Wow its been a while

Wow so I suppose that I am in need of putting up a post of the latest on our family, I will post a few more individual ones in the coming days (something to look forward to) but for now here is an idea of what's been happening in the Payne family since the last time I put up a post. Our little kiddies are growing so fast now, Gabby is now 18 months and Caleb is 7 months, we are truly thankful for them both and the Grace that God gives us everyday as we raise them for his honour and glory. 

God always know... no matter what the outcome!

"Blessings"  

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things  

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise  

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe  

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise  

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home  

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near  

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest times are your blessings in disguise

So big now

This weekend was one of those fun family ones where we got to celebrate as a family Gabbys 1st birthday, it is amazing to see how big all the kids have got. Just watching all the boys (and Erin) running around playing soccer outside just made me realise again how good God has been to us as a family and bless us with lots of little and not so little ones.

One of the great joys was seeing little Kate again, she was the youngest and latest addition to the family but now seeing her with Gabby kind of makes her a big girl now : ) 

Our beautiful boy

Today I managed to get a glimpse of pure bliss, our little Caleb is growing up so fast and he is so amazing. I cannot believe how this little guy has just been so much fun. We really haven't had any issues and he is sleeping really well, today was a nice chilled time before the family came around and managed to get this pic of him just chilling on Debbie.

It's been an amazing 9 months!

Wow I really can't believe that it's been 9 months since this precious little girl entered our lives, today Gabriella turned 1 and what a fantastic time we have had. We are truly blessed to have this little person in our lives. 

We had the family over today for tea and decided to just let Gabby loose on a piece of cake, oh and what fun it was! Here are some pics of the event that we will remember for a long time ; ) 

Father's day # 1

Shew so who would have thought that last year as I sat around our dinning room table a year ago celebrating fathers day with Pop's (my father in law) that a year later I would be celebrating as a father of two?

I am really grateful and privileged beyond measure to have these two little blessings in my life. I have received gifts today to celebrate this special day but the greatest gift I have is my children and knowing that I am there father and there hero ; )

The joy of children

I have to say that I cannot begin to express how wonderful it has been this last week know that we are the parents of two beautiful children.

Some people have asked me if this is it for us and the answer is a resounding no. Why stop at 2? One thing we have learnt over the last couple of years is that God is good and will always provide... So why not have the same attitude when it comes to having children. God will always provide and give Grace in every situation and we are confident of this fact and are most certainly going to put this to the test... Not God but us!

Gabby and Caleb will most certainly will have more than just themselves in the future, what this looks like and what time frames we are talking about I could only begin to imagine but one thing I am certain of and this is that children are a real joy and I can't wait for the next one, two, three or even four ; )

Crazy cousin session

It has been a really cool weekend, we have had lots of family come by and see us... More to see Caleb I suppose. Nicky & Ashley (my sister & her daughter) came through for lunch and spent a fair amount of time with us. So much so that Ash and Gabriella had time to do a "photo shoot"!

If you ask me this was all a bit of craziness ; ) but very cute so I had to put some of the pics up for the world to see the crazy that is the norm of my family

Through death life comes

This post is really going to be one of the toughest I have put up, the reason for this is because if has affected so many people very close to us and possibly some that will be reading this.

John & Helen Gray (Grandparents to my wife Debbie) are two of the coolest people I had ever had the privilege of meeting. after we got married we planned a trip in 2006 to the UK where they lived to go and see the family over there. At once I was impressed by them, their love for each other was amazing. At the time of the visit I was amazed to find that they had been married for over 60 years and the love hadn't gone. They were fun loving people and I really enjoyed the time that we spent there, as I am sure you will gather from the pics there was a love here and it is rare... I personally have never heard of anyone being married to a single person for that long. Anyway over the years John got older and Helen stuck by, towards the end of last year things really started to go downhill and at one time took a very quick downhill spiral and caused some serious concern and most certainly sadness within the family. Debbie was at the time trying desperately to get a passport sorted for Gabriella so that she could go over and see them, sadly this didn't happen in time and with the pregnancy looming near it made international travel almost impossible without putting Caleb at risk so she couldn't get over to see them. Val (Debbie's mom) managed to go over and see them and sadly the weeks that she was there John passed away. We are really grateful for the fact that she was able to get there and see them before John passed away. There has most certainly a void left behind... A Father gone, a Grandfather missed and a sweetheart lost...

John Edwin Thomas Gray

29th May 1916 - 2nd April 2013

So that's not the end of the story, there is always a point to these posts... on the 29th May John would have been 97 years old and sadly wasn't here to celebrate, however God had plans for us and on that day God decided for Caleb to enter the world. as one life passes away another is added to an ever growing family. While in the hospital last week and Debs was in labour she looked at her phone and saw that it would have  been Johns birthday. We had finally found a second name for our son after months of  deliberation. 



Caleb John Payne

Born 29th May 2013

Man this could get rough

So I woke up this morning feeling like I was hit by a bus, my eyes were killing me and were all puffy so I had to take action! I am really grateful for my pal Tommie, he bought these things for his wife that she in turn recommended to Debbie as really good pain relievers (so now you know they are not meant for your eyes : ] )

last night was the fist night home with Caleb and it wasn't too bad but it was rougher than what I think either of us had expected... listen I am not saying that I thought this was going to be a walk in the park but surly it cant be T.H.A.T bad.  well is was up and down all night, not because of the little guy but because of the shot sleep times between feeds. i am not one that needs lots of sleep to operate but I must say that 4 hours sleep broken up into little bits doesn't help anything... even if I were Superman! anyway we are really grateful for  a healthy little boy that we can love, treasure, nurture, train and loose sleep over.

Welcome to the world

So what a day, well my day has stretched over two of them. I had a business trip down to Durban yesterday to finish up some stuff before the arrival of Caleb in the coming weeks. Debs told me as I was getting up that she didn't think it was a good idea for me to go and I assured her that everything was fine and I would see at home later.

Anyway by the time I got home Debs wasn't feeling so good and told me her stomach was sore and by the time 11 PM rolled around we decided to pack up and go to the hospital to get it checked out.

Needless to say they just decided to keep her in for observation, after many restless hours they decided to check and it was moving ahead... They called for the anesthetic and the rest is well history. And out came our son, second born to this Payne family. A healthy 3.75 kg and 48cm tall baby boy, not a single complication not a hitch just in and out.

One thing I need to say is that Debbie is a real trooper and managed this so well and is one of the heroes in the tale, the other hero is God and the grace he has shown throughout this entire experience. We have had a truly amazing time latley just reflecting on his provision and guidance over the last year... We were looking at our local church directory today with just the two of us and who would have thought that a year later we would be a family of four!

So welcome to the world Caleb John Payne, we love you and are grateful for your unexpected yet precious arrival today.

Our little genius and sleeper

Well I guess that the title of this post says it all, Gabby is the smartest 11 month old I know!

Really this girl of ours really is smart, this week it seems as if she has made huge steps forward... In the things she does to the things she says. She really is picking up things fast, this week while I was brushing my teeth and holding her she looked at me with this strange face so I wondered what she would don't she has a tooth brush of her own... So I gave her one and she stuck it in her mouth! Ok so that was a fluke, but two days later I went into the bathroom and and holding her again gave her the toothbrush and she puts it in her mouth and starts moving it back and forth... Ok so maybe not genius material but a proud daddy moment and I love it!

I have realised that Gabby loves sleep! In the past week her sleeps have really become loooooong, I told Debbie this morning "like mother like daughter" Debbie Sent me this pic while I was at work the other day while she was out at the shops... Nothing will stop her from having a sleep : ) when I spike to Debbie she told me that she was sitting upright and started nodding off so she put her down and off she went to lala land.

One thing we have been discussing lately is how blessed we are and have been by having this little girl in our lives, we are truly thankful to God for opening up doors in such a way that we could be together. Things don't merely happen by accident but most certainly by devine direction, We love you Gabriella and are grateful we could be part of your precious life in this world.

Close now

WOW its been a while since anything new has been put up here... sorry for that if you are a loyal follower.

There has been so much happening lately, 3 weeks to go before Caleb arrives and our little girl hits her 1st birthday in a little over a month. life truly is good and I am so glad that God has seen fit to show so much grace upon us. Our lives at the moment are pretty calm (thanks to the fact that Gabby is an amazing baby) but we think that it will be getting a bit crazy soon... but that's ok. God has put us in this place and will give us the strength we need to get through the days ahead.

An update on how our girl is crowning so fast, she is standing all by herself and moving around the furniture like a trooper! I think she is really close to walking, however for the sake of Debbie we are hoping that she will hang on a bit until Caleb is a bit older. She has also made some huge jumps in her vocab, , Deb has really done a fantastic job spending time talking to her and it is paying off... her latest trick is to "Taa" for something. It really is funny when Debs sits down on the couch with any sort of food stuff no matter where Gabby may be she goes into overdrive and crawls at warp speed over to Debs, pulls herself up and proceeds with the following "taa, taa, taa, taa..."

One of the other things we have started doing is getting Gabby into the shower, with Debbie getting bigger has made bath time a bit of a nightmare. So I decided to shower with her to help out, its really funny the noises she makes! It took about a week for to get used to the fact that the water falling on her is actually fun : ) she has now gotten so comfortable she doesn't even want to be held, she just goes on the shower floor and just plays in the water. This little girl really is a trooper and game for anything, and we love it!

Another thing we have been doing more frequently is going for a run, it's been getting cold so have had to wrap up warmly. On this particular day as we came around the corner I saw two other runners ahead of us and I pretty sure I heard Gabby say "go get em dad!" not really but it was fun to push past them and see there faces... One day she will say that and enjoy there surprise with me : )

Now what do I say about Caleb? He is getting big! At one stage we went to the gynae and he was over two kilos and growing rapidly... at the last visit he had slowed down slightly and was just under a 3 kilos. We have another visit this week so we will have an update that I will post later this week.

My first airplane ride

So this weekend we are off to Cape Town for the two oceans and a visit to my dad, a Gabby first on a plane : )

We really were not sure how this was going to go... I even told the young lady sitting next to me that I wasn't sure and I was sorry up front for what was about to happen!

Anyway, the plan was for Gabriella to sleep but she would have none of that... Sleep is so overrated. She was good though, unlike the other two screaming kids in the flight. I was really glad we were not that side of the plane by them, at one point it sounded like the Father gave one of th a smack but that just made it worse... The crying got louder and the plan just erupted in laughter!

In am hoping that the flight home will be better and the excitement of being on an airplane has worn off and out little girl will sleep.

What a week, in a good way

So this last week started out with a bang! We got a call last week to go and see the magistrate to do the final documentation for Gabriella to finally become a Payne. We were not really sure what to expect but Debs was really impressed by the conversation she had with the magistrate and said she sounded nice... Well she was super nice and we really had nothing to worry about, the longest part of the morning was the up and down in the elevator! Really it took like 15 min to get all the stuff done.

The other great part of the morning was that we got to share in the joy of the Richter Family as they also appeared before the magistrate to finalize the adoption of their daughter Danelle.

We also managed to finally get our family photos done, it has been rather hectic lately and to get Adam and us on the same day has really posed it's challenges. Anyways we finally managed to do it and had a real blast doing it... Both Adam and Sam (his wife) were truly sports in taking the pics and before we knew it we were on like 2000 photos! In the words of Sam... "you need to take hundreds to get that one perfect shot!"

Adam sent me a taster this afternoon of what to expect and I am like a cat in a hot tin roof in anticipation.

Then this Sunday we finally had our dedication for Gabriella, read up on this in the previous post "Our promise to you... Precious Gabriella" It was nice to have almost the entire family there for the occasion. I think the afternoon feast at our house was a welcomed last minute addition to the plans ; )

Our promise to you... precious Gabriella

We thank God for the Grace that he has given us and through faith the road that he has led us down to get to this point, that we can reflect our adoption in Christ through the life of Gabriella. We therefore acknowledge our responsibility to be intentional in our parenting and endevour through everyday talk to show Gabriella Christ who is the Lord and Saviour of our lives and make the best of every oppurtunity that presents itself to show our Saviour Jesus Christ to Gabriella.

We Commit ourselves to use the means of Grace that are given to us through the local Church and use every oppurtunity to expose Gabriella to the various ministries & teaching of the Church that are available to assist us in adorning the gospel to Her.

We understand and ackowledge that this is a mammoth task, and request that this our Family and our church to assist in this endevour. We call on you as family to be our eyes and ears when we cannot, and help us to raise this precious gift Gabriella in the nurture and admonition of the Lord for his honour and glory.

Business in the front... Party in the back

Preparing for Fatherhood

Hung up on the way your life will change once the baby comes? Here's something to think about.

Have you been staying up all night thinking about all the things you and your partner won't be able to do once the baby arrives — seeing the world, taking up exotic hobbies, or even just going out at night whenever the urge hits? 

At 29 weeks pregnant, instead of thinking of what you won't have in your life any more (or won't have as much opportunity for), start thinking of what you will have in your life: A very special little person to share it with.  Will your life be different (your favorite hobby becomes blowing raspberries on that chubby little belly; your late nights involve rocking instead of dancing)?  Absolutely.  Will it be better?  Immeasurably.

Something new

So today we had lunch after our WOC and one of the platers had chicken livers on it so I decided that this was a winner... And so did Gabriella, she liked it so much so that she kept coming back for more.

The aftermath wasn't so great but I suppose something new every now and then won't harm.

 

A Trophy of Grace

This post has been a long time in the making, I have had to really think about how to lay this out and when would be the most appropriate time...

Let me give you the background before I share my thoughts.

It was in November when I was on security duty at church and one of the men that was supposed to on wasn't there because he had an ear ache. That afternoon when I got to the prayer meeting I was advised that he had been rushed to hospital... that was day 1.

The following Sunday he was still in a coma... that was week 1, during the week most if not all the midweek grace group meeting were praying for this individual and his family... that was week 3.

A month later he was still in a coma, to this day he still lies there... this is week 18!

Now I am sure when you get to this point you are thinking what the heck, and what does this have to do with the title of this post? Well let me explain... if this man comes out of this is will be NOTHING short of a miracle! It would seem that the condition that the doctors think he has has only ever been reported in only 3 other people in the world. Pause and think about that for a second... only 3 other people in the whole world!

So now you see that this will be a trophy of Grace, but what if he doesn't come out of this? Does that change? No, not at all... let me explain, we need to put out theology hats on for a second here and think on the sovereignty of God, absolutely nothing happens by chance and outside of God's control. So the fact that he is lying there didn't or hasn't taken God by surprise...

"all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" Rom 8:28 b

You see, absolutely everything happens for a reason, we may not know the reasons why but they do. We need remember that if one person get saved through this trial I the life of this family it's for God's glory and the life of this man even unto death would be a trophy of grace!

This has challenged me again (and I hope it will in your life) to think not with our hearts but with our theology.

please if you read this no matter where you may be in the world join in prayer with the family of the Brackenhurst Baptist Church that whatever may come... and we are prying that God will heal and bring this family back together, but we most certainly pray for God's will to be done!

(Please leave a comment on this post so I can use it to encourage the family of your prayers)

Our little girl is growing... at a rapid rate!

Well it's been a while since a post, our little girl is really growing up fast. Today she started crawling and it was one of those moments that we not really paying attention : )


My brother and his family came round for a visit and Gabriella was sitting on the table by his wife Tracy and while we were talking she decided to make her way across the table to Debbie... and then the penny dropped that she did that all by herself!
She has really had lots of milestone moments in the past weeks, we went on holiday a few weeks ago and she started sitting from a lie and even clapping and blowing kisses, my personal favorite was in that week she ate artichokes... yay for Gabby!!

 

WOC 2013

So this week has been one of those crazy one in the life of the BBC family, we have been celebrating our annual World Outreach Celebration. We have really been blessed by the ministry of Ronald who ministers in his home church in Lusaka Zambia.

The main drive of the conference is on the 5 Solas...

● Sola Scriptura
● Sola Gratia
● Sola Christus
● Sola Fide
● Sola Gloria

It has really been tiring coming out every night but it has really been a blessing, there is nothing more satisfying than being exhausted from fellowship and time around the scripture.