The Smith Crew

After what felt like lots of waiting (tho it wasn’t really…) our newest addition has arrived!

Ezra Jeremiah Smith - born 10th November 2007, 5:32pm at home.

He is just amazing, the pics don’t do justice at all - will upload more as we get them

above were both taken just after birth, the one below was taken this morning

No sorry, not the one we’re all waiting for! I finally got a new sewing machine!!!!! I thought some would enjoy the story of how it finally came to be! (It’s long!)

I have been praying for a new sewing machine for about a year or two. When we first got married mum said I could use hers, which I did until it finally died about 6 months ago or so. Erica (a friend) then lent me hers, but even it was struggling to keep up with some of the sewing (particularly polar fleece and knit fabrics) that I needed and wanted to do.

A few months ago I purchased a machine on ebay… long story short, it never arrived, we had no way of getting the money back and the seller was not replying to any communication we sent. I’m not sure why the Lord allowed all of that to happen, but I do believe that He will/has taken care of it in the way He wants to and that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

I hadn’t really put a lot more thought into getting a machine, I figured that I would just keep praying, I knew there wasn’t money to spend on one and I would just have to trust that if the Lord wanted me to have one, He would provide it! Along rolls my birthday…. and mum suggests we have a look at sewing machines, maybe she can pay the deposit on a laybuy for my birthday. Whilst the idea seemed nice, I have to admit to not being terribly convinced - I still felt like there was no way I could save up enough to actually get what I wanted and I didn’t want to waste money on something that was just going to frustrate me because it couldn’t do what I needed to do (I knew I was going to want to spend at least $700, possibly more like $1300). I was given some money for my birthday from Jer’s parents and from Liz McClure … and started to wonder whether I should put it into a “sewing machine fund” … even tho the end goal seemed somewhat impossible. Jer wanted to buy me some jewellery for my birthday and had some money set aside for that, but when I told him about the sewing machine idea, my indecision about whether or not I saved up for it etc, he told me that depending on how badly I really wanted it, I could put that money towards it too if I wanted to…. more decisions!!!! I finally decided that I would do that, that even if it took another year or two at least I had a start, and I would just put aside what I could, when I could.

So thus begins the “sewing machine fund”. October 23rd, Balance of Sewing Machine Fund: $130.

Now comes the exciting bit

Some months ago I did some web design work for a church in victoria. We had told them once we finished that we didn’t expect payment, that if they wanted to send us something that would be fine, but we would leave it up to them. We hadn’t heard anything, and to be honest, I figured that was the end of it - and that was fine, I was glad I had been able to help out. However, on Thursday, as we were leaving the house for our “family day” activity the mailman arrived with some mail for me I was completely blown away to open it and discover a cheque for a very substantial amount of money for the job I had done. We banked it straight away and then started to work out what we would do with it. The Lord has really helped us over the last year to have a much more stable financial position and it was very nice to not have to automatically use the extra money to pay outstanding bills but instead to be able to consider our current needs and what He would have us do with it.

We were taking the tarago in the next day for (more) repairs… so some was going on that, at that point we were unsure how much. I asked Jer if maybe I could use some of it to get a sewing machine… he said yes!!!!!!!!!!

There were some other things we have been waiting a while to get for our house that we decided we would use it for as well - so we went on a small ikea spending spree and finally purchased a rug for the lounge amongst a few other things.

Anyway…. over the course of the next week or so we were able to pay for the car repairs, purchase some really lovely things for the house, use some of the money to be a blessing to others, and I ended up with approx $800-900 to spend when the shopping day came around (Mum had come down to look at machines with me).

I was still a little unsure as to what I wanted to get. Whether to spend $700 or $1300 (which would have required waiting a little longer obviously) on a new machine … whether the price difference was worth the difference in the machines … or whether to try and find a second hand machine that did some embroidery as well at one of the sewing shops that was similar to the one i had hoped to purchase on ebay (I wasn’t really sure if I would end up doing much embroidery even if I had a machine that did it, but wanted the opportunity to find out). I prayed the night before and as we left again in the morning that the Lord would help me to find a Janome Memory Craft second hand within my budget. The ebay machine was a MC8000 - and I had purchased a scanner for that to do my own embroidery designs before I realised the machine wasn’t coming!

We went to the Janome shop at Everton Park. I wasn’t really very keen on the idea of travelling all over Brisbane looking at machines so was pretty determined to just buy something from there. The lady showed me two of the new machines (the same two I had looked at a few months ago, the $700 and $1300ish ones) … and as she was talking I realised there was a Memory Craft on the table towards the back of the store… I asked about it and it turned out to be a MC9000 (the next model up from what I had hoped for) and it was only $599!!!!! (She said they are a lot cheaper now as the newer machines have a much bigger memory for embroidery, and because the screens and boards are no longer being produced, rendering the machine useless if either dies).

We had a look at it, had a quick sew… and decided to buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because the machine ended up being cheaper than expected, mum said she would buy me some embroidery threads and bits and pieces for it for my birthday. So not only do I now have a fantastic new machine that sews beautifully, quickly and just about any fabric I can put near it… but a wonderful range of lovely embroidery threads and all the bits I need to make that work!!!!!!!!!

And after all that, we still had money left over to buy a new futon mattress for a frame we were given for the lounge room!!!!

God is so good and so totally exceeded my expectations - though that really shouldn’t surprise me! I learnt a good lesson in “Do what you *can* do and God will do what you *can’t* do” - I put aside the money I had, knowing that finding the rest would be impossible on my own… but less than 2 days later, the Lord provided abundantly above what I could have hoped for!

So that’s the long-winded story of how my new “baby” arrived…. I’m glad now that I have something to keep me busy while we wait for the next Smith baby to arrive! (Anytime now would be fine!) There will be lots of photos of new creations as I test out the scanner and the embroidery (the girls already have a new hankie each with their name on it - they really enjoyed watching the machine “write” their names :)).

October was a busy month (what’s new) with lots of birthdays! We started the month with a Breakfast BBQ for Grandad’s Birthday. Daddy’s new job has been going really well, the kids are enjoying seeing him a bit more than before, and we’re all enjoying our “Thursday outings” (because he works the weekends he takes Thursday off to spend time together and rest). We went to the Lawnton pool one week - the kids thought that was just fantastic!! They were particularly impressed with the new swimming clothes too and the crocodile - or “croc-coc” if you ask malachi.

Brianna has started going to art classes on Monday afternoons. We all went the first few weeks but it got a bit crazy. A friend offered to keep taking just Brianna - so for the last three or so weeks she has been going along on her own and just loving it (particularly the part where she gets to play with all her “friends”!)

We had a tea party with the McClures, Mrs John and Heidi for Bella’s birthday. She picked out all the balloons/plates/etc (any suprise that they’re all purple??!!) and thoroughly enjoyed the whole event. She spent most of the weekend of her birthday telling everyone that she was “three now” and that she’d had her birthday - she still has moments of realising that yes, she’s still three, and just how exciting that is even now a few weeks on

Malachi got in on the building action when Daddy converted an old double bed to a low futon for the girls room:

I have a new sling for the baby

And Bella asked if she could have one to match

We’ve also finally added some pets to our family! Last week we bought a fish tank and two gold fish. We plan to add some more fish, but were told to do it slowly so that they have time to adjust. Apparently their names are Libby (Brianna’s fish) and Sabby (Bella’s fish) … but that has a tendency to change depending on what time of day you ask them
So now that October is over, it’s time for baby to arrive! I was hoping that maybe he/she would make his/her appearance during October to add to the already long October list, but it would seem that he/she is more keen on November - perhaps even sharing a birthday with Grandma Joan?? I’ve been really enjoying my midwife visits, collecting all the bits and pieces we need for the birth, talking to the children about the new baby … not enjoying the heat quite so much, and still working on patiently waiting for bub to arrive (some days are easier than others!!) but all in all we’re all doing well, enjoying putting some energy into redecorating the house now that we have a 12 month lease signed (will put some photos up sometime soon), and enjoying our family and the ministry opportunities the Lord has given us!