Kilfords

Welcome to our family website!

We´ve had a little website for years... I think we started soon after we got married and we wanted to keep our family and friends in Spain up to date with our new life in Jersey. Now that we live in Spain we have this website mainly to keep our friends and family in Jersey and England well informed. But with all that´s been going on with our sons Luke and Jack a lot of friends of friends have been keeping an eye on us and praying faithfully...

...So, for those who don´t really know us, for those who have forgotten us, and for those who know us but remain curious, these are the Kilfords:

Darren

Darren was born 8 April 1978 in Bath, England (and like big presents on his birthday!).

Well this is me writing about myself....
Things I like:

  • riding motorbikes, or anything with an engine
  • just starting to get into woodwork and gardening
  • messing around on computers
  • my Nasa cup fuill of Tea made by someone else
  • my iphone - I could not love a human child more (joke!)
  • surfing - although I'm rubbish and out of shape
  • fish and chips also english breakfasts
  • my pet terrpin (Java)
  • my watch
  • Blades of Glory (movie)
  • organisation
  • good design
  • oh and my family

Things I dislike:

  • liver and kindneys
  • colds
  • dust
  • boring afternoons
  • hanging wet cloths out to dry
  • people touching my face (I really hate it)
  • stepping in water with just socks on
  • Telefonica (we still don't have a phoneline in our house
  • misunderstandings
  • gay mac owners
  • Windows Vista
  • our Nave

darrenk

Luke

Also known as Little Pickle, One Eye Luke, Little Pirate, Bubbleboy, Bichito, Luko, Lucozade, Lukie, Luquitas, Squirmy -wormy, etc..

Luke, meaning Bearer of Light, was born 21 November 2008, at 27 weeks gestation. He weighed 840 grams, 60 more than his little twin brother Jack.

Day 5 daddy was able to hold Luke for the first time. Day 6 was the first time his mami held him while daddy held Jack. That day Luke got one of his first nick names “One Eye Luke”, as he seemed to always keep one eye open... That first week, although we were in great shock at the boys extremely early arrival, we enjoyed seeing the boys and trusted things were going to go well...

But after ten days things started to get bad for both boys who got infections. On Day 15, with great sadness, we said goodbye to Luke’s twin brother Jack. The following day Luke was doing better and we were able to hold him – this was so comforting for his mami and daddy!

After almost four weeks we were very concerned since Luke had really severe grade IV brain haemorrhage and increasingly bad hydrocephaly. In talking to the doctors we believed Luke would not live, and if he did, that his quality of life would not be good at all. We still prayed for a miracle, and so many friends and people all over the world were praying with us...

Things were very slowly going worse in the brain and head but at the same time Luke was doing better in all the other areas. After two months (21 January) Luke had surgery and had a shunt placed in the brain to drain excess liquid, but for two weeks it didn’t work. We had quite a few problems with it and finally after two more months he had surgery again. This time the shunt started working straight away and there were no complications as he was much bigger.

On 6 April Luke went home with his mom and dad.

At five and a half months it’s a miracle that Luke is alive and home. It’s a miracle that he is moving quite normally and that he is alert and curious. We praise God for breathing life into Him and we pray and trust He will continue to do miracles in his development.

Check the latest updates in the Blog to see how Luke is doing...

luke2250

Mariberta

Mariberta, also known as Maria by most English speakers..., was born 16 November 1980.

The third of four children, I grew up in Burgos, a city in the North of Spain (but not on the coast!). A pretty cold city but full of great childhood memories :-)

I was actually born in Indiana, USA, but my parents moved to Spain as missionaries when I was just a couple of months old. My dad is Dennis Byler and he works for the SEUT Seminary based in Madrid. My mom, Connie Bentson, continues to minister to those in need in Burgos, and is addicted to taking photos and posting them on Facebook.

From childhood I have believed in God and had some kind of relationship with Him.

In my early twenties I discovered that my passion is to disciple young people, to help them discover who they are in Christ, and to help them find ways to reach out to others with the Gospel.

I like pretty spaces and I love things to be well organised. I tend to like greens and earthy colors. I had to  wait a couple of years for Darren to agree to go out with me. I think I always look forward to the future although I do enjoy thinking about the past. My favorite Psalm is number 16.

mberta

 

Jack

We had always planned to have a baby boy named Jack, meaning God is Gracious.

We only had him with us for a brief time but we will never forget him, especially his tiny hand holding our finger tight and his cute little dark eyebrows... We will miss him dearly until we see him again in Heaven.

Baby Jack was born 21 November 2008, at 27 weeks gestation. He weighed 780 grams. He looked exactly like his twin brother Luke, except for his eyebrows which were much darker.

Day 5 mami was allowed to hold Jack for the first time, and the following day his daddy held him. Jack left an imprint of his tiny foot on daddy’s chest after laying on him for a couple hours. Day 7, while both mami and daddy were holding the boys, mami managed to squeeze a little kiss on Jack’s face for the first time.

Day 8 Jack had an infection and was pretty unstable so we weren’t allowed to hold him. We started to spend hours and hours sitting next to him, talking, singing, praying.

Day 10 we saw Jack looking around for the first time, he was so gorgeous!

By Day 13 things had gotten really bad in his brain and we knew we were going to have to let him go with Daddy God. We believed God could still change things and we half-expected Jack to be better every time we walked into the Intensive Care Unit. People all over the world were praying and fasting for Jack.

But on 5 December, Day 15, we held Jack in our arms for what seemed like quite a long time... We hugged him and kissed him, we talked to him and sang to him, we prayed and praised, and slowly we let him go... with a lot of pain, but a lot of peace too.

newbornjack