About Us

Hello & welcome to Sunnyside Farm Fun!!!

Who are we?

We are a farmsteading family who call beautiful Sunnyside Farm home!

First and foremost we are Christians who love the Lord whole-heartely.  We thrive to train our children in the ways of the Lord.  Our deepest prayer is that they will all come to love & serve the Lord every day of their lives!  We attend a tiny, conservative Baptist church in a little country town nearby & they have embraced our family even though we are a bit of an anomaly to them at times.  We are truly blessed!

Dave & I have been 'good friends' since I was 15 & he was 16.  We would go 'walking the dog'  as an excuse to spend time together.  Slowly our friendship progressed to the point where we knew we wanted to get married ~ it was just a matter of waiting until we were allowed to!   When we both were 20 (& three weeks after I graduated from university) we were finally joined as man and wife & our little family was born.

Dave ~ Father, Husband, Farmer, Deacon, hard worker, Inventor, Strong, Steady, Wise & Practical!

 Renata ~ Wife, Mummy, Teacher, Gardener, Farmgirl, Cow Milker, blog writer, recipe lover! 

After 2 1/2 years of marriage our first precious baby was born :

Zai (14) ~ Firstborn, Scholar, Reader, Sensitive, Pig wrangler, Chief farmhand!

 He was quickly followed 20 months later by our wonderful daughter:

Ellie (12) ~ Sweet, Strong-willed, Honest, Bookworm, Reliable, Mum's main helper!

18 months later I was expecting again & to our surprise we found out we were going to have identical twins (yes, our eldest was 3 when they were born).  It was a difficult pregnancy as we had Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.  We were blessed that our case was sufficiently severe that the only real choice we had was to have the experimental laser surgery operation whilst the boys were in-utero.  God allowed this operation to save their lives!  

Our precious twins are:

Jud (10) ~ 1 minute older, Artist, Busy, Student, Kind, Helpful!

and

Eli (10) ~ My baby, Creative, Energetic, Loving, Quiet achiever, Hard worker!

In December 2014 we became certified as foster carers.  We anticipated growing our family through helping needy little ones.  As we awaited a permanent placement, we went through  months of respite placements  housing a dozen different children for various periods of time.  Finally in 2016 we were offered a placement that seemed to fit our family.  Two precious little ones joined our family.

Mr. Preschool ~ Loud, extrovert, busy, sweet, loves learning about God,  needing love more than you can imagine

Miss Toddler ~ Louder, busier, sweet, loves books, Ellie & Mummy!

***Unfortunately I am not allowed to show their beautiful faces here, so while I have many, many photos of these precious kiddos, they won't be posted to our online journal.***

Our farming story began in January 2008 when we decided to leave the big city behind and embark on an adventure into the unknown ~ at a little farm in the south east(ish) of Australia called Sunnyside.  Our only knowledge was from books we'd read & an ingrained desire to live a more self sufficient lifestyle (while always acknowledging that all we have is from the Lord).  We have learned a whole lot since moving here, but there is still so much more to learn as well.  We are intentional about including our children in our activities & having fun together whilst doing them!

I began to homeschool the children in 2009 when Zai was in grade one & Ellie was in Kindergarten.  This has been one of the best decisions we've made for our family & we continue to enjoy educating our children here on the farm!

Welcome to our little blog ~ may we be a blessing & encouragment to you!

Please feel free to EMAIL ME with any questions or comments!

Blessings