Canadian Girls!!

Our 2 Canadian girls in their Canada shirts!!

This afternoon we were shocked to find out that Z's Canadian Citizenship has been granted!  This part of the process was to take 2 weeks and it took less then 24 hours for us to get confirmation!  Our rep here says she has never had a response this fast.
We have spent the last week waiting for the Court Order which came in yesterday(Monday).  Our application for Citizenship was sent out right away and we received the e-mail this afternoon that Z is now a Canadian Citizen.  We now have our Canadian Passport Documents completed and they will be sent out tomorrow.  This is the last part of our wait.  Super exciting!!
I have previous things to post from days gone by and will try to get to them tomorrow but had to write a quick note with the wonderful news!!
Our prayers have been answered in an amazing way!

Finally rest(and itchy feet for some)

Tuesday morning we were ecstatic to finally be able to have a morning without setting our alarm.  Whew, what a whirl-wind of a last week we have had!  Z now has a bad cough and was up throughout the night barking.  As the week has progressed she has gotten better.  Unfortunately they were on a strict schedule at the orphanage and all children were woken up by at least 6am.  Needless to say 5:30am seems to be when she has decided to start her day.  Hoping to work on that when we get home as big sister prefers to sleep until at least 8-as does momJ.

We have settled into a bit of a routine here.  After the men started to get itchy feet from the lack of schedule we have decided to eat breakfast at 8.  If we are doing a day trip we then meander out for the morning.  Usually back around 1 or 2 then have some lunch and the girls(and adults) can have a little nap.  By 3 it is “tea time”  then supper needs to be made, coffee at 5, dinner, children’s bath and bed time, game or watch soccer, night cap and then bed.  We then start the entire schedule over again the next day. 

Balancing the trip is somewhat of a challenge.  We need to stay busy enough that we don’t go stir crazy but create enough downtime that we don’t create grumpy children.  We also need to be cautious that the new one has time to adjust to all these new experiences.  We are still struggling to find that balance.

We have gone on a number of “outings”.  We went to visit 3 other families from Canada adopting little girls:one from London, one from Breslau and one from Baden of all places!  They are all staying at another B and B about 5 minutes from our place. Who knew we had to travel 2 days to meet people living 5 minutes from our house!

We have gone to “The Pavilion” a large mall that is basically the same as our malls back home.  Same name brands, same clothes and about the same prices.

We left one day to go to a large market downtown.  We were told the safest was to park in the underground secure parking and to go in the morning before it got really busy.  We arrived and saw the clearanceor the underground parking was 2 metres.  We thought we would fit. . .  We got a couple feet in and started to hear a lot of scraping on the top of the van.  A parking attendant came by and told us we were not going to fit and needed to park on the road. D still tells the story of “when we tried to park in the garage but were to big”.  As Gene says “we would need a little more Vaseline to fit in that one”.  Van came out unscathed and we still have a good laugh about it.

Our super van(they call it a bus here) which apparently has a clearance of 2 metres and 1 inch.

We then tried to find parking on the street but downtown Durban is more than crazy.  We opted to see the “Golden Mile” instead. This area was “redone” for the World Cup years ago and is a mile of beach front beautifully made for walking, shops and activities.  There were lots of street vendors so did a little shopping. D was more than excited to be at the ocean and asks daily when we can go back. 

First feet in the ocean

We generally need to do groceries every 2 or 3 days as we have a small fridge.  So that is another outing. We have become fairly familiar with the local “SuperSpar” and rather enjoy it.   Corry and I are proud of the meals we can create in our small kitchen.  Having familiar food has helped us cope with the reality of the long time away from home.  We were also over the moon to find out that our unit has a WASHING MACHINE!  We thought we would need to find a laundry facility and this has made things much simpler for us.  

Our small but very functional kitchen.

Our current accommodations is a 2 bedroom, 2 washroom cottage with a small living space and kitchen. On Friday we are heading to a 4 bedroom cottage by the beach.  We have made this comfortable but are glad to be moving somewhere that at least has a table to eat at and a little more space so we aren't tripping over each other.  The weather here is only warm when the sun is out from about 11-3.  Then we all put on our warm clothes, crank up the heater and move inside.  D has jumped in the pool a little but it is REALLY cold even for her.

The view of the pool from our cottage.
You'll notice we are in the last bit of sun left!

Our 2 bedroom cottage on the hill.

A Run Down Building and A Whole Lot of Vomit

Monday, July 7 

This morning we were at the courthouse in Matatiele for our 9 O’clock appointment.  The Magistrate(judge) was on leave the week before and was making the drive from Durban(4 hours) this morning to come into work.  When we arrived he obviously was not there yet.  It gave us a chance to really observe the building.  This building was very unassuming, though large, dumpy almost and fairly unkept.  It also appeared that we were the only ones there this early on a Monday morning. 

Shortly after 9 the Magistrate showed up.   Arend  Treurnicht which translates to eagle-don’t be sad Gene and Corry say.  He seemed a little flustered but quickly led his to his office.  It was a large room with a couple chairs, files, desk and computer.  There was a very large crack running from the ceiling all the way to the floor and glass panes were missing from the window which was making the room even colder on this already cool morning. 

Robyn, our representative,  explained everything that needed signing for him(she even drafted all the documents herself as she said sometimes in small towns the printers aren’t working or they don't have the proper forms).  He spent a little time looking over the documents to be sure all was in order but in the end he simply asked if we were sure about this adoption.  We, of course, said yes.  We signed where needed, he stamped were needed and we were out of his office in 30 minutes. 

The longest part of the appointment was when he had to find the official adoption number.  It turns out that we are the first, and possibly the only, adoption from Matatiele this year.  Very sad.

The magistrate gave and old “Heep, Heep, Hoo-ra” on our way out the door. (Gene said it is the Dutch soccer cheer) 

Just like that-we are officially Z's parents! 

We then got into the van and began to make the 4 hour drive home.  Z was not excited about getting into the car seat in the first place but after a bit of driving her stomach decided it wasn’t a huge fan either.   We were planning a stop about an hour into the drive and it was good we did as by the time we did arrive at a store she had emptied the complete contents of her stomach.  Thankfully, I had seen the grey pallor start upon her face and was prepared for what followed though when that much comes out not all of it hits the bowl.   Her outfit needed changing and the seat needed a wipe down but otherwise it could have been a whole lot worse.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, kids slept, view was gorgeous as we took a different highway back.  Goats, cows, unbelievable valleys and mountains, orange groves and so much more made the drive seem worth the while. 

This was the "hill" behind the church we attended. Can you read what is written?

Hills, hills and valleys

When we were almost back in Durban the kids woke up and the vomiting began again.  Z had managed to eat a couple crackers and they apparently didn’t sit well either so up they came.  She managed to stand all this with only a little whimper, what a trooper.  Needless to say the car seat will probably not be her favourite place for a while!

"Z Day"

We arrived home from church and all took up position in the sun to try to get the chill out of our bones.  We enjoyed a light lunch and I had just told D that it was time for a nap when Liz, the orphanage director drove in.  There, sitting on her lap, was Z with tears in her eyes.  Liz said she didn’t have the heart to stick her in a car seat as Z does not have much experience with vehicles and started to cry as soon as they got in.  It was a short drive. 

Big sister was over the moon and has been ever since!!  Z gets about 20 kisses on the forehead a day, lots of hugs and loves just about anything big sister does.   The transition of going from only to big sister has gone very well for D(so far) and Z as well. 

Z was dropped off with a bag full of clothes, bottle, a couple of diapers and formula: definitely much more than we expected.   Grandma Polly supplied us with a little baby cereal and extra blankets for the night so we were good to go.  With little fanfare Z was now ours.

Z spent most of that first day in my arms.  She is a thumb sucker and would simply cuddle in with her thumb in her mouth to deal with the uncertainty of the situation.  She spends a lot of time observing what others are doing.  She had no problem eating, went down to bed that night without a peep and slept through the entire night.  So far so good!!

The entire situation is so surreal right now.  We first saw this beautiful little girl just over a month ago, met her 3 days ago and now here she sleeps in our room!  Tomorrow we will attend court to make her an official part of our family but as far as we are concerned this is where she has always belonged. 

Thank you Lord for this amazing blessing!! 

Still Alive (and doing well)

Just a little note to say that we are alive and well.  I have so much more to write but I have been busy visiting, travelling etc  but will get to the posts soon!!  Court was passed on Monday, big sister and little sister are doing amazingly well.  Will post about "Z Day", court, trip back to Durban etc ASAP!!  Thank you for all your comments and notes of support!

The Coldest Church on Fire for Jesus

We were up at 6:45am this morning and it continues to get harder and harder to wake D up as she is not really an early morning person.  Plus it was only about 3 degrees this morning so even harder to get out from under the blankets.  We enjoyed Grandma Polly’s wonderful breakfast hospitality before heading to church with Liz, the orphanage director and Robyn, our representative in South Africa (an amazing lady who I could write an entire post about and probably will later). 

Church was located in a little town called Cedarville.  We drove through it on the way to Matatiele and glanced around but in the 10 seconds it took us to drive through it we did not see a building that appeared to represent a church.  So on this morning we simply followed Liz to this building:

Gene and Corry still get the chills just looking at the picture!

There was a large propane heater in the middle of the building and we chose seats close to the heater hoping to pick up a little heat.  We noted that in the ceiling were 6 “skylights” lacking the glass so thus letting the heat right out the top.  Gene’s hands were shaking so badly from the cold Corry could barely read the words of the Bible! It was SOOOO cold!  We could see our breath during the service!

There was a table with children’s activities at a small table in the back, about 40 chairs set up and a small podium located at the front.  When service began there were about 30 people gathered in the small building. 

We enjoyed prayer, singing and a wonderful message about our purpose in life.  We were reminded that we can all strive to have goals and worldly purpose but essentially we are called to do one thing “the will of the Father”.  All else comes second to doing God’s will in our lives.  We felt truly blessed by the people and message of this service.  They finish off the service with coffee, cookies and a time of fellowship.    

D noticed that the other children were allowed to play during the service so joined the table at the back.  About midway through the service a handful of neighborhood boys arrived to enjoy the play activities(and snacks) too.  What a wonder to see how children interact!  Although no words were spoken I observed a boy help D with a marker, her share some blocks, the group of them build a tower together and at the end of the service she even felt compelled to say bye to a few of them before leaving the table.  As adults we do tend to confuse things with too many words!  I have noticed a number of times during this trip that a language barrier does not seem to exist in children. 

We arrived back at the guesthouse to hopefully catch a nap and some sun to warm up before Z is set to arrive.

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.