Day 32: Coming to the Table

We woke up to the sun shining into our room once again this morning!  It makes you think you've overslept - with the sun rising so early!  The sun rises here right about 5AM, so it definitely tricks your inner clock!

We got up and around and headed to church.  Our sermon this morning was about peace and was given by an American missionary serving here in South Africa.  He and his wife have lived here for 16 years.  Over the last several weeks we have attended church at New Creation, the sermon has only been given by the senior pastor one time.  It has been very cool to see the church body sharing that role and sharing their hearts.

After church, we stopped quickly at the store and then headed back to the guest house for lunch.  We hung out for about 45 minutes and then went to Auntie Bev's house for our Coming to the Table dinner.  (If you didn't read yesterday's post about Coming to the Table and Oasis Haven, I would encourage you to do so!)  It was beautiful outside when we arrived.  The kids (and Kevin) were swimming in the pool and Bev and I chatted until the other families arrived.  We got everything set up out by the pool and the clouds started to roll in - dark ones.  So, our party got relocated to the patio attached to the house.  It began to pour (Huge sliding door left open at our guest house - problem!  Phoned Stefan who so kindly closed it for us!)!  No worries, though!  While the kids watched a movie and played, the parents chatted and shared stories.  We had a simple, yet delicious dinner, and then each family made a contribution (suggested contribution is the equivalent of what you would have spent on a dinner out) to Oasis Haven.  It was a great opportunity for Kevin and I to meet two other families that have adopted children from Nicolas' home.  Beautiful kids with amazing parents.  We are so blessed to have the opportunity to keep our kids connected through technology!  We did also have some more fun with Rock Band.  I really felt that I was at a disadvantage because I don't know that majority of the songs, but it was quite fun anyhow.

When we got back to the guest house, Stefan mentioned that he had rearranged some things for us since we don't have as much storage space upstairs as we did in our first room.  We walked upstairs and he had made space in the cupboard in the hall for our luggage and shoes, reorganized all our random stuff strewn about and found a home for Nicolas' bedding.  He hung up the poster photo of Nicolas on the wall and hung up his wooden helicopter   He made a shelf for all of our books and even left some extra erasers for homework because he saw that Nicolas' was getting small.  Seriously, the best guest house owner EVER.  You should all come to South Africa so that you can stay here. :)

Tomorrow is a busy day for us, more meetings with therapists and our consulate appointment.  We are looking forward to completing this last step and having all the necessary paperwork to travel home!  We will then have just over a week to simply enjoy South Africa and our new friends.

We continue to hear reports of snow at home!  Hopefully it will be cold enough to accumulate by the time we get home so that Nicolas can fulfill his dream of throwing a snowball at his Dad for his birthday!

12 days until we are back in the States!

The Longstreets