What a great blessing it was for me to be able to travel to Thailand
to be with Andrew and Sarah, Abigail and Joseph for the birth of
Caitlin Lydia! It was a long trip to take on my own but I don't get to
be with my grand children very often, so for me it was pure joy to
spend 3 weeks with them!

I had been a bit concerned that the
baby would come before I arrived but as it turned out I was there in
plenty of time! Caitlin made her debut right in the middle of my time
in Chiang Mai! The timing was perfect, as Sarah felt much more calm
knowing that I would be there to stay with the kids when the time came
and I had plenty of time to reconnect with Joseph, since it had been a
long time since he had seen me and at 2 he didn't really remember me.
By the time Caitlin was born he was very comfortable with me so Abby,
Joe and I had loads of fun together!

Little Caitlin was born
on a very special day in our family, her big sister Abigail's and her
grandpa Tim's birthday!  I was so happy to be there for 8 days after as
well so I got to bond with my newest grand baby and to be of help to my
amazing daughter in law so she could rest. Andrew and I had lots of
good chats over chai and we all celebrated his 30th birthday together! 
All in all it was an amazing time of making memories in a beautiful,
warm and interesting place!   

Monday - 7:10 am Tim catches a two hour twenty minute flight to Lisbon, Portugal for a one week leadership training conference put on by ABWE.  Lots of helpful stuff including team work ideas, communication skills, and a new planning tool called 'mind mapping', which helps some in the planning/brain storming process.

Tuesday - 4:40 pm Jeff & Caroline Hay, our good friends and pastor/wife of Ballycullen Community Church welcome Joshua William Hay to the family! Little Josh weighted 8 pounds even and is already tall dark and handsome . . . according to Jeff anyway!  Caroline did a great job and is recoverying well, but would appreciate your prayers!  See picture of Josh and Daddy Jeff below. . .

Wednesday - 5:15 pm  Kathy drives to the Hollas street maternity hospital to collect Joshua, Jeff & Caroline to bring them all home for the first time!  What a privilege!

Friday - 10:40 am   Tim catches flight back to Dublin from Lisbon and gets first 'look' at baby Joshua and chance to congratulate mew Daddy & Mommy!

Saturday - 5:30 pm  Ireland beats England in the six nations rugby tournament!  A HUGE win for the lads in green!

Hope your week was wonderful as well . . . 

It seems like we have had lots of news lately revolving around babies, so I thought I'd keep the string going this week!  Kathy made it home on Thursday morning from Thailand, for which Sarah and I are are extremely grateful; and with her came lots of the little details surrounding the birth of grand daughter Caitlin Lydia.  I will do my best to get Kathy to write a blog sharing a few of her 3 week experiences in Chiang Mia.

But today I wanted everyone to know that Jeff & Caroline Hay, the pastor and wife at Ballycullen Community Church, are expecting their first child AT ANY MINUTE!  We live about 3 blocks from Jeff & Caroline and plan to drive them to the hospital when 'baby Hay' indicates he or she is ready!  The official due date was 18 February - 2 days ago!  For those of you with experience in these matters, you know that due dates and 'reality' are always two completely differint things.

So, we have invited Jeff & Caroline over for dinner, along wtih Peter and Kat - our former next door neighbors (now about 1 mile from our new place).  We are so thankful for our friends here in Ballycullen/Firhouse and want to do all we can to keep them, no matter where our physical house may be located. Kathy is making Mexican food . . . maybe that will get things going!