Expected no less

 There are probably very few people in this world that can say they were issued 3 passports in 1 day but our S is now one of them.   

9am Wednesday- dad headed out to pick up our long awaited passport. Passport in hand, Yeh!?  When going over the details there were 2 MAJOR typos! One of them being his first name! The other his town of birth.   The High Commission said that they SHOULD be able to reissue his passport within a couple hours.  

12pm-We get notice that S's passport has been reissued and we can pick it up.  Off dad goes again to the office.  When asked to double check the information yet again, low and behold, S's name had been rectified but NOT his town of birth.  This time dad waited the 45+ in office while they, for the 3rd time, reissued S's passport.  

2pm - finally had S's complete, correct passport in hand!  4 hours to spare before heading to the airport for our 11 hour flight from Joberg to Amsterdam.  

Nothing has come easy for us this trip so we really expected no less in the passport department. 

While I write this we are in the midst of our horrible 7 hour layover in Amsterdam.  For those of you who have not experienced long layovers they are the thing nightmares are made of but really at this point we feel we have experienced alot and this is just a hiccup in the road.  We are now about10 hours away from landing back in Canada.

We couldn't have asked for much better on the 11 hour flight from Joberg to Amsterdam.  All stayed awake for our midnight departure and then within minutes of take off the youngest 3 were fast asleep and able to put in 7-8 hours worth of "nighttime" rest.  We have parked ourselves at the back of the plane for both flights which give S the area at the back to wander should he be awake and want to roam.

We have been through the Amsterdam airport before and had relatively fond memories of the child activities to keep them busy.  They are now all gone.  Even on our way through in January they had at least one structure.  It is now fenced off and gone.  Apparently play is "verboden" at the airport now. . .

About half a day to go in this journey and we should be "home" for good!  Hallelujah!  As this will mark the 8th move for us in the last 9 weeks it is time for S to begin to understand the stability and reality of our real home!  

Play is "Verboden" even in an empy space?

Watching the planes

Hanging with my bro

Passport issued! But not in hand yet

 We were informed this morning that the Canadian High Commission was still awaiting  approval from Canada to print S's passport.  They would send Canada a reminder of the urgency as our flights are tomorrow evening and would let us know when the approval came in.

So we did what we have done for alot of the last 9 weeks.....We waited....and prayed....and waited some more....and prayed for patience. . . and distracted the kids(and ourselves)...went for cappuccinos. . . and continued to wait. .  .

Finally at 3pm this afternoon we got the email that permission had been given from the Canadian side for the High Commission to go ahead with S's passport.  By 4pm we had notice that it had been printed and we can pick it up tomorrow morning.  Yeh!!!  Nothing like cutting it close! 

So tomorrow morning dad will go and pick up the passport.  There will be a collective sigh of relief once it is in hand and we are fully travel ready for our 23:59 flight out of Johannesburg.  It has been a long haul but the end is in sight.  

We continue to try to pass the time and the kids all chose to go ice skating.  A mall 15 minutes away has an ice rink with open skate for most of the day.  Google says there are only 9 ice rinks in the country of South Africa.  The kids spent 2 hours in horribly uncomfortable, incredibly dull skates teaching a bunch of adults who have never tried to skate before. S thought it was hilarious.   There was a lot of fun had by all! Really, what else would a bunch of Canadians do stuck in South Africa for over 9 weeks?

Teaching S to bowl

Ice skating!  E may say the best 2 hours of our trip!

Early introduction to some cold

His current swimming pool.

Pretoria

 We made it to our Pretoria destination Wednesday evening by 5:30.   All in all everyone faired okay but we were all more then HAPPY to be out of the vehicle.  Our hosts had dinner waiting for us and beds ready.  What a wonderful welcome.  

We had confirmation S's passport papers arrived at the office by Thursday morning.  On Thursday afternoon the office had already called me as I was the guarantor for the application.  High five to any wife right now who can "physically describe your husband" height, weight, hair colour, eye colour.  Nothing like being put on the spot!   The lady seemed okay with my stuttery slow answers as she said the next call will be when the passport is ready for pick up.   Woohoo! 

We have enjoyed some down days, school days, walks and a trip to a 150 year old touring dairy farm stuck in the middle of the city to pass the time.  

Kids have realized that Canada's safety standards have really hedged on some serious play.   Play grounds and restaurants play places are certainly taken to a new level here.  

Cows coming in for milking

Tractor watching!

Checking out the baby calves.

Hiway stop playplace

Driving their four wheelers.