Okay, so as usual it is far too long since I updated this thing. This time I do have valid grounds though. Since Margaret, Eva and I moved home we have lived the nomadic lifestyle spending two or three das here and a week there and basically moving between three bases. One of the three has internet access and so it has been hard to get good quality time and concentration to sit down and write. But now I have a wee bit of both and I shall write - still no pictures though. I am sorry about that - I have worked out a way to do it but it involves my mum finding the USB cable to attache to this computer from her camera. It's complicated but I think I should be able to do it. Hold on Mum has just arrived back in the house and I shall ask her. Success in one sense. The pictures are available for upload. but now is gone my free time and concentration!!! I will work through anyways and see what I can do.

Firstly, this must be stated. We miss everyone in America terribly. We have managed to catch some of you on the phone in the last few weeks and it has been great to talk. Some of you we have tried to catch but it would appear Bellsouth have offered some kind of call filtering system so you don't get all those nasty sales calls, and thus you don't know our international code and number and refuse the call. Persistence seems to work though. For those of you who we might call but have not got round to yet - please be patient, we are at our parent's houses and thus on their dollar so we are trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep the bill low.

Life here is going okay - as I said we are like nomads and it is frustrating not to be in our own house with our own strange little ways, but this will all end next Monday when we get our own house back. The excitement is starting as we get think about colours for the painter to paint the walls with. Though with the excitement comes a little anxiety as we think about what state the house might be left in. Who knows? But whatever state it is in, it will not take long to make it our home again and that we are looking forward to.

Eva continues to grow, getting stronger and more independent by the minute. She really can go pretty fast on all fours - especially when she has something she wants to get to and we are chasing behind. With our parents now being on their own, their houses are littered with little ornaments and keepsakes that Eva thinks are hers to play with and they all seems to be right at her level. She really takes a lot of watching. It is cool though, because just as much as we spend time running after her, we spend the same amount of time just laughing at her and with her. She seems able to pull the funniest of faces and expressions. There was a time a couple of months ago when we would catch her going towards something she was not supposed to be going towards and would be able to say "No Eva" and she would stop. That does not happen anymore. We caught her standing up right beside the television last week when we were staying at Marge's Mum and Dad's apartment. "No Eva", we cried and she just turned to look at us and cheekily grinned before turning back to the television. Margaret and I could do nothing but try and hide the fact that we were just laughing at her.

She is also still extremely well behaved in all situations. We had her out to dinner with us last night and she was great. There was another child in the resturaunt, a 20 month old ( who Eva was the same size as!!!!) and he was screaming the place down. Eva was great by comparison, but I could not help but wonder if this was a sign of things to come. It seems though that she is genuinely like her dad - when there is food around, there really is nothing else to think about except eating it!!! By the way - this was a chinese resturaunt and Eva was able to eat anything we were eating - last night she enjoyed special fried rice with curry sauce from my plate and from her mum's plate she got some shredded chicken with sweet chilli sauce. Yum, yum, yum. Last we we had her eating some Indian delicacies which she could not get enough of. It seems that she will have fairly eclectic tastes when it comes to food.

Yesterday we had to take Eva to visit the Health visitor. Ironic that the job title is Health Visitor and we are the ones that visit eh? Anywho, we took Eva to see her and she is in good shape. We also noticed yesterday as we were visiting with some other folks that her two front teeth and starting to come through - she will have an even prettier smile with those teeth gleeming.

My application to Queens is still in limbo. Please, please pray about this situation. As I have said, I am happy to go whenever God opens that path for me - but in terms of personal preference, I really want to go this year. It is one of the main reasons that we came home and I do not like the idea of tredding water in a random job for a year. Please pray about this and any wisdom or word that you receive I will be happy to hear. At the minute it is a faith thing and I just have to hold on to what I know is the call of God on my life to be ordained, and so pray that in moments of worry and anxiety over this I would be still and know that God is God.

We are going back to East Melfast Mission for church. It has changed so much since we left three years ago. There seems to have been a massive influx of people in their mid to late twenties and their worship team has grown and evolved immensely since we left. Other churches that we have been to or talked about with friends, seem to be stuck and refuse to try to move on from where they are at, and so it really is good that we are able to connect at the Mission where things ain't so bad.

We miss Ron and Jen and Kate - weekends are not the same without our usual Friday or Saturday night gathering and we don't go out for lunch after church any more. Ron and Jen and Kate - we love you and we miss you. We talked on the phone this week and I was so excited to hear that Ron was playing in the band on Sunday - go Ron and make sure everyone knows that your lovely 12 string has a story of sacrifice and pain behind it!!!!! Jen knows 5 chords now (or was it six) soon they'll be up there like Jonny Cash and June Carter!!!!!!!

Okay - I am going to try and upload these pictures for you.

Blessings