Family

I’m stopping by this afternoon to ask for your prayers for Shari’s grandparents, Clifford and Ada Winger.  Grandpa’s health has not been great, and Grandma has recently been in and out of the hospital.  Everyone’s home now, as far as I know.  In order to get better care, Grandpa is going to be moving to another place.  Unfortunately, there’s "no room in the inn" for one of them, and so after over 67 years of marriage (yes, you read that right – over 67 years of marriage), they’re going to be separate for the time being.

As you can imagine, this time has already been pretty hard, and all the transitions coming up are going to be difficult too.  Please pray too for their daughter Luella who is trying to help them through all these challenges.  Thanks!

Below is a photo of Clifford and Ada and one side of the family, including us.  The picture was taken about 8 months ago.

It’s been rare over the past few weeks for our whole family to go out together.  Yesterday was an exception.  We loaded everyone into the Aerostar and moved with the rush hour traffic across town.  Hannah was very excited – well, we all were.  It was around suppertime and more or less dark by the time we got to the hospital.

Through the long corridors, lined with framed pictures for sale.  No one was at the information desk, there was just a note with some complex instructions about dialing numbers and finding a certain grey phone in order to locate the room you needed.  A nice lady who happened to be nearby pointed us in the right direction – to the right floor of the hospital, that is, not to the phone.  And so finally we made it all the way to the right room, and there she was.  Our beautiful new niece, only a few hours old.

Ashlyn Jade Winger was born at 11:45pm on the 13th of November, weighing in at 6lbs, 13oz (that’s almost 1/2 a UK stone), at a towering height of 19″ (if she were swimming she’d be about 1/4 of a fathom deep).  Everyone is, as far as I know, home and doing fine.  Jevon (her brother) is very proud.  Here’s Hannah with Ashlyn:

I’ll post a few photos in our photo gallery soon, Lord willing.

I had heard it rumbling on the tracks for several days, but on Sunday morning WHAM!  It his me like a freight train.  Yes, I was pretty sick.  I still have whatever-it-is, so I’m working on getting over that.  Hannah is starting to get better, though she still has a cough.  Nathanael had a bit of a fever tonight, so we’re just not sure about him.  We shall see what tomorrow holds.

But in spite of it all, we’ve had some fun.  Last night Hannah and I made some big round crayons.  Today I got thinking, we need a BIG piece of paper to match the BIG crayons.  So, we covered the kitchen floor and had a major colouring session (for you Americans, that’s kind of like a coloring session, except more…well, Canadian!).

I realized there weren’t too many recent photos of the kids online, so I pulled out the camera and tried to get a few.  Go and visit our album to see some recent shots.

The young ones of the family have some big activities coming up, so hopefully they’ll be feeling better soon.  But other than being a little sick, they’re doing well.  Nathanael is learning new words and songs, and exploring the world as always.  Hannah is learning to read and write, and is quite excited about that.

Shari enjoyed a bit of time off yesterday and today, working on some scrapbooking.  And me?  Well, I’m caught under an avalanche of paperwork right now, so I’d better get on it.

Anyway, there’s a little overdue family update.  Nathanael seems to be doing a little better at the moment.  He’s playing in the living room and he’s – hey!  Nathanael – GET OUT OF THERE!  Gotta run…

It seems like I’ve been blogging a lot lately.  Some of you may think that’s a good thing, others may think it’s a bad thing!  But I’m stopping by yet again for those of you who pray for us, to give you the latest.

A little over a week ago I wrote about “Those minor disasters” that it seems we’ve been dealing with.  I know that many of you have been praying especially for us since then, and we’ve really felt your prayers.  Thanks!

It does seem like those minor disasters are continuing, though, so we still need prayer (actually, we need prayer all the time!  But perhaps things like this are God’s way of getting us to pray, because there are unseen spiritual realities that we’re so often unaware of).

Here are a few examples.  Since I last wrote, we’ve had some computer problems.  Nothing major, I don’t think, but nagging, time consuming things.  We took the van in, and that cost us over $250.  It looks like more may need to be done, such as a couple of new tires, in the near future.  We had another month of low donations (one of the lowest in a year).  Yesterday Hannah hurt her lip, and today she hurt her tooth.  She’s going to the dentist tomorrow to deal with that.  We’ve been trying to get medical insurance set up for the children, but it’s not there yet, so whatever we do we’ll be spending money.

We’re all sick, too, which makes things difficult as I’m sure most of you know.  Hannah and Nathanael are starting to get better, but they have a way to go yet.  Shari and I are still getting worse.

Don’t worry, I’m not as depressed as all that may make it sound!  But I just wanted to give you an idea of what’s been going on around here.  November is shaping up to be a very busy month for us.  Good-busy, for the most part, things we’re looking forward to.  But with all these other things going on, it’s going to be a real challenge.

This is why we continue to ask for your prayers – that we may have wisdom, patience and strength to continue sharing the vision.  That God would bring along those who believe in this ministry, who can be a part of it.  That through all the challenges of life, we would be able to better relate to those in Mexico who have challenges far beyond ours.  Thanks for your prayers!

Hannah and Nathanael, the two youngest Cottrills, have been sick for a few days.  The last couple of days, though, have been quite a bit worse.  I stayed home with the two little ‘uns today, attempting to nurse them back to health.

Oh, I don’t think it’s anything serious, really.  But when Hannah volunteers to go to bed – early – for her afternoon “quiet time” – and then actually sleeps (a very rare thing for her in the afternoon)…then you know that she’s not feeling well.

Nathanael isn’t feeling well either.  This afternoon his mother finally calmed him down with Cheerios (hey, 4 out of 5 pediatricians agree).  While we were sitting in the living room, he got a calculator from somewhere and handed it to Mom.

“Do you want Mom to do some calculations?” I asked.

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5” he said.

We sat there dumbfounded for a while, and then he repeated it.  Kids.  You just never know.  Hannah starting to read, Nathanael doing calculus.  It’s a whole new world.

I seem to have a touch of the bug too, but we’ll see what happens.  Hannah and Nathanael, as you can see, are sitting in the kitchen playing with home made play dough (just avoiding the corporate name there after my shameless mention of the above cereal).  Hopefully a good night’s sleep will help everyone.  All this nursing is sure to tire one out!