News and prayer information from Richard and Pinuccia Wilson

We all left home at 6.45 to get Daniele to the hospital and ready in time for the 8am operation, then I came back home with Stefania to get her off to school. Just when I got home from school at 9am, Pinuccia rang me to say that the operation had been cancelled because too many of the hospital personal were on strike. So it was back to the hospital again to pick them up. Since we will be going to Sicily in 10 days’ time, we can’t do the operation next week, so we will try for the third time sometime in January.

We went to the hospital this afternoon (which in itself was an adventure – more on that later), and they confirmed that Daniele was well enough to undergo his operation. So it will be tomorrow at 8am Italian time. Probably he will then be let out of the hospital in the late afternoon, although if there are any problems he will leave on Saturday morning. We are still trying to work out what we will do with Stefania. A national strike tomorrow by one of the trade unions doesn’t help, as it possibly affects a friend who was going to take her to school for us.

In the meantime, on Wednesday there was a big snowfall, which has created big problems getting around. I picked Stefania up from school early (whilst Pinuccia was still at home, so I did not have to take Daniele as well), and we took a new form of transportation for both of us: I pulled her the whole way on a toboggan. When it snows, Pinuccia takes a train and a bus to school instead of the car. But on the way home the tracks were covered by snow, so she arrived home late. Then the Bible study at night was cancelled, since it was so hard to get around. And in the evening it was decided that all the schools in the province would be closed the next day (which meant that Pinuccia wasted one of the two days off that she had taken for Daniele’s operation; she didn’t have to go to work anyway). Today the snow has become rain, so it was time to start snow shovelling. I did about an hour to clear the driveway and parking spaces in front of the apartment building, then spent a couple of hours trying to get our car out of the underground garage, because the ramp was too slippery. Finally I managed (with a bit of help), just in time to go to the hospital, driving through the snow and leaving Stefania with a friend. Now I have to find out if the small group leaders’ meeting is on tonight.

Today was a public holiday, which meant a long weekend. Although as usual we filled up the time, and was in one sense tiring, it was also an enjoyable and restful time with the family and friends. On Sunday there was the monthly church lunch, and when we got home we went straight out again to a fair in the town (Lavis), with a few hundred stalls selling various things. Then today friends for church came to lunch, so I could help with some computer work, we could talk about the young adults’ ministry they run, and so their son (who is a month older than Daniele) could play with our children. The other highlight was getting to sleep in twice in three days (even though for me it only meant an extra hour), so we kept the children up the previous nights to make sure that they would indeed sleep in, and so let us sleep a bit longer as well.

This week, again, there Daniele’s operation on Friday programmed, although we have to wait to see if it does happen (he has got a bit of a cold again in the last couple of days). Unfortunately tomorrow the study at Rovereto has been cancelled, with the hosts sick with a fever, which means the third week in a row we have skipped the meeting, due to sickness and work commitments. The group is struggling a bit in this period.

The hospital rang this morning, to say that Daniele’s operation has been postponed a week. So you can pray the same way, but for next Friday instead of this Friday.

The big news today is that finally Daniele has started walking, taking three steps three times in the afternoon (of which I managed to videotape two times). It is two days before he turns 15 months, which is two weeks later than when Stefania started walking. Their growth has in fact followed fairly similar patterns. They also seem to be equal opportunity grandchildren: Stefania started walking whilst my parents were visiting, and Daniele whilst Pinuccia’s mother is visiting. All his steps were in fact towards her (or at least towards the toy she was holding). Pinuccia was at work and missed the excitement, and ever since she has arrived home he has refused to walk. So Pinuccia has to rely on the video tape for the moment.

Meanwhile, Stefania has had a couple of afternoons of fever and has been missing school. She has infected Daniele a bit, although as is usual his stronger constitution keeps him a bit healthier. Although after his big walking effort in the afternoon he fell asleep, and woke up a couple of hours later with a slightly higher temperature, still tired, and generally complaining about everything.

You may remember that Daniele had three health problems when he was born. Two of them fixed themselves up, but in the last week he has had a few check-ups to confirm that the third did not – his undescended testicle has still not descended (although it is there). So today he was put on the waiting list for an operation, which will probably be in a couple of months’ time. Naturally I will write more on that later.

Yesterday we had the annual influx of non Italian speaking students, as they all arrived at the university last week for a course of 12-18 months. There were four who turned up at the service this time, from various parts of the world. This of course meant some simultaneous translation for me, although this is a bit more difficult now as Pinuccia went out to teach the Sunday School, and Daniele does not sit still any more. At least Stefania goes unofficially to the Sunday School now, which makes it a bit easier. And there is an American in the church who could translate the sermon, whilst Pinuccia did the Sunday School and I the baby sitting.

In the meantime we are continuing our church growth policy. With a birth due this week, it looked like that would be no pregnant ladies in the church for the first time in over two years (in which time about a fifth of the ladies in the church have given birth). But just in time, another pregnancy was announced after the service.

Maybe it is not quite holidays, since there are a lot of things to do around the house, and small projects (like my tax return and making a family video of our time in Australia) that I want to wrap up before the church and school commitments start up, but it is a nice break to have. We have managed to get to the lake once, and will have another trip in the next couple of days. Although with both the dishwasher and the washing machine breaking down during our absence, we are having to organise such trips around visits to get them repaired. We also took Daniele for his one year check up, and whilst two of his problems at birth fixed themselves, the third (an undescended testicle) has not, so surgery will probably be necessary in a few weeks’ time. But first he will have an ultrasound to see the exact extent of the problem, so more on that later.

Although my church commitments have not restarted yet, the band practices began last night, so I got to see my friends there for the first time in a while. We went of course to church on Sunday as well. There are still a lot of people missing there, whom we will see again in the next couple of weeks as they return from holidays, although there were also a few new people to meet.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we go to Canberra for 8 days, our first trip of our deputation time in Australia, with three services to speak at in one church on Sunday, two services in another church the following Sunday, and seven other meetings of the two churches in the week in between. So we will be kept quite busy. Pray for energy for us, and that the children will not get too upset by all the changes and moving around. Pray also for these meetings, and for all those in the next couple of months, that we will be able to help to produce “world Christians” and especially support for Trento.
But so far they have enjoyed the time in Australia. Stefania loved our visit today to the centre of Sydney and especially to the aquarium; she kept looking around at everything new. And in the aquarium, at every tank it was “More fish! More fish!”. Daniele on the other hand arrived in Australia and immediately started to crawl – or at least half crawl and slide, but in any case a lot more than he was doing in Italy. The trip has also encouraged his teeth: now the fourth tooth is ready to come up in the next few days.

Only another 7 hours until we leave the house now. Then there will be 26 hours in planes and stopovers, 30 hours from door to door. Having an evening flight makes things a bit more relaxed, as we can do the last bit of packing today, and there are also a few chores to do this morning. I just managed to finish off a couple of projects yesterday as well, just in time: material for my presentations, and a new version of my Bible computer program.
Daniele has had his third tooth about to come out for about five days now, so he has been a bit agitated at times, and we have been hoping that it would come out before we left. We hope now that it stays in for another couple of days! Having a new tooth during the plane trip would not be a pleasant experience for any of us. Although with his other two teeth, he did have a lot less reaction than Stefania did with her new teeth.
In the meantime, last week we went to a meeting at the pre-school for the parents of the children starting in September, like Stefania. (There is another “meeting” on Thursday for the children to get to know the school, but of course we will miss that.) It turns out that of the nine classes in the school (of 25 children each), Stefania has been placed in the one that Pinuccia taught in last year for a couple of weeks, before she went on maternity leave. So she knows some of the teachers in the class already.

Daniele and I did not hold out much longer after my last post: Daniele got a fever a Sunday night, and I got the other symptoms of this type of laryngitis on Monday. I seem to get sick a lot more often with two children, although at least I did not get a fever this time, like the other three did, just a sore throat and blocked nose. And tiredness as the children aren’t sleeping well, which means that neither do the parents. I did manage to go the group at Rovereto on Tuesday, but I skipped the Wednesday night meeting as there was a good chance of losing totally my voice at that stage. Pinuccia took the first two days of the week off work to recover from the last of her symptoms, and we have made a couple of visits to doctors and pharmacies since then. Since Stefania has had a fever for a week now, the doctor suggested she take some antibiotics now, so tonight will be the first time that she takes them. Daniele has another couple of days before his antibiotics start if the fever does not stopped. They are both feeling a bit better today, but certainly are not healed.

The other news is that Pinuccia has started an English course on Thursday evenings (it actually started last week, when we were in Spain), that someone in our church who teaches English in high schools has started for others in the church and friends. Since we will be going to Australia in less than two months, it will be a brief course for Pinuccia, but a quick course will help her before our trip. It is just after her work, not too far away from her school in the town centre, so it works out fairly well for her. And I get to prepare dinner for the children and myself, and I leave her something for when she gets home at about 8.30.

In all this, Thursday was also our fourth anniversary. Not a very enjoyable anniversary, but as Pinuccia said it was “unforgettable”.