Making New Friends

Saturday, July 5

We awoke to our alarms again this morning as we wanted to get a good visit in with Z before her 11am nap.  It was hard to crawl out of our heated bed at 7:30am to a FREEZING cold room.  The temperature at night goes down to about 0 degrees and although we each have small heaters in our room South Africans do not build their homes to retain heat.    The nice feature we discovered was the heated blankets under out sheets!  We would just turn them on high before going to bed and be toasty and warm upon climbing in.  The first night Gene “fried” as he didn’t realize there was a setting on both sides of the beds so Corry’s side got turned off and he couldn’t figure out why his side was still so hot!

We are spending  the weekend in Matatiele at a B and B called Upmarket Accommodations.  This place is run by an 84 years old women we call “Grandma Polly”.  Our stay includes dinner and breakfast so it has been a treat to have home cooked meals made for us!  Breakfast’s first course is cereal with cold or warm milk and yogurt.  That is followed up by eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and more.   Dinner is served by candlelight with fine china and linen napkins.  At least 3 different types of vegetables, a meat dish, rice and warm custard over cake was our dinner every night.  Grandma Polly made us feel at home the entire weekend and we truly appreciated it!!  Plus D was allowed to pick a “sweetie”(marshmallow) after the meal so she was happy. 

Today will be our last day of visiting the orphanage much to D’s disappointment.  D has made fast friends with the children there and thought we should invite them all back to our guesthouse to play even longer.  A very special character named Rowen gave us tours and entertainment on every visit.  Almost all the children we have met will grow up in this orphanage.  Due to the rural location there are not a lot of foster homes available plus it is much too far out for domestic adoptive families to make the effort when there are closer locations and so many children in need.    

D getting a big push from Rowan on the swing at the orphanage.

We again spent as much time with Z as we could in the afternoon as to acclimatize her to us a bit as she will be dropped off at our guesthouse following church tomorrow.   She still cries a little at dad but will warm up after some patience and time. Men are not often seen in the orphanage, white men, almost never so she is very uncertain about these strange creatures!

D running to Z cottage to visit her for the last time before she lives with us forever!

We continue to pray that this change in Z's life goes smoothly and that we as a family do all we can  to ease this abrupt transition.  

Meeting Z!!!

**If you haven't figured out by now we had no WIFI on our trip to Matatiele.  I did continue to write our about our journey and am now posting then as I find time to write.  I will try to remember to date them at the top as to keep things in order**

Friday, July 4, 2014

We were up and running today at 7:00am as we needed to replace the van tire before heading on our 4 hour journey to Matatiele.  After having that done at the local “Tiger Tyre” just down the street we were on our way by 9:30.  Hills, hills and mountains about describes our journey.  We made two short stops on the way.

D was feeling ill so we stopped to walk around and use some restrooms.  I had some liquid anti-nausea in the back so I gave her what I thought was an appropriate dose.  Shortly after being on the road again she fell asleep. 

We stopped again at a “Wimpy’s” for lunch and as D was still sleeping I stayed in the car while the others picked up some food.  Upon looking at the anti-nausea medication I realized I had given her the older child dose so 2 tsp instead of 1.  Oops! Best 3 hour nap she’s ever had!

We dropped our luggage off at our guest house: our home for the next 3 nights and left immediately to see Z.  With all the stopping and truck traffic(they only go about 10km uphill and there are ALOT of hills) the 4 hours trip took us about over 5.  

Z is wonderful!  Everything we imagined and more.    Upon first seeing us she cried.   As we spent more time with her cottage she started to warm up.  By the end of our 2 hour visit she would sit herself on my lap.  She even gave dad a cuddle before we left.  Big sister just wanted Z to sit on her lap and Z was happy to comply.

Couple of observations:

1.        She appears to be “top dog” of her cottage.  When in toy altercations with others she always ended up the winning party.  Watch out cousins!

2.       We are told she loves to eat.  Will fit right in then!

3.       English is not spoken in the cottage so we will have a slight communication barrier.

4.       She currently sleeps through the night.

5.       She laughs a lot and has a very playful spirit.

6.       She is very well cared for.

We are feeling so entirely blessed right now and so thankful for God’s hand upon this trip so far; in safety, patience in travel and especially in meeting this child that He has chosen to join our family.

Still arriving in Durban:the day that was. . .

We were told at 3pm that our bags were ready to be picked up at the airport.  So Gene and Adam headed out after both being refreshed by a shower and afternoon nap.  After spending 5 minutes trying  to start our super van they figured out the sticky key and were on their way: little did they know that this was a sign of things to come. . .

The airport is only  30 minutes from our location so we figured after they returned we would find some groceries for supper and breakfast the next day.  3 hours later and no sign of them we were starting to get a little hungry(we hadn’t really eaten anything since 6 am breakfast on our flight in).  When they finally rolled in at around 6:30 we got the entire story

1.Heavy traffic on the way there due to an accident

2.No parking:then crazy parking circle meant for 20 but holding 200.

3. Adam ran in and had to be brought back in through some back door with full security to get to the baggage counter. All bags were there! They gave him all the bags with no I.D. no questions asked (including Gene and Corry’s) Yeh!

4. Did not have exact change for parking as they were 2 minutes over the free allotted parking time.

5.  When they got to pay booth realized they had accidently left parking time ticket in machine so had to run back and forth to pay booth to pay for 2 minutes over.

6. Finally left the airport only to have a FLAT TIRE on the main highway at rush hour with the sun fading fast. 

7. Adam replaced tire with the spare on the side of the Durban highway.

Yikes! What a day!  So we ordered takeout pizza(it was delicious), Corry and I hitched a ride with our B and B host to the grocery to pick up a few groceries and a $3 bottle of wine! Hoping this is not a sign of weeks to come.

Arriving in Durban

We arrived in Durban Thursday at almost exactly 10am.  Our 11 hour flight from London to Johannesburg went exceptionally well.  D was asleep in her seat before the wheels left the ground and slept for a majority of the flight.  She enjoyed watching a little “Frozen” on her own television but other than that was content to lay across the seats and sleep.  Doesn’t work so well for the big people!  Needless to say we are all looking forward to sleeping lying down tonight!

We transferred easily to our domestic flight to Durban in Johannesburg basically walking off one plane and then boarding the next.  Upon arriving in Durban we realized that our luggage did not arrive with the same ease.  After talking to a BA agent they did have our bags available for us by the end of the day.  It just meant an extra trip for the boys to practice driving on the wrong side of the road back to the airport to pick them up.

We are at a B and B in Durban for the night.  We enjoyed a nice cup of coffee sitting in the outdoors which we truly appreciated after being in airport transit for so many days.  D took a little dip in the pool which is a little cold to her standard but won’t hinder her usage.  We are hoping to all be in bed early tonight as we will be travelling over 4 hours by van to Matatiele the area where Z’s orphanage is located.  

Laying Low in London

We survived our first flight.
 After making it through airport security in Toronto, D looked at her dad and asked "Where is the swimming pool?" (apparently she thought we in South Africa already)  She thought the take off was "super exciting" and enjoyed the rest of the plane ride until she was way overtired.
D waited until 11:30pm for supper and then proceeded to fall apart and not eat a bite.  She had a good cry and fell asleep quickly on her mom's lap and didn't make a peep until landing.  After figuring out that the most sleep any of us had gotten was maybe 3 hours(and that was D) we decided to lay low at the London airport for the day.  We all managed to have a little nap(or 2), some decent food and almost feel ready for our longest leg of this plane marathon which will be 11 hours to Johannesburg tonight.
For those of you hoping for some skype or facetime I could not get it to operate at the airport so will have to try again some other time.
Our upcoming itinerary looks as follows
Thursday-arrive in Durban
Friday-head to Matatiele to meet Z
Saturday-visit with Z
Sunday-Z comes to guest house with us
Monday-court and return to Durban as a family of 4

Not sure when I will have a good enough connection to post again but will try!!

One more sleep!!!

After one more sleep we will be on our way to South Africa!
Our first flight leaves Toronto at 9:20pm on July 1st to arrive in London on Wednesday morning.  We then enjoy a leisurely 10 hours in the Heathrow airport(We told D we may go see the Queen if there is time or maybe just tea).  We then take a second red eye from London to Johannesburg, South Africa.  From there we take a shorter flight to Durban the area in which we will be located for most of our trip.  We are to arrive in Durban at around 10am on Thursday morning.
We are packed and as ready as we can be for the adventure ahead.
Funny picture of the day!

What does a 3 year old think they need in their carry on?

It's another GIRL!!!!

We are excited to be posting again!!

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014 we got the call from our Social Worker that we have been matched with a beautiful little girl from South Africa.   She was born on December 11, 2012 so she will be a near 2 years younger then her big sister D.  Big sister is still a little confused about all this talk about going on an airplane for a LONG, LONG time and then living somewhere else for almost 6 weeks but reality will hit soon enough.
Our flights are booked!  We leave July 1(this Tuesday) and are to arrive in Durban, South Africa on Thursday morning.  South African adoptions run on a much different timeline then Ethiopia.   We will only need to travel to South Africa once.  We will meet our new daughter very soon after arrival and then enjoy time getting to know each other as we wait for court, court documents, then Canadian Citizenship, and finally a Canadian Passport before we can fly home as a new family of four.  Our return flights are set for August 12 provided all is in order by then.
We are excited to have long time family friends and seasoned travellers Gene and Corry Veening coming with us!  It will be so helpful to have the extra set of hand, eyes and planners when travelling with 2 little children.

For all who supported us with words of encouragement, listening ears and gifts through this second adoption we want to say a huge THANK YOU!!

We will meet our new daughter in 7 days!!