It has been quite a hectic few days!!! God has been very gracious to sustain us through a very long 28 hours of travel, getting settled, dealing with some craziness from the girls (and some sour tempers from us...), being dealt some big hurdles, and also allowing us some pretty amazing time together to enjoy this incredible country.
Much to our surprise and relief, both girls did extremely well on the two flights. The first one to Amsterdam had some pretty grumpy wake-ups, and an especially tough time for Lilee when our poor girl actually got several of her upper eyelashes stuck beneath her lower eye lid (!), but the girls were pretty happy much of the time with their personal movies and various activities. Hallelujah! The layover in Amsterdam was pretty quick due to the very long walk between terminals and the girls were once again fairly content on the next flight despite us having to be broken up in twos behind one another. We all got a few hours sleep on that leg at least but were ready to call it a day after we landed. There was definitely some grumpiness that night!
Much to our surprise and relief, both girls did extremely well on the two flights. The first one to Amsterdam had some pretty grumpy wake-ups, and an especially tough time for Lilee when our poor girl actually got several of her upper eyelashes stuck beneath her lower eye lid (!), but the girls were pretty happy much of the time with their personal movies and various activities. Hallelujah! The layover in Amsterdam was pretty quick due to the very long walk between terminals and the girls were once again fairly content on the next flight despite us having to be broken up in twos behind one another. We all got a few hours sleep on that leg at least but were ready to call it a day after we landed. There was definitely some grumpiness that night!
Ready to go!
Let's do this :)
Enjoying a rest on the random, large, yarn kitty in the Amsterdam airport :)
The rainbow over our next airplane was quite fitting for our final journey to the Rainbow Nation!
Landed!
We enjoyed being greeted by the large, wire elephant at the Cape Town airport :)
Made it to the hotel!!!
After a decent, but not long enough, night of sleep, we got up fairly early Saturday morning to get our rental car and drive (on the "wrong" side of the street!) to our home for the next several weeks. Despite a number of accidental windshield wiping instead of turn signaling :), Steve has done amazing well navigating the roads! We met a friend of the man who owns the home we're renting to give us the rundown of our place and we are so thrilled with our home away from home. There aren't many options for a 4 bedroom home in a safe neighborhood in our budget, so we were blown away by just how roomy it is and by a view that we could only have dreamed of.
Indian ocean, table mountain, vineyards... unbelievable.
Our Saturday was spent getting settled and unpacking and we made a trip to the massive Somerset Mall after a long nap to get mobile phones taken care of and pick up some groceries. After sleeping in like teenagers on Sunday, we ventured to the Cape Town Waterfront which we absolutely LOVED! So beautiful and so much to do, we will definitely return there again and again.
Lunch with a view!
Mesmerized by the performers.
Hear their fun performance by clicking below!
Another group even let Maelee in on the fun!!!
Her performance below!
Can't wait to go up to the top of Table Mountain while we're here!
Maelee has a thing for elephants, we are hoping our sweet "O" will take a liking to giraffes:), and Lilee decided lions were her favorite!
Hello, South African Fur Seal!
We went straight from the Waterfront to the local home church of our social worker, Rose, through our South African agency, Wandisa, and it was great to finally meet her in person and get to talk to two other adoptive families from the states who had their sweet kiddos with them! So encouraging to hear their stories as we prepare to meet our precious guy tomorrow!!!
Crazy beautiful sunset.
Today was a much more down to business day that started at the Wandisa office to prepare us for what to expect in our first meeting with "O" tomorrow (we will not be calling him by his nickname/birthname on social media so are sticking with "O!". While a bit overwhelming and nerve wracking, it was great to get as much info as we could. We learned there is a taxi strike going on that is affecting the town where O's orphanage is located making it unsafe for us to travel there. Sooo, he will actually come to us tomorrow morning!
We'll meet at the playground across the street at 9:30am and can expect the meeting to last a couple hours, unless he seems to be adapting incredibly well. Given his age and lack of English comprehension (he is primarily exposed to his native Xhosa tongue at the orphanage), this will be a lot for him to take in. We can expect to see him for increasing lengths over the next few days but location is still up in the air. We can hope and pray to have him with us 24/7 between THIS Friday and next Tues!!! (Prayer requests inserted below!)
Starting school while Lilee rested-
someone is sorely missing her classmates and teacher! ;')
This swing will be filled TOMORROW!!!
We are so grateful to have this little playground literally across the street from us and foresee many hours spent here over the next several weeks! It is hard to believe even now that in just over 10 hours we will be meeting our son in this spot. Not quite what we expected for our first meeting, but we are so ready and so excited!!!
Link to more pics from these first few days:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ujNl6znUothl3LGN2
For our praying friends & family, we would be SO grateful for your prayers over the following:
1. For all of our hearts to be opened to one another, and especially O's, as we get to know one another and bond over the next several days and weeks.
2. For his understanding over this process and that he wouldn't be fearful but would feel fully safe and fully loved with us.
3. That Maelee and Lilee would adjust to life with a brother and be beautiful examples to him of a loving family.
4. For our safety during this entire trip, especially if we do journey out to his orphanage before the current strife is resolved.
Thank you! We are SO excited to share more soon!!! We won't post pictures of his face for a while, but will do our best to capture what we can. :) One step closer!
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