We're still here!!!

As I flick through some of our old blogs, there are more than a few that start something like “Sorry it has been such a long time since our last post…” This time we can literally say that it has been a lifetime since our last post!!

When we last blogged, Eilidh was less than 24hrs old, and we were down in North Carolina after her adventurous arrival into the world! (See our last newsletter for the whole story; if you want to receive it but don’t yet, drop me a line and we can add you to the list!) Now she is a happy healthy 6 week old bundle of joy!

We're getting used to having another tiny little person around the house again!

It is fair to say that much of what we’ve been up to for the last month and a half has revolved around Eilidh. The day after we got back to Ohio, I took Abi and Matthew through to Columbus to collect Heather’s mum and dad from the airport. It was good to have them with us as we all adjusted to life as a family of five. My paternity leave lasted until the end of that week, so having another couple of pairs of hands to help with housework and looking after Abi and Matthew was a huge blessing. They enjoyed spending time with Abi and Matthew, and the rest of us, as well as getting to know Eilidh, and hopefully having a bit of a break as well!!

After Eilidh's dedication service.

One highlight of their time here was having Eilidh dedicated at our church here in Coshocton. It was good to be able to have that service here with our church family, and to have a connection with Scotland through having Heather’s parents join us. I put a little slide show together from the dedication...

Through the summer Abi and Matthew have been able to get involved in some different activities that have been running around the area. Most of the local churches run week long Vacation Bible School’s during the holidays, and Abi and Matthew have both been able to attend a few of these. Some of their friends have joined them at our church’s VBS, and they have gone to VBS at some friend’s churches. These have been a really good time for the kids, as well as giving mum a little bit of quiet time in the house to deal with Eilidh! It has also introduced a whole new repertoire of sing-along songs for our car journeys!!

They have also been to a couple of “camps” this summer as well. Abi attended an art camp at a local theatre, where they were involved in designing and decorating the set for a youth production of Jungle Book, and Matthew spent a week at soccer camp becoming a better footballer than his dad (not too tough a challenge!!)

Our little footballer!

Back at the hangar I have mostly been carrying on with work on the MAF Cessna 206. We are making good progress and now we have started building things back up, having spent the first part of the project dismantling the plane and dealing with corrosion and other issues. While I was off on paternity leave Phil and Jake had removed a damaged skin from the tail-cone and fabricated a new skin ready for installation. My first job back was to help Phil with riveting the new skin in place; we have also been busy rebuilding the landing gear box, reinstalling the main landing gear legs, installing new windows, reinstalling the cargo doors, finishing off some paint stripping detail work, and rebuilding the nose gear strut ready to be installed next week. After the nose gear goes on, we should be ready to wheel the fuselage to the paint booth, and move on to working on the wings!

Re-assembling the fuselage, ready for painting.

Thanks for your patience with our lack of posts, and for your thoughts and prayers as we serve with MAF here in Ohio.