'The best is yet to come'

Thomas Carlyle, a great philosopher, wrote, "Let each become all that he was created capable of being." This is the real definition of success.

This photograph was taken in the summer of 2003 just before I took the boys on holiday to Cape Town, the last time we travelled as a family (Edward joined us in Cape Town halfway through the holiday).

I remember it was a beautiful day and the boys had lots of fun, posing and messing around with all the seaside fun and games. I remember thinking that this was as good as it was going to get. Edward and I had been given permanent contracts with Lambeth and life felt really good, the weather was perfect and we were all happy.

At this stage, the boys were not playing any real competitive sport. We had reconciled ourselves to the fact that Timothy was going to be the one who knew about sport and loved it, but didn't play. Already he was going to all the football practices at school, often walking the 2.5 miles by himself on a Saturday morning to be there, but never making the starting line-up. Christopher was at a school that offered very little beyond a place to be during the day and Daniel's asthma had taken such a firm hold that although he seemed to know the name of every premier league footballer and manager, he was never actually going to play any game himself. If we had only known then what we know now.

Tim Hansel (yes, another Tim) is an adventurer, speaker and author. He wrote the following; "The good news is that the best season of your life can be ahead of you no matter what your age or circumstances - if you choose to make it so." And he was only echoing something that was written a long time before by a young man named Jeremiah who was given a promise by his Heavenly Father: "I know the plans I have for you ..." How true those words have been shown to be in our great adventure. But that is a tale for another day.

Suffice for today to say that like all adventures, it has come at a price. We have had to choose between family holidays and the boys' opportunities and sometimes it seems like they grow out of their kit even before the box has been recycled. But what an adventure it has been.

PS. If you get a chance, take a look at the whole of Chapter 29, it is a chapter that never ceases to amaze me.