baby sister is attending her 10 year reunion already! Nanna reported that Mr Keaton was as good as gold and settled very nicely with her and grandpa!

Sunday morning , I attended Cadens Christening - unfortunately Mark and Deqlan didnt come with us Mr Deqlan decided to nap a bit later then normal. It was a really moving and beautiful ceremony where the minister used the story of Moses in his reed basket on the river nile as a comparison. For those of you who dont remember, Caden was born at just 6 months - so 3 months prem ,weighing over just 1 kilogram! With may prayers and God's mercy,he beat the odds and just turned 8 months today! As the minister said,we all have to put our children in God's hands, in their 'moses baskets' and just hand them over to God to look after. What a lovely way to picture what Deqlan has gone through and what a merciful God to continue performing miracles in Deqlan and our lives. I could take a few quick shots , then had to dash back home to get Dadda and Deqlan to get to Gianna's 2nd Birthday celebration!

Deqlan was still asleep, so i read and researched a little more and he eventually woke up at 1415..so off we went to the party, which was wonderful! We were greeted by the birthday girl herself, and her mommy Jelenka, and she was very proud to tell us she was now two! Deqlan dashed to the trampoline and their he spent most of the afternoon, enjoying running around on it, me bouncing himand tickling him on it - making pictures with leaves and just watching the world go by! Dad also got a work out getting Deqlan onto all the jungle gyms and it was wonderful to see Deqlan climbing so well on the apparatus, more then he has before! After the happy birthday's we all went to feed the bunnies and chickens, and Deqlan gave lots of laughter and smiles at the first time we had ever done this together!

Deqlan was then ecstatic to find a windmill that he could spin around and around and we spent a good few minutes enjoying this with him!

Our soldier then discovered where the cupcakes where and we made a good few 3 or 4 trips to go and get some more!

We had a lovely time, thanks so much Neil, Jelenka and Gianna for having us , we really treasure any chance we can get to get Deqlan out and about with kids and what an honor it was to celebrate Gianna's second Birthday with you all! Good luck for the scan tommorow Jelenka, as long as baby as healthy a little brother or sister would be wonderful!

For those of who, who havent gone to visit Malakai's site , please do go! Lorens entry today is to beautiful, and celebrates today being National Down Syndrome awareness day - what beautiful stories, we could all learn so much from them! See you Saturday Loren and give Kai big hugs from us!

Please say a little prayer for our soldier tommorow as we go for our follow up evaluation with the paediatric neurologist - we hope to show her how Deqlans has improved in many areas and hope to put a perfect plan into place for him for the next few months to help him reach his full potential! Shall let you know how it goes!

Please continue the prayers always for Deqlan and all our friends around the world - please pray for a cure for childhood cancer and support any way you can, donations, prayers, support for our friends and families -thank you all and God Bless !

God Bless and lots of love

Mark, Samm, Deqlan

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD! SACRED HEART OF JESUS WE PLACE OUR TRUST IN THEE, ALL FOR THEE OH LORD, OH MY JESUS ALL FOR THEE