Starting to get excited

We're planning an epic adventure to western Canada this summer...
...the B&Bs are booked, the flights are booked, the hire car is booked
It's starting to get exciting!

You can see where we are planning to go on Google Maps
how cool is that?!

Suffer the little children...

Dawn raids are a fact of life for asylum seekers across the country. Here in the north-east. Around the corner from you and me. It happens. Families torn from their homes. Little children frightened and confused. It's happened to families I know. It's a constant threat to more.

So what is it like being taken from your home and sent to a detention centre?
Here is an account by a 10 year old boy...

This can't be allowed to continue.

Be like Jesus

I found this on the blogosphere today...
Challenging stuff.

Congratulations, Mr & Mrs O'Dwyer

Congratulations to my biggest cous, Hilary, and Martin who were married on Friday in Dumfries. A lovely service, stunning setting and fabulous party - and the sun shone too! It was great to catch up with distant (and not-so-distant) relatives again - some of whom I hadn't seen for many years...

Not sure we'll easily forget the day... Highlights include:

...Hilary looking absolutely stunning in her dress
...the enormous displays of lillies
...the HE and LP painted with Tipex on the soles of Martin's shoes
...my little bro having to don a pinny and chef's hat to carve the meat at his table
...my ma and pa dancing to 'Grease' - there are some things a son shouldn't have to see!

Much appreciation must go to David and Frances for making it all happen - thank you!

We have skoosh

An hour and a half's wait at our local friendly Skoda repairer, and I'm glad to report that skoosh has been restored to the windscreen. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of the rear screen, which will have to stay dirty for a few days.

Evidently, something called a 'relay' was broken. They've swapped the front wash relay for the rear wash relay, so the front one now works and the back one doesn't. The new relay is now on order and should arrive on Friday - at which point skoosh should hopefully be restored to the rear...

At least we can now drive forwards again!

Free Alan Johnston

As a fellow former pupil of Dollar Academy, and fellow alumini of Dundee University, I thought it only proper that I should support efforts to release Alan... I hope and pray that our collective efforts will help to bring about his safe release.

If you would like to, please click on the picture above to lend your support and sign the BBC's online petition.

Along with over 50,000 others, I demand the immediate release of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston. I ask that everyone with influence on this situation increase their efforts to ensure that Alan is freed quickly and unharmed.

A worldwide phenomenon!

Thanks to thathideousman for alerting me to Google Analytics - a natty bit of software which allows you to see who has been visiting your website, and where in the world they are...

A little 'big brother-esque' perhaps, but very interesting none-the-less.



And so it would appear that not only do people read this in the UK (surprising enough in itself!) but also in USA, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Dubai, China and Singapore...

Dirty windscreen

Our shiny new car has developed a fault.
The windscreen skoosher has stopped skooshing.
But the back one still works.

So the windscreen is covered in dead flies...
looks like we'll have to drive backwards until it's fixed :-)

It's booked in to the garage on Wednesday to get a diagnosis...

Shiny new car

We got our new car on Saturday. It's lovely.

The start of a long road

This week has been both exciting and scary...
and full of anticipation for what lies ahead

After much prayer, seeking God's will, and the wise counsel and prayer of many good friends (thank you all - you know who you are), we have decided to apply to be adoptive parents...

We attended an open evening last week, where we heard what adoption is all about - first hand from parents who have adopted, and also from the social workers' point of view... we heard about the ups and downs, the forms and meetings, and how long it all takes! And we were excited...

That meeting confirmed what we'd been feeling for a while - that this was the right thing to do.

So we filled in the initial enquiry (the pink form!) and sent it off.
Today we received the acknowledgement - and somebody will phone us within the next couple of weeks to arrange to come and see us here at home...
Better get the hoover out and do some dusting at the same time!!

It seems that 2 social workers will come and visit us - ask us lots of questions about ourselves and our motives - what we have to offer, what we hope for...
then they will write a report and determine whether they think we would be suitable adoptive parents for the kind of children they are looking after.

If they think we are, then we complete a full application, which kicks off the official process:
training days
police checks
references
weekly meetings at home with the social worker, thinking through issues, discussing our approach to everything and anything...
At the end of it all, they'll know more about us than we do!
Then there is the adoption panel - they make the recommendationas to whether we are suitable or not...

All of this takes about 8 months...

So the start of a long road - but full of anticipation for what God has in store for us...
We just keep imagining - God knows who will be in our family already - that's an awesome thought!

Happy Birthday Mrs D

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Mrs D
Happy Birthday to you!

Rockcliffe

We had a lovely few days after Easter on the Colvend coast in south-west Scotland - a favourite family place for holidays for many generations - the place where my grandparents lived, my uncle and aunt live, and other relations too...

The beach is lovely, and doglet loves it too - especially running and running and running on the sand and mud!

Blue sky in Edinburgh

A bit late, but this was Edinburgh on 3rd April....
Beautiful!

Google TiSP

A friend sent me this link today (thanks Stuart!)...

http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html
It's basically a new cheap way to connect to the internet from your home - I can't think why somebody didn't think of this before!

Happy 1st April!