AND Still NO Citizenship. . .

Today we were to fly home.  This gave us well over 6 weeks in country to accomplish all the paperwork with which we thought should have been ample time and then some to spare.  It is not so. . .

By midnight last night we HAD to change our flight home date and as we still have no Citizenship we really had to pick a new date blind.  We had our lovely travel agent simply pick a date within our weeks of possibly being paper ready with the lowest change fare.  Our return flight is now schedule for Wed March 8. . .over 3 weeks away.  The blessing of this date is that is does leave room for S's CIT to take 30 days with room still for 7 day passport.  Anything earlier will just be a surprise.  D said the other day that "it feels like we are just kind of wondering in the wilderness or something".  Does a little bit.  

Today will be spent planning out the next couple weeks and continually checking our phone for that awaited email saying that S is finally a Canadian.  We will all breathe a sigh of relief when we finally have it in hand.

The lovely home we are in was prebooked for the weekend so we need to relocate as of Thursday.  The trampoline home is available again as of Sunday so we have simply had to find a "filler" home for 3 nights.  We will head 30 minutes up the highway to a place on Salt Lake beach.  This one entails a pingpong table and outdoor firepit; will see if it lives up to the pictures.  I am continually glad we all micro packed as this packing and unpacking has become a bit of a science. 

We have had the pleasure of worshiping in 2 different churches since being here.  In both of them this song has been sung.  It has become a bit of our family anthem and wanted to share.  The no English section is Zulu, S's background.  Even with all these delays, changes, costs we are reminded of how blessed we are each and everyday.  Click link below:

 Come Holy Spirit(Uthando)

Learned about the tide and saw it in action!

Played in alot of sand(and took pants full home😝)

Started a large shell collection

Visited a rescue farm, introduced S to cows.  He has mastered the "moo" already.

SA version of a splash pad. 3 waterslides.  Awesome!

Z dinner date(not by choice)

And still no Canadian Citizenship, so lets head to the beach!

Friday marks 2 weeks of waiting for S's Canadian Citizenship.  With the delay in court documents this means our planned flight home of Febuary 14 is now officially out of reach. If you told me a year ago that we would be spending almost the 1st 2 month of 2023 in SA I would never have beleived you! We are now in the process of changing return flights, extending vehicle rental, finding new places to stay, letting all parties know that need to that we are in SA for an undetermined longer amount of time.  

The quandry at this point is we do not know when to reschedule flights for.  Should our paperwork take the LONGEST possible we would not really be ready to fly until March 8.  AAHHH!  I am not sure that has ever happened but am too afraid to ask  The easiest solution to this is that we have S's CIT by Monday when we would need to officially change our flights.  This would give us the ability to add the 7 days for passport and have a realistic date to base the change off of.  Please pray that that is the case!

D says we will have S's CIT by the end of the week for sure.  

Z says we might as well buy a farm here, make some new friends and start a new life.  LOL.  

E is just living the dream until we make him do something horrible like go to bed at night or come along on a family grocery trip.  

We have now moved again.  We had booked the last house until the 7th being hopeful we would have plans to head home.  The kids have been asking to spend some time at the beach and one can't be 10 minutes away from an ocean and not spend some time there when it works.  We have been blessed again with a very spacious, well equipped home 5 minutes from the ocean with a lovely host.  We are booked here until Sunday but can extend into next week as it is available.  

The view from our new kitchen

E living the dream

Indoor/outdoor living at it's best

Waves have been crazy big!

Found him the biggest sandbox we could

Another week gone by

At this point we are just putting in time.  Trying to find a balance between getting out and experiencing the country but not daily entertaining ourselves so we get used to staying "busy".  When I look back on the week we were actually very busy!

We went on a 5km waterfall hike at Giba Gorge Mountain Bike Park.  The Giba Gorge is an extremely large nature reserve area and this section was trailed with waterfalls, dirt bike jumps and double black diamond mountain bike trails.  E was wishing he had brought his bike.  

Horses we met on the trail.

We finally made it to Ushaka Wet and Wild to the joy of E and Z.  We spent the entire day going up and down water slides and they could have continued for hours more.  D also tried her hand at a number of them and said they weren't that bad.  The beauty of a water park in South Africa is that there are very limited rules.  Everything posted is really just a guideline.  There was barely any waiting as you can simply slide down right after the person in front of you.  No waiting until they are at the bottom and out of the way.  We did our best to explain to the kids that a Canadian waterpark experience would not be the same.  

S got in on some of the action as there was a large 6 person tube slide we could all go on together.  The kid area was full of a large slash pad and 4 medium size kids slide that we enjoyed together. 

A large pool with beach in the background.

Great child area!

Adam did there largest slide once!

The monkeys almost need their own post.  At our last home we didn't see much of them in large part I think do to the dogs around but here we keep ourselves on gaurd at all times.  They have taken food right off our table when we aren't paying attention.  They break into the chicken coup and steal the eggs.  They come in hoards and try to get in the windows.  At points when there are so many we just head indoors and wait them out.  Blah!

They have no real fear of people.

They will sit and wait to see if we have food.

We also spent a day at the hair salon!  D wanted her hair redone and you can not beat the speed or the cost factor here.  Z also was convinced to have hers done.  This was her first hair dresser experience and she said it hurt "alot more then when my mom does it".   Saves me a ton of time at home.  Z's hair was done in about 3 hours. D took over 6.  S and I just hung out and watched for the day. He was content to walk about, play and see things.  We sent dad and E back to the house as hanging out in a hair salon for an entire day was not their idea of a good time. 

Z half done corn rows

D chose knotless braids with curly ends.

Finally Court documents have arrived!

Thursday our court documents were finally in hand.  A week later then expected but finally here.  We had the Citizenship forms, supporting documents and photos all ready to go so it was sent off the same day.  

In addition to this application being sent the Citizenship offices requires proof of a number of applications filed with the South Africa government.  Name change, new Birth Certificates etc.  I have never had the pleasure of experiencing this part of the process as Adam always just went to the office of Home Affairs on his own but this time they were requiring mothers fingerprints and signatures as well.  So on Friday at noon we warned the kids this would NOT be a fun trip and we may have to wait a LONG time and off we went to the office.  

When we arrived the place was fairly packed.  We waited and then Adam handed in all the forms.  We waited a good while more, moved seats and filled in a form for our ink fingerprints.  We waited some more and then were in a group called into the office, waited some more and then had our ink fingerprints completed.  We were then told we needed a photo to go on our fingerprint page.  

This fancy business is parked just out front!

5 minutes and your photos are done😁

So outside the building we went, with all 4 kids, to this lovely establishment and had our photos in hand within 5 minutes.  Oh my!  We often just laugh about some of the things we experience because you would have to see it to believe it!

We then proceeded back into the building to wait again.  We paid the fees, were handed a receipt for documents filed(which is all we really needed) and finally were able to leave.  The entire experience took about 2 hours which considering a large number of the people in the building were lined up first thing in the morning and were still there waiting is really not that bad.  

Our representative here tries to prep us as much as possible but as the process is so dependent on who is behind the desk there are often additions and subtractions.  I asked the couple who were here just previous to us if they had to have a photo taken and they did not?  Always a mystery!  Just adds to the overall experience.  

We then emailed copies of these receipt to the Citizenship office so they have proof we filed them. 

Mathematically speaking we need to see S Citizenship granted sometime next week or we are looking at bumping our flights.  Praying it is so!  but ready to be flexible should that not be in God's plan.  

Kids are still enjoying themselves (Home Affairs was not their favorite) but we followed up with a milkshake at Wimpy's to make it more pleasurable. We do our best to get out every couple days to help pass the time and really experience the area we are in.  

Cargo ship watching on the Indain ocean

Ushaka Marine World

Load shedding and the first delay. . .

 Summer in South Africa is a new experience for us.  There are a number of things to share on this but will save them for another post.   The biggest challenge we are facing right now is "load shedding".  The simple description of this is that Eskom(the largest hydro manufacturer for South Africa) does not actually have the ability to produce the amount of hydro that the country needs at this time.  Therefore, to avoid a nation wide blackout and total collapse of the power grid they simply turn grids off in a rotating manner.  Since we have moved to this house we go between 4-8 hours without hydro each day.  

The times the power is "supposed" to go out is posted online but it completely inaccurate so no one even looks at it anymore.  

We can't recall the power being out at our last location at all.  The house manager here joked that there must have been a goverment official living on our street. LOL.  

Most major businesses and grocery stores have generators and they kick in within minutes of the power turning off. 

We have a charcoal braii(BBQ) and a small gas burner to get us through the long stretches.  We keep large tubs of ice in the freezer to move to the fridge to keep our groceries cool.  

We have flashlights ready and electronic devices fully charged at all times so there are no surprises.

The WIFI and the home security systems both run off a battery backup.  When the power goes out we still have 2.5 hours of wifi use. Priorities, priorities.   Not really sure how long the security system is good for?

At church on Sunday at exactly 10am the power went out.  No one even bats an eye.  The electric guitar and bass simple packed up.  The worship leader told people to do there best to sing along where they could and an acoustic guitar kept all in tune.  The pastor just spoke extra loud.  So simple, so beautifully uncomplicated.  

We have altered out lives to make things easier in dealing with these outages but the biggest irritation has been the delay in our 1st wait.  Our court documents SHOULD have been back by Thursday but as the issuing office had NO HYDRO for 2 days at the beginning of the week we are still waiting. . . Trusting the Lord's timing on this one and counting our blessings where we can!  

We have adjusted well to this new house.  The middle 2 spend hours on the trampoline and in the pool.  D bikes around the house numerous times a day.  S continues to blossom, adjust(has even let dad pick him up a time or 2!) and sleep well.  We enjoy daily challenging games of Quirkle Rummy and Labyrinth.  School books come out on days when we don't have outings planned.  God is good, all the time.

Large avacodo tree, loaded.  Monkey love them. . .

The monkeys! S asks about them as soon as we step outside.

Our large Braii

Moving Day!

 On Tuesday we experienced our first moving day with S.  We had booked our first Airbnb knowing that it was a little tight for all of us but the location was perfect for trips back and forth to the baby home and we really didn't need to spend a ton of daytime hours there.  It served us very well and the inside was actually much larger then we anticipated!   It was also a great location as it was walking distance to groceries and coffee shops.  The kids even enjoyed the massive hill, especially sending dad down to get the balls that once headed that way were deep into the shrubbery at the bottom. 

D half way down our backyard hill

Someone told us that you pay extra for flat yards in Durban but in Johanesberg you pay extra for hills.  LOL.  The grass is always greener!

So on Tuesday we packed everything up and drove 7 minutes up the hill to our new house.  This new home is a breathe of fresh air.  We had eyed this place up on other trips but it was always booked up.  This time we managed to book it for 3 weeks. We have easily quadrupled our inside space and the outdoor space is flat and large!  Completed off with an inground trampoline, bikes, fenced pool, tree swing, large verenda and charcoal Braii.  The view of Durban is spectacular.  Hoping to enjoy some good days here bonding, adjusting to our family of 4 and relaxing.  

It also comes with a bonus cottage.  We haven't peaked inside but it is cute from the outside.  So if anyone should have a hankering for a quick trip to South Africa we have some extra space! 

Pool from the veranda.

Wrap around veranda and extra cottage

Durban coast, can see ships in the ocean at times.

Tree swing!

The trampoline!

A Family of 6!

On Jan 12 at 11:45am S officially became our son!  A very legal affair: a judge, a small office, reading of legal documents, confirming information, a signature from mom and dad and it was all finalized.  This simple process is due to the large amount of work done by individuals here before our arrival.  A file over an inch thick sat on the desk with ALL of the papers and reports necessary to ensure that all is done in proper order, with no room for questions or objections.  

Following court we arrived at the baby home to take S home forever!  All of us were very ready for this but sad also as our routine of playing and visiting the baby home was a highlight for us.  We plan to go back for a farewell party for S in a couple weeks, once he has bonded to us some and before we leave for Canada.  

S has come out of his shell over the last couple of days.  He now laughs and smiles at his siblings easily.  He is seldom cross or crying. He has no problem telling us what he wants and at this point if we can grant it we do. He has grasped this whole new world with gusto and destroys everything in his path!  So great to see! 

First night is already under our belt and he slept from 8-6.  Win in our books!  Praying he continues to sleep well at night so we can all enjoy or days here.  We have done our first napless day and he seemed to cope well with that too.

These are the next steps with approximate timelines, each item can not be filed until the previous is completed:

Court documents filed -about 7 days 

Canadian Citizenship - 24 hours to 28 days(there is never a pattern in how long this takes)

Canadian Passport - 5 working days following the grant of Cit

At this point we are now just waiting and waiting and waiting.  Please continue to pray that all will fall into place with as much haste as the Lord sees fit. 😊