I love March! I remember when I was living in Ukraine, and I thought March was an ugly month. The snow was old and dirty. The roads were muddy and slippery. The weather was cold and dull while the demeanour of the populace was abrupt and gloomy. Yet March whispered a promise, “winter is almost done, and spring will soon follow.”

I also love March because it’s my birthday!

MARIE'S CORNER

Marie is busy looking after the baby and cooking muffins so will be back next month.

UKRAINE

The Ukrainian hryvna has gone into a spin. When I lived there it was 5 to the dollar and slipped to 8 to the dollar after the GFC. It has now burst out to 26 to the dollar and last week was above 30. Along with conflict in Eastern Ukraine, the economy is as bad as it has been in decades and the future is anything but certain.

SLEEP IS OVER-RATED

I’m not convinced that I totally agree with that heading. As we navigate the maze that begins the journey of parenthood, one thing I love is that there is something that greatly makes up for lack of sleep. Family! The sense of having and being a part of a new family is a wonder, a joy, a privilege, and a massive responsibility.

MARIE’S CORNER

Having Jonny around has been great. We spent almost a week in hospital straight after his birth to treat an infection from which, praise God, he has fully recovered. I went a bit stir crazy being in hospital much longer than I had anticipated and was hugely relieved to come home and settle in to life as a family of three. Jonny is growing loads and just starting to learn how to smile and how to track people and objects with his eyes. It’s fun to see what makes him happy and what sorts of things he’s interested in watching.

MARIE'S CORNER

I am so grateful for the good friends that I have. I’ve been really touched by people’s willingness to drop their lives in order to give us rides to and from airports at inconvenient times. I hope that I am as generous with my time when people ask me for favours! Thank you to everyone who hosted us while we were away in beautiful New Zealand.

Now that we are back home, we are busy getting things ready for our baby. We have 52 days to go till the due date, so it’s time for us to put the cot together, pack a hospital bag, and buy some baby wipes. We are having a get together to celebrate our baby boy on Saturday, Oct 18^th, so if you’re in the area and you’d like to come, please let us know and we’ll send you the details. If that day doesn’t work for you, we’d still love to see you and catch up on life before the birth as I plan on going into hibernation for several months once our kid is born!

“HOW TO STAY DELIRIOUSLY HAPPILY MARRIED FOR TWELVE MONTHS”

Recently Marie and I have joked that we should write a book with the above title. Whilst in the States we celebrated our one year anniversary. I have to say that we are both loving this thing called marriage. So we are now old pros and know all there is to know about love – kidding.

Life truly is “Better Together”. (Not to mention having someone to watch your bags at the airport when you “need to go”)

MARIE’S CORNER

One nice thing about being from a big family is that there are lots of weddings to go home for! Jono and I had a really lovely time visiting my family in the States for a few weeks in July to celebrate my youngest sister’s wedding. She, of course, was a stunning bride and the ceremony was beautiful. I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of this special day in her life.