Plan B....

So today officially we have had to withdraw from the purchase of the house that we thought was going to be our new family home.

There were 2 significant issues resulting from the survey...one of them (roof sagging/strengthening works required) we might have been able to live with, but the other one was insurmountable - an additional layer of bricks on the outside of two walls of the original house for which there was no information available as to why it was built, when it was put up, how the problem was assessed etc etc.
The surveyor advised that it was extremely unusual unless there were issues which were being 'covered up' - in particular structural cracking/subsidence....anyway the current owners were unable to shed any light on the issue so we've elected to reluctantly pull out and go for plan B.  The thought of buying a house which we couldn't sell on in 5 or 10 years makes me very nervous!
The only slight problem is that we don't quite know what plan B is yet !! That said, we're very peaceful that we've made the right decision !

It's OK....Jesus is still on His throne ! So I'm going to watch Reading play at the Madejski stadium this afternoon just to have some fun....looking forward to seeing the victorious promotion boys do their thang (and Kingsley the mascot always makes me smile!!)

Have a blessed weekend x

God's handprints...

Sitting in Devon after 5 days rest...children playing in the garden. I'm reflecting on the wonder of the Easter message, a message of Jesus' victory and triumph over death...a message that Ellie and I live in the good of every day of our lives.

On our wedding day, Ellie gave me an album she'd made entitled "God's Handprints" which artistically recounted all of the scriptures that had so clearly spoken to us both through our journey together, and all the evidences ('coincidences' some would say) of God's hand upon us and our children and upon our relationship together. I brought it with me to Devon to remind myself afresh.

Here's one of them which kinda says it all really....

Running the race....

Saturday's marriage time at the Olympic stadium was simply fabulous…permit me a little indulgence here…I was one of the first people ever to go over the finish line at the Olympic stadium!!…Well, when I say "one of the first"…actually I was 744th after completing the 5 miles in 36:23 I think it was - heho I don't think I'm going to make the cut for TeamGB but I did beat Sally Gunnell and Roger Black on the day :-)

Sunday was my 4th Reading Half Marathon - it was a hot day and I ran a pretty steady pace to finish in a good time for me (just under 1hr39mins).
The day's fun was sadly destroyed later in the day by the grim news that a man had died after completing the event…I found out on Monday that it was somebody from my workplace. Whilst I didn't personally know him, I confess to having "dropped off the precipice" a little knowing the pain that is being experienced by another family whose lives have now been turned upside down on a journey that they hadn't expected or signed up for.
My family came home from the event on Sunday with me. Sadly his family came home without him.

We must live in the knowledge that our days are numbered and that one day we WILL stand before the God of eternity. It's totally inescapable.

Heb 12:1-2
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Marriage time...

Each week Ellie and I have marriage time - a dedicated time when we go out together and spend time just talking or doing something we enjoy - just the two of us....no children in tow !
Normally it's on a Friday evening when our children are out....this week it's today because last night we had to spend the evening cleaning the house in preparation for another 4 house viewings today.

For today's marriage time, we are going to the Olympics together !
I'm running in the Olympic Park Run which finishes in the Olympic stadium, while Ellie cheers me on...and then we get time together enjoying the atmosphere and to have dinner etc etc. We are both really looking forward to it. I like to think that today I become an Olympian !

We both have so much to be grateful for....

- Each other
- Our unique family
- Five outstanding children
- Our faithful Father in heaven
- Our home
- Schools for our children
- Food on the table
- Our health
- Our families
- Our friends
- Laughter
- Memories

"We're a Special Family" Day....

It's Saturday morning at 5.30am as I write. I've been awake for about an hour trying not to think about things but thinking about them nonetheless.....so in the end I gave up with the idea of sleep and just got up !

Sometime ago I wrote about the pain of the journey as being like background music...ie always there through every waking hour but sometimes the volume is much louder than others.....this week the amplifier seems to have been turned up a lot !

Mother's Day started the dirge.....I confess that I really don't know what to do with the day.

I have been very privileged to have excellent parents and my mum is "simply the best". My first mother-in-law is also an exceptional woman and I love her with all of my heart. My new mother-in-law is absolutely fabulous too (we all love visiting !), and Ellie's first mother-in-law is just lovely and has been such an incredible support to her and the children over so many many years.
So we have a lot to be thankful for and to celebrate on Mother's Day in so many ways!
The pain of the day, of course, is that two of my children can celebrate their mum, but three of them can only remember their mum and cannot speak to her face-to-face, they can't give her flowers or do special things for her. I personally find that so so incredibly hard on their behalf. Their mum was an exceptional woman who loved them dearly and I do celebrate that, but it doesn't take away the pain of absence. I miss her so much too but she's been taken away and I can't do anything about that.

So the dilemma for the day was - Do we try to celebrate Ellie as a mum (she's an exceptional mother), how does that feel for three of our five children? Do we do a big "In remembrance" thing trawling through photos which will just make everybody cry? Or do we just ignore the whole thing and hope it'll all go away because that will feel less painful?

So in the swirl of emotions we basically tried to ignore the day....after all, I figured, it's a man-made celebration anyway and lots of other people will be struggling too for different reasons.
It's taken me a week to realise that in all the pain, I never even sent my own mum a Mother's Day card (Sorry Mum- I do love you!!)

In June we will go through the same dilemma the other way around on Father's Day....it'll be another "Beam Me Up Scottie" day which we will choose to ignore.

So what we have decided to do this year is to have a separate "We're a Special Family" Day. We're gonna celebrate this on May 4th just because we can say "May the 4th Be With You" in true Star Wars fashion (I am still a little bit mad!!)
We will do something special then to celebrate our uniqueness as a family and all that God has given to us. Perhaps we will do presents as well as go out for dinner or something like that.

In all the pain and emotions, my experience is that God is ever present, and the Holy Spirit (aka The Comforter) is evidently with us helping us each and every step of the way. Thank God for that ! What would we do without Him?!

Housing....

This week's exciting news is that we've bought a house (Subject to Contract of course) !
It's a bit quirky... (rather like us !!)

Put a hopeful offer in on Monday (rejected as expected), and a revised slightly less hopeful offer on Tuesday with the clear understanding that if it wasn't accepted we'd walk away (and we would have done)....we'd seen two other possibles which would both have worked for us.....but what we've ended up with give us lots of rooms and lots of flexibility. Can't quite believe it !!
We took all the children to see it yesterday evening and they were all (understandably) excited. Just hope it all goes through now !

We decided to buy and sell as separate exercises to reduce stress levels so my house is now also back on the market....the good news is that the Estate Agents are doing an open house on it today and they phoned to confirm that they've got 18 different sets of people coming to see it. 18 !!!!!

Who knows....this time next week, maybe we'll have agreed a sale on this one too....now that would be an answer to prayer !

This week's highlights...

Oh what a crazy couple of weeks.....some highlights :-

- Ellie has been looking at new potential houses. 2 possibles that would actually fit us all in. One is quirky. I'm seeing it tomorrow. Ellie says it's fab !

- 'My' house is back on the market. Open house next weekend. Estate Agent phoned tonight to confirm that he's got 12 sets of viewings for the open house so far (gulp!)

- Ellie has become the mould removal queen. Amazing what chemicals and a strong arm can achieve....our current house just isn't designed to have 7 people living in it, 7 people's washing drying etc etc etc. Even the children have noticed the mould eradication and gleaming bathroom suite!

- Oldest daughter had interview for possible 6th form place at local grammar school...seemed to go very well !

- Children all fabulously well, doing lots of activities and very noisy :-)

- Got offered a job at another Engineering Contractor. Turned it down :-)

- Training for Reading Half Marathon and Olympic Park Run going ok (although I can hardly be bothered with it really!)

- Dog has settled down

- New family members (guinea piggies) settling in well

- Our To-Do List is totally out-of-control :-)

- Not cried too much this week !

- Glad February is gone...it's always gonna be an emotional roller coaster of a month!

Must dash....it's Special Friday evening and it's "Marriage Time". Taking the Beauty out for coffee some place !