Three Years...

It has been over three years since my wife Candace suffered a postpartum haemorrhage in the early morning hours of the 15th December, 2015. We almost lost her that day, but praise God she survived and continues to bless us to this day. And if it were not for God sparing her life - and her uterus - that day, we would never have had our little baby girl Eliza Lucy in our family. We are truly blessed and Candace is a fantastic mother to both Riaan and Eliza, and a wonderful wife to me. We celebrated Candace with a couple of fun events over the past couple of weeks, but more on those another time. You can read Part 1 of Candace's story here and Part 2 here.

A necklace I bought Candace to mark her third Celebration of Life anniversary. The passage on the jewellery is from Ezekiel 34: 26. It was the hymn Showers of Blessing that Candace sung in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that cold December morning.

Happy Christmas 2018...

This is to say that we hope all our friends, family and blog followers have had a lovely, blessed Christmas! We trust that you have an amazing holiday season and that God richly blesses you into this New Year. May 2019 be your best year yet! Much love and blessings, Murray, Candace, Riaan, Eliza and Rusty. :)

A Day with Daddy...

Eliza was sick for several days a fortnight ago, and so Candace was able to take some time off work to help look after her. During this time, Riaan and I were able to go to Washington to do several tasks and we even had a coffee date at the Cherry Ghost Coffee House. Later that same day, we went to my work Christmas party while Candace stayed home with Eliza. It was a special day spending time together as father and son. Children are truly a blessing from the Lord. :)

Enjoying time together at the Cherry Ghost Coffee House.

Muskrat in the Pond...

We've had a little semi-aquatic visitor in the pond lately - a small muskrat has made two homes for itself along the bank of the pond. It's favourite residence seems to be under the paddle-boat, but it has also been busy digging channels and burrows under the small jetty. It is rather elusive and shy, and so I have not been able to capture any good photos. But it is interesting to watch!

 The muskrat swimming to its home.

Pretty ripples just after the muskrat disappeared under the surface.

 Tracks under the small jetty.

The underwater channel that it uses as an entrance can be clearly seen here.

Riaan's Third Birthday...

We celebrated Riaan's third birthday on Friday, 7th December. We had a pretty low-key day. I worked for most of it, and once I was home we had his birthday cake and he opened presents. He wanted a cookie monster cake and Candace did a fantastic job recreating this Sesame Street character in cake form! We also Skyped with his South African Granny and Grandad who wished him, too. :) You can see how much he has changed since last year, here.

 Riaan on his last night of being two. This was a recreation of this photo from two years ago.

 Cookie Monster cake!

 Siblings together on Riaan's birthday.

 Opening presents.

 He was so excited!

 Building Lego with Daddy.

Celebrating with Granny in Cape Town via Skype. :)

Rusty's New Toy...

We bought Rusty a new chew toy a few weeks back. He was so excited that he kept it in his basket the first night and over the following days he wanted to take it out with us every time we went outside for a walk. I like to imagine that he wanted to show off his new toy to all the animals outside. :)

He's so proud of his new chew toy!

Cool Clouds...

We were driving down to Evansville last Sunday (2nd December) and saw these amazing clouds overhead. It was quite a windy day and it looked as if the clouds were forming roads and rivers in the sky. :)

 Cloud pathways in the sky.

Cool clouds as we drive down I-69.