Saturday, March 30, 2013

Beatrice Olivia Talbot- Born February 17, 2013

On February  17, 2013 we welcomed our 7th child to our family!  We were all very excited to finally meet her.  Here are some of her first pictures:


Her first visitor- Aunt Christina

Nana holding her 8th grandchild

All clean after her first bath

Grandma holding her 18th grandchild

Grandpa holding his 18th grandchild


Aunt Chelsea holding her niece for the first time

Grandma Suzanne holding Bea for the first time
Home from the hospital

Eli really does like holding Bea

Me and my baby girl!

Kyle is quite the helper


Daddy and his baby girl

When Bea was just 13 days old we were able to have a baby photo shoot with her.  Thanks so much to Trish Easton at Trish Easton Photography!











This was Bea's first week with us.  We are enjoying having this little one as part of our family.

Here she is at 5 weeks old.  

She is becoming much more aware of her surroundings.

Thanks so much for all your prayers for the safe arrival of our little girl.  Continue to pray for us as we adjust to life with a baby again.  Pray for us as we get ready to go back to the Philippines.  There is so much to do and having a baby makes those tasks take just a little bit longer!

Monday, March 25, 2013

What have we been doing?



“What have you been doing?!”
You may be wondering what I am doing as you look at the picture of me in my hammock.  I’ll explain in just a moment.  How many times have I asked my kids that same question lately?  It seems like too many to count.  Why, you may ask?  It’s just one of the many responsibilities I’ve taken on over the past month and a half.  Let me explain. 

As the New Year began I started to make a list of all the things I needed to do.  It was a good thing that work with Steve Dyce was slowing down (due to the winter season) because as I made the list, it got longer and longer.  For example, prior to Christmas we had been doing a lot of travelling, particularly on the weekends to share with churches about our ministry amongst the Ga’dang people in the Philippines.  Now I needed to follow up with all those churches and the individuals we met there by e-mailing them. 

I also attended a 1 week course at the NTM headquarters in Durham, ON about Partnership Development.  It equipped us to be able to develop, maintain and grow the relationships we have with our ministry partners.  Several other day trips were also made to Durham to have work done on our van, taxes, and even our computers.  We are very thankful for those whom the Lord has gifted with these abilities and are willing to use those talents to serve Him by ministering to us.

One of our supporting churches requested a short video presentation of our work with the Ga’dang people.  The challenge for me was to describe this group of people and how the Lord is using us to be a part of bringing the Gospel to them in 3-5 minutes.  I managed to do it, and it is now available for anyone to view.
Here it is:



Also on my list of things to do was reviewing all of the language files I collected while in the tribe last term.  I hadn’t looked at any of them since returning to Canada but knew I needed to get familiar with the Ga’dang language again before returning to the tribe later this year.  So I began the process of organizing all my sound and picture files and memorizing them, etc. 

After Beatrice was born in February, we planned for me to stay home and take on most of the jobs of running our home so Shannon could focus on resting after the birth.  So I’ve took on the role of Dad and Mom in many respects for the past 6 weeks, and not just in cooking and cleaning.  Here’s a list of some of my ‘hats’ I’ve been wearing lately:  chief cook and bottle washer, house cleaner (manager mostly), chauffeur  home school teacher and principal, bather of little ones, laundry man, waiter, baby burper and bum changer, etc. etc…  not to mention ministry correspondence and reviewing Ga’dang language in my spare time.  Busy?  Yes!  But that’s ok, I am what I need to be by the grace of God, right?  I am thankful He gives me the strength and wisdom to fill the roles He calls me to do, and reminds me of that fact when I feel like I’m really not capable of doing it all. 

Now, about the picture of me in the hammock.  In our house in the village, we have several hammocks set up, which provide a great place to not just relax, but also to study, entertain visitors, occupy babies… and the list goes on.  So when we came back to Canada I made sure we packed at least one of them to bring back and found a place to hang it.  In the house we are staying, there is a nice sun room, which provided an ideal place for me to string up my hammock.  Being a sun room, it was great during the summer months as it usually was the sunniest and warmest room in the house, just like being in the Philippines.  Perfect.

As the months passed so did the summer months, and the warmth of the sun.  By winter the sun room became too cold to spend time in and I was no longer able to spend time in my beloved hammock.  I looked forward to the day when the sun room would once again be warm enough to enjoy being in my hammock once again. 

As many of you know, our beautiful baby Beatrice arrived in February and we began the process of getting her paperwork in order to be able to return to the Philippines.  Our expectation was that it could likely take up to 3 months to complete it all, in which case we decided to not book return tickets to the Philippines until we had all the necessary papers in hand.  To our great surprise though, the Lord pushed everything through and we had it all done in just 4 ½ weeks! 

What else was there to do?  After confirming with our home church leadership, we lost no time in getting ticket price quotes and then booking our tickets.  That’s right, we’re heading back!  The time has finally come and our home assignment has an end in sight.  On May 22, we will be saying our final good byes to everyone on this side of the world and returning to the work the Lord has graciously called us to of bringing the Gospel message to the Ga’dang people. 

So, as the weather slowly begins to warm up on us here, we are beginning the process of finishing up things here in Canada in preparation for our return to the Philippines.  This morning I couldn’t take it anymore and despite the cold, I hung up my hammock and climbed into it to relax momentarily and reflect on all that the Lord has done for us over this past year while home in Canada.  We are grateful for all the opportunities we have had to share about the Lord’s work amongst the Ga’dang people.  Now we look forward to continuing to be a part of that once again.