Letters To God

Almost a month has passed since the last time I sat down to write.  It's not that I didn't want to or that I didn't have anything to say (anyone who knows me knows that very, very rarely happens!).  Instead, my excuse for not blogging is that it's dark.  Yes, I don't write because it is dark.  I get home from work and by the time we are done eating dinner, it is dark.  It makes it feel much later that it actually is and, once you add laying in bed with Nicolas to that, I am done for the night!

With that said, a lot has happened in the last 30 days!  We are all doing so well!  Nicolas is loving his new school and making lots of friends.  We recently received his first report card - he's doing great!  His teacher says he is fitting in so well and he is currently reading at a third grade level!  Thanks a million to all of his teachers and helpers in South Africa who did such an amazing job!!!!  We have also had a lot of firsts this month: first time ice skating, first time sledding, first snowman and snow fort, first time eating snow (he says it tastes like chicken!), first birthday party (attended) in America (which also brought his first root beer float!), first (second, third, and FOURTH) snow days. and so much more!!!  We have been so, so blessed by having Nicolas in our lives already!!!

What compelled me to write this post was our movie night last night.  We told Nicolas we could watch a movie after a fun-filled afternoon of sledding with Auntie Becca.  He chose Letters to God.  I thought to myself - oh no, here we go!  The two of them are going to laugh at me for crying!!  Boy was I wrong!  When it got to that point in the movie, Kevin told Nicolas to give me a hug and what came next only made me cry harder!  Nicolas put his arm around me and held me.  As in, not just arm laid on mom......he was squeezing me. :)  He had his hand on my shoulder and patted me for the last 30 minutes of the movie.  It was so precious how he was taking care of me!!!  As if he hadn't melted my heart already!!!  I don't want to rush him along, but he will make a great husband someday!!! :)  What a perfect example of how God blesses those who can manage to wait through the struggles!  It may have taken what seemed like forever to get to this point, but it is so worth it to be here!!!

Two Weeks Home

Man!!!  It is much harder to blog regularly when you're back to reality! :)

We have been home for two weeks now and it had been going so well!  While Kevin and I headed back to work on the 26th (boooo!), Nicolas has been having a blast hanging out with his Grandmas.  He has taken adventures in the woods, driven a quad, helped carry the chainsaw, learned to snowboard, had his first meal at Wendy's, watched lots of Disney, played Donkey Kong, and so much more!

Last Monday, we had a day packed full of appointments.  First was the pediatrician who Nicolas thought was hilarious.  Next we visited his school and met his teacher.  We toured some areas of the school and Nicolas got the rundown of what life at his new school will be like.  They also made him a book with pictures and a letter from each of his classmates so that he can learn their names.  So sweet!  In the afternoon, we had our first post-placement visit with our social worker.  It was great to catch up with her and chat about our trip.  Then, we began our New Year's Eve festivities.  We played games, played a lot of kinect sports, and watched the ball drop.  He made it until midnight!  We did, however, go to sleep as soon as it passed 12. :)  We also slept until 10AM the next day :)

New Year's Day was the first day since we got home that we didn't have anything planned.  We just enjoyed the day, played, went to the park and went sledding, made chili for dinner and enjoyed our time together.  Then it was back to work again........

This morning, we had a couple more appointments, and he was a rockstar!  We also introduced him to Costco (Mom, why is everything so big?).  This afternoon, he flew his new remote control helicopter from John and Lindsey (which he would play with all day if the batteries would last!), took a bath, and watched the Despicable Me minion mini movies.

Monday, we start figuring out our routine.  Nicolas starts school and we will have our first full weeks back at work.  I know it is going to be tough being away from him so much.  Six weeks of nothing but having fun was awesome, but it makes it tough to be away from him!

Nicolas is doing so well!!  There have been several times that Kevin and I have looked at each other wondering 'is it supposed to be this easy?'  He has adjusted very well to everything here and is happy as can be!  God continues to bless us every day!

Here's a picture from our sledding adventure on New Year's Day:

And here is the link to our adoption video (so very awesomely done by Kevin).  Warning: you may need kleenex!

A Longstreet Christmas

Before we pick up on Sunday, here are a few pictures of us getting our first Christmas tree together!!  I think we were the last family to get a tree from this farm for the season!

And here it is at home!!! 

Alright, so picking up Sunday.....

What a crazy few days it has been!  Sunday began the Christmas festivities.  Per Nicolas’ request, we held off on going to church this week.  Instead, we decorated our Christmas tree, worked on organizing the tornado we had created in the house, and Nicolas worked on perfecting his driving skills on Mario Kart for Wii.  We made a pit stop at Menards for some hooks for the bathroom to hang his towels on and got detoured after seeing another shopper purchasing a sled.  A sled?  YES!  We need one of those!  Thank you random Menards shopper for the reminder. J  After Menards, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Longstreet’s house for the first of our Christmas parties.  We expected Nicolas to be shy for a while, but he warmed up very quickly to everyone and, in no time, was downstairs wrestling and playing games with his uncles and cousins.  When it came time for presents, Nicolas was a little uncomfortable with the family tradition of opening gifts one at a time in front of everyone, but compromised that he and his cousin Andrew could open their gifts together.  As we suspected would happen, he and Andrew (who is 9) are going to be best buds!  After staying later than we should have, we said our goodbyes to the family and headed home for the night.

Before we knew it, it was B-day!!!!  We had intended to wake Nicolas by singing him happy birthday, but at we were about to head down the stairs, there he was walking up!  He said, “I looked at my clock and it said it was 6:43, is it time for me to get up?”  We said “Yes!” and got breakfast ready.  He walked over to the dining room and turned on the light.  He looked at the table and said “Ooooh, look at this!”  His presents were stacked there.  Unlike most children who would tear in, Nicolas looked at them and then got ready to eat.  At breakfast, we actually sang him happy birthday twice which he seemed to enjoy much more when it was just the three of us.  After breakfast, he opened his presents from us.  We played and continued to work on cleaning the house.  Nicolas wanted to take a long bath, so he jumped in while I cut Kevin’s hair (which was SO LONG!!)  I got in the shower after that and I take about an hour to get ready.  When I was just about finished, I went over to see if Nicolas was ready and he was still in the tub!  Once he knew I was going to beat him, he sped up. J  What can I say?  It’s his birthday, he can play if he wants to!  Once we were all ready, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Peterson’s house to celebrate Nicolas and Grandma’s birthdays and Christmas.  Once we arrived, Grandpa showed him around the house and gave him quick lessons in both pool and ping pong.  Holland still had snow on the ground (we had none in GR), so Grandpa and Nicolas went out for Nicolas’ first sledding adventure!  He thought it was AWESOME!  He tried both a long sled and a saucer sled and definitely preferred the longer sled.  He was not a fan of the saucer spinning him around.  After several runs, they came in and we had a delicious dinner.  We sang Happy Birthday and had ice cream cake and presents.  Continuing the festivities, we went into the living room to open Christmas gifts.  Nicolas thought it was pretty cool that Santa had filled his dad’s stocking with presents for him!  He helped Grandma find the presents under the tree with his name on them and opened them one by one.  Kevin and Grandpa kept telling him that Grandma liked to give underwear for Christmas and it was an ongoing joke while he opened his gifts.  Don’t worry, he didn’t get any underwear! J  That might have been embarrassing!  Uncle Kyle and Jules were on their way over, but had gotten held up in bad weather, so we looked at some of the pictures from our trip while we waited for them to arrive.  We opened gifts with them and then had to leave soon after in order to get Nicolas in bed.  He needed to be asleep before Santa came!

Make a wish!

His reaction when Dad and Grandpa teased him about getting underwear :)

And the fun just kept coming!!!  Christmas morning!  We went down to wake him up around the same time he normally gets up and he asked if it was morning.  We told him Merry Christmas and asked him if he wanted to see if Santa had come.  He was sleepy, but came upstairs and checked the counter to see if Santa had his snack.  Indeed he had.  He left only crumbs and a thank you note.  While we got breakfast ready, Nicolas took a peek to see what Santa had left under the tree.  Such self-restraint, he came to the table for breakfast.  Before opening presents, we sang happy birthday to Jesus (Nicolas’ idea – love his heart!).  Then, it was time for presents.  He must have been a very good boy all year because Santa even brought him special candy that he so desperately wanted from South Africa!  After presents, he played for a bit and then we all got ready to go to Auntie Beth and Uncle Ryan’s house.  He was so excited to see Sophia and Stella again and Stella greeted him at the door inviting him to their private dining room.  It was so cute!  They ran off to play while we caught up with family and friends.  When it came time to open gifts, Nicolas could hardly believe how many gifts were under the tree and how many were for him!  He, Sophia, and Stella had a ball opening all their gifts.  When they were done, you could barely see the floor!  We had dinner and then headed back to GR for our last party.  After dropping the dogs off at home, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa Longstreet’s house.  We ate and then opened gifts.  Again, Nicolas couldn’t believe how many gifts he got.  Sensory overload!!  He did so well on such an overwhelming day!  By the time we got home, it was after 10PM, so it was straight to bed for our tired guy.  Words don’t begin to describe how the look of joy on his face made us feel.  Thank you God.  He is amazing and so are You!

Our first Christmas together

Wednesday was our first shot of reality.  Enough loafing around, it’s time to get back to being adults.  Bummer!!!  Kevin went into work first thing in the morning.  Nicolas and I took Penelope to the vet before heading to work with me to meet my coworkers.  After he received way too much candy, I dropped him off at Grandma’s for the afternoon and I headed back to work.  He had a blast at Grandma’s watching the Polar Express with Grandma and Jules, playing ping pong and sledding.  He was in awe on our way home as we drove into his first snowfall!  He told me “Now this is what Christmas is supposed to look like!”  He and Dad had to take advantage of this fresh snow, so they went out to try out our hill A.K.A. our driveway. J  Our road is pretty quiet, so after scanning for cars, he zoomed down the driveway yelling “Merry Christmas to all!!”  A happy ending to another awesome day!

This morning, we all got around and headed to work in the morning and Nicolas spent the entire day with Grandma.  When I asked him if he wanted me to come for lunch or if he wanted to stay with Grandma, he chose Grandma.  While I wanted him to ask me to come for lunch, I love how quickly he has grown to love his grandparents.  J  He and Grandma did one of his favorite things – they got petrol (gas)!  He even got to help and I think it made his day.  He and Grandma also went on adventure in the woods and had sled races.  And all I got to do all day was work…… J 

As we start to try to get into some semblance of a routine, Kevin and I are realizing how little time it seems we have in a day.  We knew it would be this way, yet it is difficult.  Going from spending all day with him to feeling like all we do is eat and put him to bed is tough.  We’re all adjusting.  I still can’t believe how well he has handled all the changes, the chaos, the multitude of new introductions and parties.  He is a rockstar and we are the luckiest parents in the world.  J

Days 43, 44, and 45: Our Journey Home

As I sit here in long pants under blankets with a Penel to keep me warm, I realize that I am home - IN THE COLD!!! :)  It may be cold, but it feels good to be home.

Let's back track a couple days.....

Thursday/Friday:

Last day in South Africa!  We were very grateful we decided to start packing on Tuesday!  I thought we would have room to spare since one of our bags had been full of donations.  HA HA HA!!!  Kevin knew better.  We had 3 very full check bags, one of which weighed 65 pounds, and one of our carry-on bags had all of the documents in it and likely weighed almost as much as the others!!  All I can say is....6 weeks!  We loaded all our bags into our teeny car, said goodbye to Stefan and the pups and headed to Auntie Bev's house one last time.

Can you find Nicolas?

We spent some time chatting and saying our goodbyes.  We had so much fun with them - now it's their turn to visit!!!  Next, we had lunch with Pastor Grant (from New Creation) and his wife.  I must mention that lunch was fantastic and Nicolas even got to top it of with a chocolate shake!  What a great close to our trip!

We headed back to the Oasis office for our last goodbyes (seriously hate having to say goodbye!) and we left for the airport.  We had booked Nicolas' ticket, but he didn't have a seat assignment, so we weren't sure what to expect when we arrived.  God was with us and the agent that helped us was able to get him a seat with us on both flights!  Thank you Delta agent!!  I did have to run away two different times to the ticketing counter to pay for things, but all-in-all, it went pretty smoothly!  Immigration was next, a minor wait, but moved relatively quickly!  Security was also quite simple, especially in comparison to the US!

Ready to go!

Once we were through all that, we grabbed some dinner and waited for our flight.  Learning from the nausea we experienced on our flight to SA, we proactively took dramamine this time. :)  We had received a text from Delta saying our flight was going to take 2 hours longer than they had anticipated due to strong head winds, but once we got on the plane the flight tracker actually had us getting in early.  We all stayed up until dinner was served and then called it a night.  We slept considerably well and knocked several hours off our remaining time in the air.  At some point, they came by with snacks.  I would have had no idea!  At one point, I remember a flight attendant holding a glass of water out to me and I remember thinking "Who is that?  I didn't ask for a glass of water, did I?".  I held my hand out and then pulled it back without taking the water.  She must have thought I was nuts!  By the time we were all awake again, we only had 4-5 hours of the flight remaining.  We occupied our time with cat naps and movies.  We did experience some turbulence on this flight, but we were so thankful that we were able to rest well and get back safely!  Flight one: complete.  Let's get home!

Nicolas is officially an American Citizen!! :)

We passed through U.S. immigration and customs within 30 minutes.  We had heard it could be complicated and drawn out, but that was not the case for us.  Praise God!  Next stop, security.  It was in the security line that we encountered our first inquisitive bystander.  He asked all the normal questions - Did you adopt?  From where?  What language does he speak?  How old is he?  Is this your first child?  How long did the process take?  Let the questions begin!  We rode the train to our terminal and settled in at our gate.


Of course, the entire trip couldn't be so simple.  Sometime right before we should have been boarding our flight to Grand Rapids, they made an announcement that the aircraft needed maintenance and our flight would be delayed by one hour and twenty minutes.  Oooook.  We ate breakfast at 8:30 and lunch at 10:00. :)  That's what happens when your body has no idea what time it should be!  After the delay and a gate change, we were on a plane and headed for home!  Another first, the pilot came on the intercom and let everyone know that it was going to be a rough flight and that we would want to remain in our seats.  Buckle up!!!

Ultimately, it wasn't that bad.  After his precautionary message, I was expecting some trouble.  Thankfully, the turbulence was tolerable and it was only our descent into GR that gave me the heebie jeebies.  We were lucky in that Nicolas seemed to enjoy the turbulence like it was a rollercoaster. :)

Landing in GR, FINALLY!

Finally, HOME!!!  Feeling so absolutely unclean, we headed off the plane.  Our family will tell you we were the LAST ones to come through.  Even the pilots came out before us!  Sorry fam, potty pit stop!  We were very warmly greeted by a big group of friends and family as we came past security.  What an awesome homecoming!  Thank you so much to everyone who interrupted their day to come greet us!!  A few tears, lots of hugs, and an overwhelmingly awesome rush of the love that surrounds our family!  It was so nice to see them all in person!  Skype, while awesome and much appreciated, is just not the same.  Nicolas was an absolute rock star.  He walked into that crowd of people ready to hug and be hugged!  Any nerves that he had seemed to disappear almost immediately and he was smiling and chasing after Sophia and Stella.  It was such an awesome sight to finally see them together!

After chatting for a bit, we packed our truck and headed home.  After six weeks, you can imagine how weird your home looks.  I went in quick to let  the dogs out to avoid any accidental excited piddles.  While I did that, Nicolas went out to do what he has been waiting to do, throw a snowball!!

Are you ready for this?

We all went into the house together for the first time as a family.  Nicolas, of course, was most excited about the 'man cave', the game room, and his room. :) We were also so excited to discover that we had dinner (well dinners) groceries, and gift cards waiting for us!  Thank you to our family and our church for saving us from having to go to the grocery store when we were exhausted!!!  You guys rock!!!!   Nicolas played with his trucks for quite a while (they are the original, metal Tonka trucks that was Kevin's as a child.  Thanks Grandma Mar for keeping them all these years!) and of course had to have a snowball fight with Dad!

We sorted our mountain of laundry and started attacking it.  The time change began to wear on us after dinner and by 7:00, we were all feeling it.  By 7:30, we were all in bed for the night!

Saturday:

As you can imagine (since we went to bed in the middle of the day!), we all woke up earlier than normal.  But, our exhaustion kept us asleep through the night and for that we are thankful.  We got up and had breakfast and then kept picking away at cleaning up the tornado that came through our house yesterday!  While Nicolas got ready, I sorted through all the clothes that we needed to return and we decided to go to the mall (crazy, I know) so that he would have warm clothes and shoes that fit!  Since we went in the morning, it wasn't awful.  Plus, when you are used to how busy the malls are in Joburg - it just doesn't seem so bad! :)  Again, Nicolas was a trooper, and made it through all of our returns and exchanges.  We then went to Target to restock the basics and ran into Bob and Masha Hauch!  Were they stalking us??? :)

We went home to have lunch and then went out to Allendale to get our Christmas tree!  Man, when yo wait until the weekend before Christmas, you get the entire tree farm all to yourself! :)  We wandered a bit, staking several trees as the one before we found it.  We, of course, had to ride around in the sled for a bit!  When he had had enough of the cold, we cut down our tree and headed for home.  On the way home he asked, 'Mom, when are you going to show me Wendy?'.  LOL.....we had told him in SA about Wendy's and he wanted to see it!

We got home and set up the tree and started making dinner.  After a quick visit with some friends from church, we had dinner and then hopped in the car to go see the Christ Lights display.  The fact that it gets dark here so early is affecting all of us.  Nicolas was practically down for the count in the backseat by the time we got to the front of the line.  Thankfully, Mandy and Alexis came to the rescue with candy canes!  We came home, read a bedtime story, and that brings us to the present!

It's amazing that this journey has brought us here, a family of 3 for Christmas!  While we expected that to be the case a long time ago, God's timing is indeed perfect and we couldn't have planned it better ourselves!  As we begin to celebrate Christmas tomorrow, we are reminded of how blessed we are and that we are cared for by a truly AWESOME GOD!

Merry Christmas!!!

The Longstreets

Day 42: Our Farewell Dinner

The internet was down last night, so here's the update:

Today was our last full day in South Africa!  Thankfully, it was another sunny one!  Kevin woke up early this morning, but Nicolas and I slept until 9AM!!!  That tells you how worn out he was from last night because he has not slept past 7:30AM at all since we have been together!  We spent one last morning by the pool (and somehow Kevin and I both managed to get a little burned).  It wasn’t quite as warm this morning, so I think that is the reason we didn’t realize we were burning.

We came in and got ready and then stopped to grab lunch for the kids on the way to Auntie Bev’s house.  Nicolas stayed and played with Bev’s kids while Kevin and I had lunch with Bev and Sarinah.  We had a great lunch chatting about Nicolas’ past....funny stories and memories and such.  And….bonus!!!  Oasis received a new little one this morning only 3 days old!!  I got to love on him….so adorable!!  I wish we could bring him home as well!  We are so very thankful for the opportunity to know so much about Nicolas’ life up to now.  It will be priceless when he is older and is trying to put all the pieces together.

After lunch, stopped back at the office and said our goodbyes to Sarinah.  She is such an amazing person and we are so thankful for her!  Bless her heart, she has had to say goodbye to Nicolas, and will let 3 more go within the next week.  I can't imagine how hard that must be.  Please pray for her!

We went back to Bev’s house to hang out until dinner.  We watched a myth busters episode about surviving on a deserted island with duct tape.  I know now how to make a duct tape canoe – valuable life skill!!  Of course, since we are about to leave, we also had a minor incident with the monkey bars.  Nicolas caught his leg somehow and got two pretty good size gouges in the back of his calf.  Amazingly, he didn’t seem upset at all.  He let me clean it up and went on playing.

We went to Spur for dinner, but this one had a huge outdoor play area with trampolines, slides, and all kinds of fun things.  The kids played for hours and Nicolas was still bummed when we had to go home!  Since his birthday is so close, they brought him a birthday sundae and sang to him.  It was very fun!  They played a drum, sang, and put sparklers in his sundae.  Woo hoo!  After dinner, we headed home to get a good night’s rest to prepare for the big flight home!

Here is Nicolas when they were singing Happy Birthday to him.  He said "It's not my birthday!" :)

\

This was our waiter telling wishing him a great birthday and many more.

Ice cream!!!!!

Now that thew singing is over he looks a little happier!

Here's the crew!  

Starting front left and moving clockwise: Mary, Simone, Amy Rose, Me, Kevin, Johan, Bev, Nicolas, Kieran

Funny quotes of the night: 

From Bev: Speaking about a time when she picked up a South African bug called a Park Town Prawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn) and how she would have "shrieked" if she knew what it was.  I thought she said "I would have streaked!"  You can imagine the confused look on my face!

From Kieran (Bev’s son) – I'm pretty sure Kieran was talking about a past event, but it was funny!  “Monobrow alert!.  It was like a headband!  I kept waiting for her to take it off! 

From Simone (Bev’s daughter) This came from the same conversation with Kieran – “Aye aye eyebrows!”

Another great day!!  Now hopefully we all sleep well and we’ll be home before we know it!

See you Friday!!!

The Longstreets

Day 41: Happy Birthday Johan!

It's hard to believe that 6 weeks has gone by so quickly and that we will be leaving in 2 days!  Thankfully, God blessed us again today with another beautiful morning!  We hung out in bed for a bit playing games before we decided to start packing.  We thought it better to be proactive now than to be scrambling around on Thursday trying to remember all the stuff that has been in drawers for 6 weeks!   We then did homework, had lunch, and went in the pool.  Since we are running low on time in the sun, we are trying to soak it up as much as we can!!!

We got around mid-afternoon and went to Home Affairs one last time to pick up Nicolas' permanent South African passport.  There wasn't a line, so we were in and out in about 5 minutes.  Next, we headed to the store to pick up some essentials for coming home: mentos, gum, tic tacs, chocolate. :)  We also picked up oil for Nicolas hair and skin since it is about 1/4 the cost here that it is in the states.  After that, we headed over to Auntie Bev's house.  We hung out for a bit, ran to get dinner for the kids (who stayed with Uncle Johan's sister) and then we headed out for dinner to celebrate Johan's (Bev's husband) birthday.  We went to an awesome Indian restaurant.  Kevin has never eaten at an Indian restaurant and his only basis for comparison is Along Came Polly (of you haven't seen it, you must!), so I think he was nervous even though I told him it isn't like that. :)  The food was fantastic!!!  It was so much fun and they even sang happy birthday to Johan - which he loved....lol!!  Seriously love the Beukes family!!  We are going to miss them so much!

Bev and I with our foo foo girlie drinks! :)

After dinner, we went back to the house to check in on the kids.  They made gingerbread cookies while we were gone and they turned out great!  We had tea while the kids played a little longer and then  we headed home.  Only one more full day here....cannot believe it!

We will be home in........3 days!!!!  Bring on the snow!

The Longstreets

Day 40: Botanical Gardens and Flight Details

Woo hoo!!!  No rain today! :)  It was a warm and beautiful day!  We got up this morning, had breakfast, and went outside to play soccer.  We decided to do homework this morning since we knew we wouldn't be home tonight, and then we had some fruit and went swimming in the pool.  Nicolas enjoyed us throwing him into the pool and we also did some races.

We came in and the boys got ready while I made lunch.  Once we were all ready, we headed to Cresta to exchange money since our attempt on Saturday was unsuccessful.  About half way there, we were reminded by the radio that today is a public holiday.  Grrrrrrr.......forgot about that!  We were hoping the American Express currency exchange place might still be open, but it wasn't.  Ah well.....at this point we only have 3 days left, so we will wing it and use our credit card for purchases.

From there, we left to meet Auntie Beth and Donovan at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.  Beth and Donovan took us on a tour around the gardens.  The landscaping was beautiful!  The weather today definitely made up for the rain we have had.  The sun was shining and the clouds were like fluffy cotton balls in the sky.  Our first stop was at a huge waterfall:

And here's a family picture :)

We walked further into the gardens to the bird sanctuary.  As we were walking, we came across these beautiful butterflies.  The tips of their wings were clear! 

Next, we went into an bird-watching enclosure.  Such a beautiful view!!

We made a loop back around to the entrance.  On our way, we had to pass over a bridge where it appeared there was a modeling shoot going on.  Beth and I restrained ourselves from jumping in the picture. :)

Amazing!

We headed out for dinner at Nando's.  We had a delicious meal and great conversation.  We also had a great chat about shoveling and snow blowers.  Foreign concepts to people from the warmer regions (Beth is from southern California and Donovan is South African). :)

After dinner, we came back to the guest house and watched a movie before heading to bed.

After weather forecasts of rain through Thursday, we were so grateful to have the sunshine all day today.  We are praying that they weather will remain sunny for our last few days here.

4 days until we get home!!!  And it looks like we might be coming home to snow after all!!  Let's hope that it doesn't cause flight delays!!!

Here are our flight details:  Our flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta is scheduled to arrive at 6:00AM and the flight number is DL 201.  Our flight from Atlanta to Grand Rapids is scheduled to arrive at 11:20AM and our flight number is DL 2113.  

We can't wait to see everyone!!  Please feel free to come to the airport if you are able!  We will likely have a tough time adjusting back to the Eastern time zone, so we might be in hiding for a bit when we get home! :)

The Longstreets