Say Cheese!

Hi Everyone

hope you all had great weekends?

We started packing - i started to realise how much stuff we actually have and its going to take a lot longer then what i though to sort through, pack and still have space to move around the house!

It was FREEZING cold this weekend, but we cant actually complain as it was the first real taste of winter we got! Nanna and Grandpa were absolute stars as always watching Deqlan on Saturday morning for a few hours while i climbed into the packing. Mark was on conference on Saturday and will be again next Saturday so we got to make the most of our time to pack , with only 12 days to go!

Deqlan and i had a quick visit to Meggie and Conrad and Keaton and enjoyed a new baby einstein dvd Conrad brought back from the states.we also leant one to watch at home on baby sign language - we are trying to learn these signs in speech therapy also and Deqlan has mastered the sign for open , which is tapping on what he wants to be opened. I have learnt about 20 other signs and continue to try and show Deqlan in everyday life. in really believe that he will be able to catch onto them - maybe it helps him communicate more with us ? We will definitely give it a try and see. Although, i must say , he has definitely improved in showing us what he wants - its not so much dragging us to the cupboard any more - he definitely gestures/points at times to what he wants . I have also been giving him choices, like cheese or bread and he taps on what he wants, so we definitely making progress!

Mark got home a little earlier and i was fortunate enough to go to mass with Great grandpa and Nanna - as i posted earlier we had a great shock from hearing the youth eucharist minister suddenly passed away. But , we all sang in memory of Chris, when the saints go marching in! The message of the sermon was also so true - instead of being sitters, and just listening and taking the information in we recieved weekly from mass, we need to be do ers - to stand up and do what God wants us to do - act on His word - grow amongst the thorns. Inspiration much needed for alot of us. While we were at work the rain came pouring down - in the middle of winter? - in the middle of Pretoria? really strange weather, real Cape weather!

On Sunday Morning Nanna and Grandpa again came to the rescue and watched our soldier, who was as good as gold, while we got to see Logan and spend some quality time with her. It was her choice as to where we went and surprise , surprise, it was spur - shame she loves the spur. Logan has grown like you cant believe - she has gotten so tall, her hair nearly as long as mine and she is as beautiful as ever. We had lots of giggles and smiles - Mark said ' SO HOW IS SCHOOL GOING MY BUD? ' a name, he often used to use with Logan - she quickly put him in his place saying ' IM NOT YOUR BUD, IM YOUR CHILD' Mark and I had to compose ourselves after laughing for quite a while on this comment! We had a great time catching up with her and hearing about school and her friends. She loved some prayers that Bev sent for her and asked her to read them to her. She is very good at reading Afrikaans but still getting used to english reading - she can spell lots of english words already which is great and really going to help her down the line. She was so sweet to use some pocket money i gave her to get two balls to give to Deqlan and she took two home with her.She has always been so thoughtful, always wanting to give to Deqlan. We took her past the outside of the house we will be moving to so she can picture herself there and have soemthing to look forward to. what a lovely child, what a blessing, we miss her terribly and cant wait for her and Deqlan to play together again!

After dropping Logan back off at Gaynor ( thanks so much Gaynor for taking such good care of Logs) We then spent the rest of the afternoon packing and Deqlan also wanted to pitch in and was climbing in and out of the boxes and then once closed, on top of them, he had a great time - we got another 5 or so boxes packed and Mark has taken all the pictures off the walls to start filling the holes from the pics - it looks so white - i miss the photos already , and so does Deqlan. He keeps standing by our photo wall looking up at the pictures - but they arent there! He is also so used to having the tv and dvd player in our room, mounted on the wall. He took great delight in me picking him up to open the machine to put the dvd HE chose in - but now he just holds the dvd in his hands looking at the wall , not understanding where his beloved machine has disapeared to! Shame, i feel so sorry for him being so disorientated, he probably will be to in the house. Deqlan will stay with Nanna the day we move ( thank you again Mom and Dee for coming to the rescue, Deqlan loves being by you) and i want everything to be packed out and looking as normal as can be, like Deqlan is used to

Today at lunch time, Deqlan was requesting his normal bread and cheese and his beloved rama spread. I was saying the word cheese to him, as i handed him his favorite food, and i heard him say 'chee' - i continued to say cheese over and over as i handed him each piece - and the next thing, Deqlan said a definite CHEESE! i am SO PROUD of you my beautiful boy - what a wonderful achievement! I celebrate each word and I know how hard you are working on getting each one just right, you are doing the best job my boy and I promise we are going to continue helping and motivating you every step of the way!

Now for some more notices:

Happy 1st Birthday to Olivia for Birthday for 12 July - we hope you had a lovely party , even in the freezing cold weather! Stay the gorgeous little angel you are!

Happy Birthday Jordyn for today - hope the trip to Vermont is a huge succcess with a great game plan in place for you, an amazing warrior!

Update on baby Dyllan - he is now only needing oxygen, so off all the big machines - now eating 7 mls every 3 hours and weighing 1.430 kg - please continue prayers for this special little man!

Please remember the prayers for our beautiful Deqlan to remain NED ALWAYS and for all our friends around the world - especially for Katie today.

We hope you all have a great evening

God Bless and all our Love

Mark, Samm, Deqlan

WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US

Prayers please

Hello Deqlans Prayer Army

Please pray for:

My Moms Uncle Bill, he will be going into surgery at 11am this morning to place a stent in his heart as their seems to be a blockage causing terrible pain. Please pray for his speedy recovery and prayers for his wife Aunty Val and Daughter Hayli.

Katie - has now been sent home on hospice , please pray for her family and her friends and for God to show His mercy upon this beautiful warrior
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katiekrize

God Bless
Mark, Samm & Deqlan

WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US

Christopher Kamson

Please say a prayer for the family of Christopher Kamson - we heard at mass on Saturday night that Chris passed away very peacefully in his sleep on the 6th of July . Chris was only 25, and he was the youngest minsiter of the eucharist ever at our parish. He so lovingly dedicated his life to leading the children at our church. He actually had a discussion with his parents that very afternoon that he had decided he would become a deacon.

Rest in peace Chris, we know you will be sorely missed.

Happt Birthday Mich

Dear Mich

We hope you have the most wonderful Birthday today and many many more!

Hope you make unforgetable memories and that you are spoilt rotten by being Blessed with all the things you hope for!

Thank you for being a great friend and for being a great part of Deqlans army, for your continued prayers and all your support in our projects!

God Bless and lots of love

Mark, Samm, Deqlan and Logan

Happy 22 months our beautiful Deqlan

Wow, i cant believe how quickly the time has flown, that you are 22 months today our beautiful Deqlan - i cant believe that we are only 2 months away from celebrating your 2nd Birthday!


I know i always say this, but you continue to be the light in our lives, the joy and spring in our step , our reason for wanting to be the best mama and dadda we can be. Your smile could light up a country that has no electricity ! Your laugh could warm the coldest heart - you are just an absolute gift and blessing from above, and i promise you our darling boy, that we will do EVERYTHING in our power to give you every ounce of love and care and guidance we can. We love you and thank Our Lord each day for trusting us with you and for choosing us to be your parents, and absolute honor , privilige and blessing like no other. We pray He continues to keep you NED and safe and sounds in His hands always!


We had our first music therapy session yesterday with Anja who is very experienced in her field. I warned Anja that Deqlan would probably want to get out the room is he was not used to this new environment - boy was a wrong! As soon as Anja started playing on her guitar, Deqlan immediately took a fascination in this new sound and instrument and started strumming the strings and tapping on the guitar himself - he loved it! He then took a look at the other instruments in the room, but was more attracted to the guitar. Anja had a computer and a hi fi in her room which Deqlan was immediately attracted to , in order topush all the buttons on them. If i havent mentioned it before, this is something Deqlan LOVES to do at the moment - push any buttons on tvs' dvd players, computers, anything that he can get a reaction from - dont give him something that isnt pluged in - he knows - its got to work and do something when he presses the button! Anyway, to get back to music therapy, Anja will try and hide these as they where a bit of a distraction for our soldier. But he still seemed to enjoy it and we look very forward to our next session on Thursday!



Dada bought him the cutest little toy from Mcdonalds last night - they are currently promoting the movie kung fu panda. This toy is a cat that you have to bend down to activate and then he does a somersault - Deqlan LOVED this and laughed hysterically for 5 minutes , each time we did it - when he realised this morning that it was just waiting to be played with he already started laughing before asking me to bend it for him - i tried to down load the video clip but it wont let me!



Dada also came home with a new vacuum cleaner as ours blew up! Deqlan thinks its his new favorite thing as why? you guessed it, it has wheels! he loves to push it around and press all the buttons - but nothing compares to Dada sucking his hand with the pipe or sucking his top - he loves it !



Another favorite trick is Nanna twirling Deqlan around in her bucket ! Nanna cant go fast enough and beams of laughter are heard from our soldiers direction!



Logan will be in pretoria this weekend and we are going to hopefully we able to see her on Sunday - Mark and I will need to take turns, but i am so looking forward to even an hour with her. She has grown up over night - I try to call her on her own phone during the week to catch up and see how she is, but a do miss her terribly and cant wait to giver her a hug in person!



Now for todays notice board:

Thank you so very very much Dirk for the beautiful hand made pjamas you sent with Kelly! They are so beutifully made and i am so grateful and thank ful that you have helped our project! Thank you for all the love and effort and time put into them, they are so very special, thank you!

Happy Birthday Debbie! We hope you have a stunning Birthday today and all the best for the upcoming year! Hope you have something special planned and hope that includes being spoilt and relaxing with Kevin and Josh! God Bless!


Congrats Tracey! My friend from post natal class has just found out she is pregnant with her second baba! We pray for a safe and wonderful pregnancy and know Luke is going to love his new brother or sister!


Update on prem baby Dyllan- His mommy says he is now off the ventilator and on a c pap machine which blows oxygen into his nose. He is weighing 1.415kg and is up to 3mls of milk every 3 hours - please continue to pray for the precious baby boy and his family


Prayers for Katie: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katiekrize


Have a fantastic weekend everyone, snuggle up winter hs really arrived today

GOD BLESS AND ALL OUR LOVE
MARK,SAMM,DEQLAN


'I WILL BLESS THE PERSON WHO PUTS HIS TRUST IN ME'

JEREMIAH 17

Happy 10th wedding anniversay Dee and Mom

Darling Dee and Mom,

Congratulations on your 10th wedding anniversay! What a stunning achievement!

You are both such a shining egsample to us all, on unconditional love, support, friendship and trust.

Dee, we were delighted to learn 10 years ago that you would become a permanent part of our family , as you brought Mom so nuch joy and happiness, it just beamed from her. Thank you for taking such amazing care not only of Mom, but our entire family.

Mom, you deserve all the love and happiness in the world and we are so glad you found it in a man name Derek.

We pray Our Lord continues to shine his love and care down upon you both, that you remain united for many many more years to come and that you share many many more wedding anniversaries together.

Celebrate today with so much pride and joy and love in that you found each other and bring the absolute best out in you both. We are so proud of you and so proud to have you as our parents and grand parents, friends and guardian angels on earth.

PARENTS ARE LOVED FOR THEIR WARMTH AND THEIR SHARING.

THEIR KIND, GENTLE CARING-

SO TENDER, SO REAL.

PARENTS ARE LOVED WITH A LOVE FELT SO STRONGLY-

A LOVE THAT THE WARMEST OF WORDS CANT REVEAL.

FOR THE LOVE YOUVE ALWAYS GIVEN

FOR THE JOY YOU ALWAYS BRING,

THIS COMES TO THANK YOU AND TO WISH YOU

THE HAPPIEST OF ANNIVERSARIES

Have the most magical day together reminessing on your very special day 10 years ago

God Bless and always know how much we love you

Mark, Samm, Deqlan and Logan

balls and bunnies, bumps & bruises and birthdays

Hello Deqlans Army

Sorry, it has been a while, i left the cord for my camera at Nanna's house over the weekend!

Where do i begin...ah...Ruans Golf Day

It was FANTASTIC to say the least - Sandvik did an outstanding job in hosting the event. It was so well organised and so much effort was put into every little detail . Each player got a beautiful ribbon to wear saying Ruan, our champion! Each player got a cap, water bottle, golf towel and the list goes on - there were 140 players for the day, a full field. There where huge sponsors involved including Sandvik and Nissan - Deqlan loved the Nissan display of cars, he wanted a turn in everyone and it took all my might to get him out the car and stop him from pressing all the buttons !

Ruan is looking fantastic - he was already hitting his little golf ball around when we arrived and greeted us with a huge smile. This family is so very special and will stop at nothing to do whatever it takes for Ruan. We heard that they have found 2 donors in the UK. Another bone marrow biopsy was done last week and we get the results tommorow to decide on the next step- please pray they are clear and they can ahead with the stem cell transplant.

Ruan loves balls ! So for his upcoming birthday we got him a golf set with balls and clubs and a little basket ball with a hoop so even if he is in hospital he can play with the ball as its a portable one - he loved both of them and didnt mind Deqlan checking them out to. Deqlan tried to grab, lets rather say pull Ruan to walk with him, but he wasnt having it ! Shame, our little soldier seems to love holding hands and walking together with his buddies.

We then caught a ride with Dada in the golf cart to the 10th tee, where Dadda, Grandpa, Frans and Bob were due to tee off from - Deqlan was very chuffed to be in a mini car and to be sitting on his Daddas lap - couldnt get better then this hey my boy! We watch the guys tee off and then watched them walk into the distance. Nanna , Deqlan and I had lots of fun and games back at the golf club while having our lunch and then decided to go past the bunny park not to far from the course.

It was lovely to walk around in the open and watch the bunnies and goats and geese and ducks but, our soldier was more interested in the dangler swings going round and round. After a quick walk around the park it was time to head home as our soldier hadnt slept yet!

We heard that the guys had a great time at the golf day and they raised over R40 000 for little Ruan! How amazing is that - the guys were so giving and generous and wanted to learn as much as they could - i think it was a fantastic idea and look forward to many more events like this - awareness awareness and funds raised !

As we waited for Dadda to arrive home after the golf day, Deqlan and i were enjoying some chocolate and he was running in circles and went boom straight into the corner of the wall! It bled a little and was very sore for our soldier. Needless to say he woke up with a huge bruise on the top and bottom of his eye and down onto his cheek. Considering this happened on the eye that is still healing, Deqlan did pretty well and its starting to look a little better today.

Saturday we had an afternoon out to Kevin and Louise to wish him for his Birthday. We thoroughly enjoyed the boerie rolls and cupcakes thanks guys and Louise you did a stunning job decorating and making it so special for Kevin. Deqlan had fun to - pressing every imaginable button he could, we had to keep saying no and no and some more no , so he started getting very frustrated. Corlien, Louises sister did a great job in disctracting him and played peek a boo with Deqlan through the chair - he loved this and even gave us a few laughs. The cold wind picked up and i decided to get our monkey home, back to pressing his buttons and climbing on our furniture.

Speaking of which....we are busy looking into jungle gyms for our monkeys birthday coming up and have found some lovely ideas - still deciding on which one and how as we need to ensure it fits into our new place , which we move into 26 July ( and no, we havent started packing yet)- but i am so excited to see him on one and I know he is going to just love it !

Grandpa and Nanna bought Deqlan the cutest little table and chairs which he just loves - he has started taking the chair and moving it to places in the house and sitting on it while he watches his stories or while we try and get some food in during the very few minutes he still still. Thank you Grandpa and Nanna i love it and cant wait for Keaton to sit with me!

Also thank you to Conrad for all the stunning gifts you brought back for us from your trip - Mark is elated with his, being the biggest brazil soccer supporter i know - and Deqlan the most stylish kid in his Gap hoodie ! Thank you so very very much for spoiling us rotten. Conrad also brought some books we ordered - LUNCH FOR LIFE - they are in aid of raising more funds for neuroblastoma research and we where so elated to see a recipe and Deqlans story i sent in last year was published in the book! So proud of you my Deqlan and we used Great Grandpa's famous cottage pie recipe!

Congrats to little Keaton on taking his first bite of food - being butternut on Saturday! Meggie says HE LOVES it and cried when it was finished , shame sweetheart, you will soon be able to eat lots more and different varieties - your Aunty Samm will even get some sweet treats in when your Mom and Dad arent looking! Ha ha ha - just joking!

Well thats all for now folks - stay warm to everyone at home and enjoy the summer to our friends up north!

Please keep the prayers going for Deqlan to continue thriving, for him to remain NED always and for Our Lord to keep him safe and give us the shoes to continue on this journey - please pray for all our friends around the world fighting nb and other cancers

God Bless and lots of love

Mark, Samm & Deqlan

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD