He leadeth me

This morning Dad Campbell was rushed to hospital after having a seizure. Thankfully he was sitting at the time and Mum managed to hold him close until it passed. He is now being cared
for by a lovely Palliative care team. Mum hopped in the ambulance and went with him. Peter, Jennifer and Matthias joined Mum at the hospital. We were all keen to see Dad again - while Rosa went down for a nap I took the boys (eventually managed to get out the door) and up to the hospital. Dad seemed quite aware of everything but was only able to say a few, very simple words. Jennifer fed him his lunch. The doctor and a student came to talk to Mum. Other than that we just enjoyed being with Dad - giving him hugs, talking to him... Joshua has had a few sniffly moments and likes his top up of hugs through the day. The other two are just too young to even know something is going on. I just don't know how I am going to be able to explain to Owen where Grandpa is once he is gone. I am sure he is going to ask for him... - for wisdom Lord...

Tonight it is David and Rosa's turn to pick up Mum and head over to the hospital.

Here are a few verses and comments I have appreciated after reviewing a study (Heaven - John MacArthur's Bible Studies) I did with a ladies Bible study some years ago:

Our earthly tent is being torn down. I remember reading that when someone asked John Quincy Adams how he was doing, Adams replied something to the effect of, "John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well. The house in which he has been living is dilapidated and old, and he has received word from its Maker that he must vacate soon. But John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well." In the same way our earthly tent is being torn down. But when it's gone, we'll have a building from God, eternal in the heavens. Second Corinthians 5:2 says of our earthly bodies, "Indeed in this house we groan." We groan because of the infirmities of the flesh and the sin that permeates it. We groan because we cannot be what we long to be. We are debilitated in these bodies, so that we groan with the rest of creation, waiting "eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God" (Romans 8:19). We long to be clothed with a heavenly body.

...John described the city as having the "glory of God." The essence of the eternal heaven is that God's glory is manifest in it. Isaiah 60:19 says, "No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory." Revelation 21:33 says, "The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb." God Himself will light all of the infinite heaven, particularly the sparklingn celestial jewel called the New Jerusalem.

Something Josh wrote

Things I love about Grandpa
By Joshua Campbell

There are lots of things I love about Grandpa. These are just a few of them.

I love the way he takes me on outings like to the swimming pool. When we go to the pool he lets me ride on his back and even goes under the water with me. After I have had a busy day at Grandpa's place he often drives me home.

He invited us to go to the Gold Coast to visit him on his holiday there. He took us to the beach and enjoyed lunch with us.

He fixes things for me. He fixed my toy boat and explained to me that it needed to be cleaned out with a chemical. He put batteries in it so it worked again.

When he came back from America he gave me a little camera key ring. I have taken photos with it.

At my music concert, Grandpa played Edelweiss with me. He played beautifully. He also checks my music theory and plays piano with me. He has had lots of practise and he knows how to play well.

He lets me play with the electric lego train. He helped me fix it when it wasn't working.

He hugs me with warm hugs and he is cheerful and smiley.

Most importantly my Grandpa trusts the Lord.

I love my Grandpa and God loves him too!

Our long weekend

Over the long weekend we decided to go along to an Anzac Day service (the very first one for our suburb). We met a few friends there from church, let the kids romp around in the park and had a munch on a free sausage (or even two - my seven year old is constantly hungry).

We had lunch with Dad and Mum - and was finally able to get some photos of our Rosa with Grandpa (previously she just simply squirmed too much!). I think she might just enjoy these when she is older. Grandpa will not get to see our little ones growing up.

We joined some beautiful friends from Church for Pancakes in the park early on Saturday morning. It was so good to catch up again. We especially enjoyed your pancake flip Dominick (thanks for photos Wendy - must say you caught the moment well!) We are very impressed Dominick (I can see Josh trying this now:)

We have recently had a second hand cubby put up in our back yard. David and I spent a few mornings (getting up early) painting to prepare it. It is looking great. We had it built up high to make storage underneath for bikes, etc. We decided to invite some friends over to come and enjoy the cubby with our kids. On Saturday our friend Levi came and had a play inside while I was able to have a lovely chat with my friend Susan on the front verandah of the cubby house. Unfortunately I forgot to pull the camera out while they were here...

On Sunday we had a lovely family from Sudan come for lunch. We actually got to know the father through Joshua's friendly "hello" from the front window! It was good to get to know our neighbours a little bit more. Their boys have been coming along to our little church from time to time. Their boys jumped around and had some good old fashioned rough and tumble with Josh on the tramp. They found the cubby a great jumping platform for their stunts while the Dad's joined in with a few rib ticklings from time to time.

David spent some time over the weekend helping his Mum sort out some of Dad's work tools. A friend is planning to come and buy some for his business. David came home feeling somewhat saddened (to be losing Dad) but blessed by thinking of all the hard years his father had put into working in his business to support him growing up...

Well it has been a weekend of many mixed feelings and emotions - feelings of sadness mingled with the joy of friendship.

Dessert with Grandpa

It was with heavy hearts that we returned from our visit with Grandpa and Grandma tonight. Heavy in that we can see that Grandpa is slipping away. Tonight we saw just how much he has deteriorated since our family gathering last Sunday. We love him so much and it is so hard to watch it all happening bit by bit. We shared dessert together - we had our evening devotions with Grandpa and Grandma. Our precious ones all around. Grandpa prayed. He struggled to get the words out and Grandma helped him to finish his sentences. He prayed to His Maker. We all sat somewhat stunned to hear him struggle to put thoughts together. When he finished praying he apologised "Sorry that I wasn't very articulate!" Oh, Dad, if only you knew that we love you so much - we hate to see it all disappearing for you but we know you are in God's hands. We can only thank our Lord for these precious memories of late - that He has been gracious to let us have some pre-warning before things became too difficult... too difficult to communicate. We don't know how long we have Dad Campbell but things seem to have begun to deteriorate quickly of late.

Mum Campbell has served Dad so faithfully - she is just continuing to spoil him, to love him and
spoil him some more. She knows she must be strong. She realises just how many things she must begin to learn - how to operate the video camera/dvd player, learn the banking procedures, how to operate other technical things... and she picks it up so quickly. Her love for Dad is so evident and so precious. Tonight Dad burst into a little verse from some romantic song and Mum's face lit up. He would have continued only he couldn't remember the rest of the words.

Dad and Mum love others so much and so they have had numerous (that is an understatement!) phone calls each day to see how they are. You mean so much to so many Dad!

We are the next generation - so touched by your Godly example, Dad. I have so much to thank you for in the way you trained your sons. And Lord, that we too may train our children to pass on a foundation of Godliness for the generations after them.

We love you Dad.

Moments to record

Owen
When I tucked Owen into bed tonight and asked if he wanted a kiss he said "no.... cake." He was requesting the little nursery rhym "Pat-a-cake." I couldn't resist catching the moment on video. Enjoy.




Joshua
Yesterday Joshua was learning about recounts. We read through John 10 in our morning Bible reading and so this passage is the subject of the recount. This was quite a crammed lesson - and the first time on video - so it was quite a challenge! We know you were nervous, Joshua... you did a good job though and managed to keep going - so proud of you, our boy! Great job explaining with duplo, too!

Well done Bubble Gum!
(This video snippet is a bit longer - not sure, maybe 5 min?)

Crafty things

Here are a few craft projects (photos on request of my lil' sister) I have been working on over the last few months. Please feel free to skip over the details if it really isn't your thing.

I particularly enjoyed working on craft projects in the evening while David was away.

A handbag for a birthday girl:

A picture for the bedroom wall (I actually just printed out a black and white picture then coloured it lightly with pencil shavings, added a few shiny sticker jewels (can't see in photo) and had a framing shop make the matting. The black curly bit was just a rub - 0n transfer.) The frame previously had a rather hideous oil painting in it. I also made a couple of toille cushions for our bedroom (our doona cover and cushions finally gave in after 10 years of wear and tear...so bedroom needed some attention)

A couple of 'revamped' grubby t-shirts for Owen. I decided to use some bleach and alphabet stickers to add some words to a t-shirt. The bus shirt I made by cutting a stencil from contact paper (if you know Owen - he just loves song "Wheels on the Bus").

Some outdoor muck around slippers for Rosa... and so far they seem to stay on her very fast little feet! Ok...they are a bit 60's -ish but they actually work!

party time

We packed the kids in the car and headed to Warwick today for a birthday party. It was a party for a very sweet little girl who just turned three. And what do three year olds get up to? - well she seemed to be enjoying herself just playing with friends, eating little pink cupcakes, playing on the park play things and made a little 'camp fire' with Joshua. She was happy and smiling most of the time - just soaking up all the love and attention that three year olds love.

Here is the little sweety-pie:

We are always touched by the hospitality

of this beautiful family. So nice to catch up again!

And Daddy - so nice to have you here with your little munchkins again!

Geometric extravaganza

Today we indulged in a little geometric extravaganza. Joshua has been learning about polygons, 2D and 3D shapes so we decided to make one. This one definitely needed both hands on deck (and we had 6 pages of net shapes to cut out - much to Joshua's disgust). After much folding, a bit of problem solving (on the part of Mum - the net shape is quite complicated (especially when you forgot to write all the matching up numbers on the back of the shapes:( ). Anyway it worked out (with a huge supply of sticky tape). I think both Joshua and I now have a new appreciation for the making of soccer balls (and those poor Chinese people in sweat shops making them!) Joshua tells me it took 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons in total!

Now Joshua, don't even think of it!

puny teeny weenies

Daniel 4:35

He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven

and the people of the earth.

No one can hold back His hand or say to Him:

"What have you done?"

Tonight at dinner David was sharing with us a story he read from the news. Astronomers have calculated that in the year 2035 a huge asteroid will come close to the earth (closer than our moon, at any rate). You can probably imagine just how the mind of a seven year old begins to tick over - wondering just how devestating the impact, wondering just how big such a thing is, and if indeed he would survive!

How absolutely reasurring that as for all things relating to the peoples of the earth, God is in control - completely (and how timely this Bible verse we have been learning with Josh)!

and...

what makes it even more amazing is that he would take an interest in us and our puny little problems/issues!

Here are a few of my little 'issues'... they are the most precious ones of all - only the last couple of days I have had so many soiled nappies/pants, wet beds and runny noses.... Some days it seems that there is only a few minutes to breath between nappy changes!

family

Family. Noise. Fellowship. Food. We enjoyed all of it last night. We all came together at Dad and Mum's house. We were all keen to see Dad, to enjoy the precious time we have with him. Dad seemed to enjoy himself. He was even able to play the keyboard for us which was just beautiful. He played some requests from the children, Jesus loves the Little children, This little light of mine, and Bananas in Pyjamas! I particularly enjoyed hearing Dad and Mum together singing/playing, Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
We love you Dad
We love you so much!



...and the things of earth will grown strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace!