Long Distance Babysitting...

A divine laksa

It's not very often that you have friends drive all the way from Sydney so they can babysit your kids, huh?! Sound strange? Well, it is, but in a very good/strange way! Ok, let me back up and explain...

Every year after Christmas we usually go to a Christian family camp up near Sydney called Camp Challenge. Lots of fun, sports, inspiring Bible lessons and spiritual talks and discussions, 'camp food' (like school camp food!), uplifting singing, deep chats, kids running around and a general good ol' time. We love it. One of the evening activities that I organise (I'm on the Board) is an Auction Night where the money raised helps others come to camp who can't afford it.

Most people come to the Auction Night with money they just want to give to the cause, so all manner of useful (and many useless/funny) items and services are auctioned by their fellow campers in the name of raising money - all with lots of laughs! Things like a chocolate bar might go for $50, an 8 year old offering to fetch your meal at lunch time and clear your tray might rack up a good $100, and so on, often getting up quite high for some very generous items and professional skills that are offered! All in good fun and for a good cause.

Well, our good friends and lovely couple Josh and Binh offered up babysitting services. Always keen for a night out, we bid and we bid hard - especially as we knew it would give them an excuse to come stay with us for a weekend as they are Sydneysiders. I guess you could say we are willing to pay friends to come visit us but le'ts not say that, heehee! With laughs all around, we finally got outbid by another couple... but never mind, I did win the services of that sweet 8 year old boy who cleared my meal tray with a flourish for the rest of camp!! But then - shockingly - the couple who won the babysitting for some reason decided to donate it to us!??!! We tried to refuse but to no avail. Wow, people are nice, huh! (Though I must say this does tend to happen quite a bit, with people winning auctions then gifting the prize to someone else... what can I say, it is a very generous and loving bunch of people I'm blessed to hang out with!).

And so... (are you still with me?)... so it came to be that six months later schedules aligned with 'babysitting' as a very handy excuse for our lovely friends to come visit us for the weekend. They trekked down from Sydney on Friday night.. with a packed Esky filled with pre-prepared fillings to (within seconds of their arrival) whip up incredible fresh Rice Paper Rolls w dipping sauce, followed by delicious bowls of fresh Laksa. Yeah I know... they are amazing and we were spoilt. And did I mention Binh is 26 weeks pregnant?! Crazy town. We did manage to top the meal off with some Sticky Date Pudding - I mean, we had to do something as the hosts, right??!

After a delicious Friday night, we spent Saturday chilling with our guests through the quiet rainy day, with pancakes for breakfast and about a million rounds of hide and seek - yes, the kids were basically in love with their guests and their fun games and endless enthusiasm! That night Mark and I ducked out for a late afternoon movie and an early dinner while the kids had an absolute blast at home with Josh and Binh. It was a nice quiet night out with my hubby, and a sweet chance to talk more about his new job and all of life's other goings on.

Suffice to say... I bet plenty of you will be wanting to put up a bid on this magical pair at this year's Challenge!! But only if you beat us to it! ;)

Josh and Binh, what lovely, godly, giving, generous and kind people you are - don't think you even know how much you blessed our family this weekend, but you came just at the right time! Thank you so much for your friendship and your loving time this weekend! Come back soon - but perhaps we can do the babysitting for your new little bundle next time!

Lily walks the ever-patient Binh through another round of
 'Close your eyes then guess what I drew'