Friday, December 7, 2012

Day 29: And the Blessings Continue to Flow!

**Power was out when we got home last night**

We got up this morning and headed down to Home Affairs to pick up Nicolas' temporary passport.  I must admit I was skeptical that it would really be ready in less than 24 hours.  But.......it was!!  Praise God!!!

After we left Home Affairs, we headed over to one of the malls to look for a denim jacket for Nicolas because he has outgrown his, but really likes it.  Unfortunately, since it is summer here, no luck.  We did find some new sandals for Kevin since his have seen better days, so the trip wasn't a wash.

Once back at the guest house, we had to relocate to the Loft Suite.  Being that we are here for so long, Stefan had to split our booking in order to accommodate us on such short notice.  Nicolas is very excited that this room has a bath tub. :)  After lunch, Nicolas headed straight for the pool!  If you are friends with us on facebook, Kevin posted the video of Nicolas doing a flip into the pool.  I, of course, am just afraid that he will hit his head on the side, but boys will be boys!  It is amazing how brave he has become in the pool!  He is definitely going to miss it when we get home!  Given that the pool is still quite cold, I opted to stay out.  We received word mid-afternoon that Nicolas' unabridged birth certificate is ready!!!  God has definitely been the driving force in getting this paperwork done so quickly!!!


When we went back to Home Affairs for the second time today, not one - but two – different men commented on the fact that we were back again. J  I guess we must be a memorable crew!  God was with us again in that there was no one there are we were able to walk in and out with his birth certificate in 5 minutes!  I'm sure the woman who helped us thought we bribed someone to get it so quickly.  She looked up our receipt number and said "You just applied for this today."  I replied that we had actually done it the day before.  She just looked at me as if she were thinking "Who are you?", but printed it and sent us on our way.

Tonight we met Auntie Beth at the Oasis office to head out for dinner.  First, we went to a park that starts with “E” and is one of the botanical gardens in Joburg.  It has a beautiful series of fountains that, tragically, were not running.  We wandered around the park chatting about Joburg and how different South Africa is from what we were told/prepared for.  It is such a beautiful place that gets a bad wrap.  After having been here for a month, I laugh at some of the things we were afraid of coming here.  We met up with Beth’s boyfriend Donovan in our stroll and finished our loop through the park before heading to a South African restaurant for dinner.  Beth made a few suggestions about dishes to try – I had the mommy chow (a.k.a. bunny chow - a.k.a. amazing!) and Kevin had boerewors (similar to brats) and pap.  Our South African child had a burger. J  My mommy chow was seriously amazing and I will definitely try to find the recipe online!  After dinner we went to another restaurant to have dessert.  It was an evening of laughs and great conversation.  We have been so blessed to have built so many great relationships in our time here in South Africa.  

The Longstreets

No comments:

Post a Comment