Daddy's riding his bike...

Murray left on Thursday to do the Joburg2C mountain bike race – 9 days, 923 km... Craziness! So it’s just me, Cam and Lola at home for the next week or so. We will drive down to Scottburgh next weekend, to be there for the finish, and the beach! Cam was terribly unsettled on Thursday night, but is sleeping like a lamb tonight, thankfully.

He is now telling everyone that there is a ‘boy baby’ in Mommy’s tummy...!

Something I read this week, from George Muller’s diary, which inspired and encouraged me:

‘How evident is the hand of God in all these matters! How important to leave our concerns, great and small, with Him; for He arranges all things well! If our work be His work, we shall prosper in it.’

Bring on the blue!

We're expecting another little boy - a baby brother for Cam! :) So aware that this is just what Jesus has chosen for him. :)

The birthday week!

Parties:

We had a week of celebrating, with our three birthdays all in a row – Cam, Murray then me. Crazy times! Cam was probably a bit confused, because he ended up opening (somebody’s) presents just about every day for a week, and he kept singing Happy Birthday – mostly to himself but sometimes to Mom or Dad.

He helped me bake the biscuits for his party (kind of), and he had a great afternoon with ten of his little friends, and a car cake made by Grandpa, and plenty of tartrazine... (the ‘orange chips’ were the highlight). It drizzled a bit but no one minded. Kids are awesome.

Thankful heart:

I’ve been humbled by Cam’s sense of gratitude. He’s been saying ‘Dear Lord Jesus thank you Meagan and Craig Amen’, at bedtime and at any other random moment. Then on Saturday, all day as he played, he kept breaking out into little prayers of thanks for whatever he was playing with – like his skittles, his green car, etc. And then at lunch time he thanked God for ‘tuna mayonnaise and raisins and yellow cheese.’ He also keeps pointing out to me the moss growing in between the bricks at the bottom of the garden. He bends down, gets right up close, and strokes it softly and in awe of its green velvety beauty. He has really challenged me never to lose my sense of wonder...

Playing all day...

Cam is still mad about cars, to the exclusion of almost everything else. He does also love balls, and the skittles he got from his friend Abi, and watching Aunty Coral’s Noddy DVD.

He’s quite into role playing. Yesterday he picked up the iPod, held it to his ear and said, ‘Hello? – fine and you? – thanks for phoning on the iPod... Ok, bye...’ Then a few minutes later he picked it up again and said, ‘It’s Reyburn’.

The other day he pulled down the cloth on his chest of drawers where we keep all his contact lens solution, spare lenses, etc. In amongst the broken glass and spilt solutions, while we were searching the carpet for invisible lenses, he found the lid retractor we use when we put his lenses in. He immediately shoved it at his eye and said, ‘Lie still – open wide – in it goes...’

He is busy, busy, busy... He climbs and runs everywhere. He still loves the hadida song, and Lola, and going for walks, and licking my face (we are striving to refine appropriate kissing techniques).

Eye news:

Murray tried to measure Cam’s eye pressures in his rooms at Saks, Taylor & Brauer the other night (his doc, Jacobus, wants to avoid another EUA if possible), but he wouldn’t sit quite still enough. Murray could, however, check his corneas and lens fit, and all that is looking good. Cam responded nicely to a basic kiddy eye test – pointing out shapes that got smaller and smaller. Murray reckons that as well as he can see up close (he pulled the cards closer and said ‘See better!’), his vision is still really only comparable to the ‘Big E’, in traditional eye chart terms. Still, we marvel at his perceptions, and at how he uses the little bit of vision that he does have.

A prayer of thanks

Father God,

Tomorrow Cammy turns two. I’m overwhelmed with thanks, and I stand in awe of all that you have done. I’m so grateful to you for lending us this little life to care for. I am infinitely aware that Cameron is your child before he is ours.

I remember his birth like it was yesterday. I was scared that in becoming a Mom I would somehow lose my identity. On the contrary, and in two short years, Cam has intensified my awareness on every level and deepened my passions in a way I can’t begin to explain – and yet you know, because you created all this parent stuff.

Thank you for preparing us for him long before you sent him our way. Thank you for mapping out a career for his Daddy that would meet his needs in unimaginable, miraculous ways. Thank you for the families and friends you’ve given us, that so undergird our lives. They have carried us through the dark days and laughed with us in celebration of the wonders.

Thank you for the mysterious healing that you have brought to me and to Murray. The healing doesn’t make sense in many ways. I don’t quite know how you have wrought it in our hearts, and yet you have. You have gently, strongly restored us even while the jagged rocks cut us and we cling to impassable precipices on this journey to the ‘high places’. Thank you for the husband and father that Murray is. Thank you for helping him to endure and even to rejoice in the cruel ironies of his fatherhood and his profession.

Thank you for protecting Cam through so many operations and countless general anaesthetics, not to mention several bouts of flu, tonsillitis and gastro, which are just part of being a little person in a big world full of germs.

Thank you for the miraculous visual progress he has made. To think that when he was born all he could see was light and dark – and now he can successfully hunt for Easter eggs. Thank you for all that he is able to communicate to us now about his vision. Thank you for all that he is able to respond to, recognise and name. He has far exceeded initial hopes and prognoses.

Thank you for Cam’s irrepressible brightness, his contagious laugh. Thank you for the way he seems to leave light behind him wherever he goes. May his life always be a testimony of your magnificence.

I praise you, Almighty God. Take your glory. As Paul Simon says, these are the days of miracles and wonders.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.