Moving on ... Feeling Blessed

Saskia started her second round of chemo last week Monday (14 October). She had to be in hospital every day for 5 days. Each day was a long day, leaving our home at 7am and only back by about 4pm. She had to be on fluids for 2 hours before the chemo session of one-and-a-half hours, followed by another two hours of fluids. Although she felt very nausea throughout the week, she managed to go home every day, which was fantastic! Even though she could hardly bear the thought of food, she actually managed to eat and drink every day.

Meanwhile she has decided that she is better off without hair. She woke up every morning with large plugs of hair just scattered around her bed and pillow which made her realise every time that she was ill. Better to have it off! her little brother Arjen of 8 years said without hesitation that he wanted to do the same, so his hair went off as well. Marcel her older brother of 15 could obviously not stay behind and decided together with our friend Luke Jones to go bald as well. Grandpa and myself had done it already a little earlier. Saskia had great fun shaving all these heads.

At the end of her chemo session last week, the weather was so good and Saskia felt really fantastic, so we organised a big bonfire for last Saturday. It was great to see all of our kids enjoy themselves so much with each other and their friends. It is moments like these that make us feel blessed and humbled by all that is happening. It is in moments like these that we feel comforted by Christ and His promise, and it is these type of moments that we will have to look back upon and remember in times of difficulty, which we know will surely come as well.



Little Sebastian, Saskia's miniature pony has received some company. We are now the proud owners of two little sheep as well. These sheep were donated by the home-groups of our church (Trinity Mount Barker). They are approximately 4-5 months old and are very tame. They came from the Hahndorf Farnbarn and have been bottle-fed for all of their short lives. We still bottle-feed them for a little longer, although this is not really needed, but it is great fun for the kids. Our youngest daughter Pyrene had the honour of naming them and now we have "Shaun" and "Fluffy". We had to promise that we do not eat them over Christmas....
Meanwhile Saskia is feeling relative good, still easily tired and she sleeps like a log, but at least she is home, strengthening herself for the next round in approximately two weeks.