Sunday Afternoon Walk

On our Sunday afternoon walk this week, I came across these beautiful flowers in the dirty creek that's at the back of SWIM.

How could something so beautiful live in such an awful, smelly place. You haven't seen the creek - believe me, it's terrible. Stagnant, crocodile infested, dirty water. (Ok, the crocodile part isn't completely accurate, but crocodiles have been found in parts of the same body of water)

But I found these beautiful flowers in there. They were quite fragile, bruising even if you blow on them, which the fan was doing.

I also found this flower in a random bush in a random patch of lawn. I thought it was quite pretty.

The only vase I had for it was an old WW2 coke bottle, found in the dirt outside the boundary fence.

I rather like these Coca-Cola bottles, the contents of which was swagged down by a thirsty American soldier who just wanted a break from the sweltering heat, the flies, and the bombs in 1944.

Now the bottle holds flowers.

Then after my walk, I found this bug on my floor.

Another crazy bug!

Another crazy red bug with wings that have blue dots on them.

Speaking of crazy bugs, I have these killer ants at home, that ate my camera! For the second time in one week, I found these ants nesting in a camera case - thankfully the first camera was fine. I got there quick enough to deal viciously with the ants. The second camera though, found infested one week later, sustained permanent brain damage. Which is sad, because it was an old film camera which I hadn't developed for years, keeping it as an ongoing time capsule. Now nobody will know the photos it held, because the ants ate it.

Oh, life in the tropics - where you see so vividly a dichotomy between the effects of sin on ants, and the beautiful intricacies of creation.

Eeney, Meeney, Miney, Matchey!

I have been procrastinating about writing for way too long now. First I went away for over a week with Theresa (I will write about that some time), then we had Ant and Matt over so we were all super busy. But today is the day and I had to sort through all the historic things I wanted to write about...

Recently (or not so recently) my friend and fellow blogger Talia wrote about wearing matching clothes with her baby. Being matchy matchy is cool. Unfortunately I can't really match with Theresa because not only is there a lack of fabric stores to choose the same fabric to sew clothes, she also cruises around in a nappy all day. I mean, she probably spends about 6% of her life in clothes - that's when we go to church or go to town, which is seldom. I can't really match with the whole nappy thing. To make matters worse, she's usually a nuddy buddy at the moment - we're trying to combat her nappy rash. So, again, matching is not an option for us two.

But, I did think it was really adorable that only a few days after I read Talia's blog about matching, I saw this:

Our friend Mercy had dressed her two girls, Anna and Rebekah, in matching clothes for Church. They even do the whole Matchey thing here! (BTW - Mercy made the skirts - she's a very lovely, creative Solomon mother).

Also at church I saw these awesome bugs!

What are they? Anyone know?

This is what the kids thought of me taking photos of bugs:

They weren't so interested. Meh - bugs.

Very Special Event

How do I start this blog post? I'm still coming to grips with how big this event was. On Sunday we had a custom handover with Theresa's biological family. We went to their place, joined by Rob and Jemma, and Ant and Matt. As well as the family, we were also joined by the pastor and his wife who got the family in contact with us before Theresa was born. So we were all gathered together. Lots of relatives had come from their home island to be a part of this occasion.

Then we were called to sit next to the Patriarch of the family and his wife, along with his sisters and brother. He got out ten strings of shell money and explained what it represents - the ten strings, the ten commandments, making what would happen as firm as that. The black shells - our sin, but the red thread is Jesus' blood which gives us redemption.

Then we all held the strings of shell money and lifted it up while Theresa's birth mother carried her under the strings.

She held our baby for a few moments and I cried as I realised just how big it has been for her to willingly and wholeheartedly give her baby to us.

Then she placed my baby in my arms and sat next to us and the Patriarch led us in prayer. Afterwards we had an opportunity to say a few words. Tears choked us, but all we really wanted to say was that we are so thankful for their gift to us, and that we promise to bring her up in the fear of the Lord.

It was so special. A defining moment in Theresa's life, I think. I'm sure the 2nd of October will always be a day of celebration for us. These kinds of events, exactly like the legal events, confirm more and more, Theresa's place in our family.

Afterwards we celebrated with a feast, meeting the family and talking. Then we went home, and I put our precious baby to bed.

Our precious baby.