getting dirty

I have a theory.

The dirtier you get, the more fun you are having. And I don't mean R rated dirty. I mean grotty dirty. You know, roll around in the mud dirty.

Now that I have cleared that up, I can now tell you that Madison is surely going to be an outside boy.

When the screen door is left open, he's out there in a flash, and mighty miserable when he gets picked up and brought back inside.

When he gets to pick flowers he is delighted.

When Dad carries him around showing him the butterflies he happily points back at them and makes cute sounds.

He grins like a cheshire cat when he is reeled about in the wheelbarrow.

But when he is in the dirt, it's the best.

Giggles, singing and all sorts of happy noises leave his mouth when he is dirty. And the dirtier, the more happy.

Pictures speak louder than words for this story... But warning: pictures do not show up how dirty he actually is!

NOT A GOOD REASON TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE NEWSPAPER.

After all the dilemmas of having our laptop stolen and losing our last four years of life memories, video footage and baby snaps, friends and family have been sending in all the photos they have of Madison and our life in PNG.

In fact, I think I now have pics that I never had before and I have been enjoying looking through them all like it's the first time. Thanks so much to those who have taken the time to do this. I am so grateful!

As a result of the saga, our picture was in the local paper - front page! Can you believe it!? Lots of friends who live in the area mentioned it, in fact it was Ange and Arthur who SMSed me and told me.

I dashed to the mailbox to find no paper. So then I drove down to the Main street to collect a few copies. Ten, in fact. Now I have a few spares that I can pass onto family and keep a couple for Madison to show the week he was famous. The pictures were so nice I ordered them from the paper at $30 a pop (not cheap). But I think I would be stupid not to start collecting photos again...

So, above are the pics that were in the paper... oh, and the article that went with the pics is below (a little dramatised and a little exaggerated I must say, but these guys are trying to sell papers). I love the way they put Missionary in capitals, oh also there is a great plug for ADRA:

MEMORIES GET LOST IN A SNAP (Front page)

MISSIONARY Kym Piez lost all her photos of son Madison's first steps and smiles when her laptop computer was stolen from her Croydon home. She hopes someone can help get her photographs back and has a message for other Maroondah Leader readers. "Back up your photos or get them printed," Mrs Piez said.

PRECIOUS MEMORIES LOST (Page 28)

MISSIONARY worker Kym Piez feels more vulnerable in Maroondah than in Papua New Guinea, where she worked for four years with a relief agency.

"Nothing happened up there," Mrs Piez said. "We had rascal attacks on our car when we were moving but nothing like breaking in to our house."

But on Sunday, 25 February, two months after she and her husband returned to Croydon, someone broke into their home and stole a laptop computer, camera and two lenses.

The thieves also stole four years of precious memories.

"The computer I would not care about but what is on it you can't get back," Mrs Piez said. "It had four years worth of photos - our life in Papua New Guinea and all of our baby photos, Madison's first smile and his first crawl - all that is gone."

Mrs Piez said she cried for days after realising what was on the computer and hoped whoever had it would copy the photos to a disk and drop it in the letter box.

Mrs Piez worked in Lae as the Adventist Development & Relief Agency's (ADRA) development manager.

Her husband worked with the church's Papua New Guinea school network.

"ADRA does water installations in remote villages where they have to walk four hours for water," she said. "It empowers people and helps them to be more independent so they can help themselves."

phillip island weekend

For the Australia Day long weekend we headed to Dad and Maria’s beach house for a relaxing getaway. It was so relaxing and we got to stock up on Maria’s great Italian cooking! For Maddy it was a time for him to become reacquainted with his Granddad and Nanny (and Aunty Daisy of course!)

Aunty Daisy was a hit. By the end of the weekend, every time he saw her he squealed in delight. He knew that good times were going to happen! Especially at bathtime where he would literally go nuts. Madison was keeping up his family nickname of “Mad Eddie” - shortening of both his names.

Dad tried to groove up Madison with his funky lenses, but seriously looked more like a fly than anything else.

Above: Aunty Daisy and “Mad Eddie”, Big Blowfly

from the tropics to the desert

The minute we returned to Australia, we jumped back on another plane and headed for the west. We returned to Karalundi after four years.

It was quite an adjustment to go from PNG back to Outback Australia and I think it took some time for our heads to catch up to our bodies. It was definitely more of that ‘out of body’ experience that is a hard thing to get use to.

It was wonderful to see all our old students and friends and see how Karalundi had changed. There are lots more buildings and staff, but nice to see how big the kids have grown. I admit that it was also nice to hear the stories without having to be involved!

Madison was a true star and enjoyed being passed around from one to another. I think because he was everyone’s favourite in PNG it was just more of the same here. And he wasn’t scared of anyone as they are the same colour as his PNG friends!

Our old friends Kelman Patch (KP), Briohny Jackman and Bommer Finlay really loved meeting our new little addition. There were lots of questions about Kelly and Leah and I am sure it would have been exciting to see them too.

Steve and I had lots of great memories working at Karalundi. For Steve, he worked there for over six years, and for me – three. It was trying sometimes and certainly brought out the worst in me occasionally! But overall, an awesome experience and really helped me to develop some characteristics not otherwise developed if I hadn’t been stretched to the limit! It also prepared me significantly for Papua New Guinea. What an excellent training ground…

Above: Madison with Bommer, KP and the Ashwin Clan.