An amazing man, husband and father...

My husband, Josh, has truly stepped into the role of fatherhood. He has been such a blessing to me since I have known him and now our son gets to be blessed by this amazing man, his dad. I can't even describe how amazing Josh is with Solomon. 

Solomon LOVES to play with dada and even is starting to wrestle a bit. He loves to go for walks with dad, tell dad so many stories and in the end he copies his dad in any way possible. I haven't managed to get a picture yet but Josh taught Solomon how to wink which is SO cute! 

Josh has truly stepped into fatherhood like no other! He has changed 3 dirty diapers (impressive I say :)), loves to bath Solomon, he takes Solomon after breakfast so I can finish eating my breakfast and he just loves to be with his son! 

Since we have become parents Josh has always brushed Solomon's teeth and already that is something that Solomon loves to have his daddy do! 
I am so lucky to watch how my husband is connecting with my son. I have 2 guys in my family now that love each other and love me! I am so blessed to have this in my life and I thank God each day!

The first day we met our Son- instant connection!

Playing at Hope House!

First time touching the ocean! Not a huge fan yet but we are slowly working on it!

Birds- He looks for them whenever he hears them!

Fun on the bed with daddy!

My two boys.

God has blessed me with my husband who is an incredible father and my beautiful son who makes me smile constantly!
Be Blessed...

A picture update..

Just as I promised here are some pictures of our last few days. 

On Sunday we headed to Mitchell Park which had a zoo type place. We saw birds and monkeys! Solomon even fed some birds with daddy's help. He was mesmerized by all of them!

Family picture at the entrance. What a beautiful park!

The next morning we had to say goodbye to our first home away from home. Thank you to our amazing host at Heaton Cottage who helped us feel so at home! She was so helpful an always helped us in any way possible! She also loved on Solomon and he loved her! We miss her already!

We slowly got settled into our next home away from home at Kingston House! The hosts here are also amazing!! So blessed to be so taken care of!

 We took advantage of meeting up with some friends on Monday evening who were leaving the next day for home! We had a fun evening at supper and then a hang out on Tuesday morning before their flight. We miss you guys already but are so glad for you to be home safe and sound!

Then came our beach days! The weather was perfect and Solomon LOVES to play in the sand. Slowly he is warming up to the ocean! The first day it was just us and one other family and then today we enjoyed the beach with three other wonderful families! We feel so blessed to be surrounded by other families who are experiencing a similar experience!

My toes have seen better days :)

Wiped out from all that sand playing :)

Solomon and 3 other precious children! So great to have families around

to experience all of this with! Such an amazing support!

SO BIG

I can not imagine life without Solomon! He is a joy to us and continues to learn to laugh, smile and love more often! He is one special little man and is so loved by not only us but so many on the other side of the world! We feel so blessed to experience what we are experiencing and also continue to feel so supported by all of your words, thoughts and love! Thank you!

We are also continuing to fundraise to help bring this little man home! If you feel led to support us in this way you can either hit the donate button on this blog OR head to www.waslost.org to do a bit of shopping while supporting us financially! 

Thank you for your continued prayers and love being sent this way! 

Be blessed...

Love the Strombergs

Home away from home...

It is night 2 at our second home away from home! It's beautiful, spacious and close to the beach! Today we also said goodbye to some friends we met while in South Africa who were heading home to Canada! It is sad to say goodbye but so very excited for them to get home!

We enjoyed a meal out tonight at a wonderful pizza restaurant and our son did AMAZING tonight. We haven't had such a great supper out yet but tonight he was so awesome!! He laughed, smiled and learnt how to tickle. We also caught him walking on his own. He stood by himself and walked about 20 steps!!! We caught a shorter one on video but it's coming. He was so excited and his giggle is amazing when he gets excited!

We are continuing to wait for our citizenship paperwork to be processed, approved and sent back to us. Please pray that it will come this week as we need to send in our last set of paperwork by Monday if our timeline will stay the way it is.

Thanks to everyone for your support, prayers and love. You are all so amazing and our family is so thankful for each and every one of you!

Pictures will follow.
Be blessed...

Adventures in South Africa

This week was our first week of outings as a family of 3! We have had so much fun getting out and enjoying and learning about Durban. Experiencing new things and capturing moments that we will always remember! 

On Monday we went to Ushaka (which I shared about in the previous post). A great beach and marine world experience!
On Tuesday we hung out closer to home, enjoyed a good long nap and tried to enjoy the pool but it was a little bit too cold :).
On Wednesday we went to Phezulu. This is a show that demonstrates a wedding in a zulu village and then we learned about some of the ways that Zulu people lived/live. It was a great show of drumming, dancing and history! We also walked through a crocodile and snake area that Josh enjoyed very much. Me, not as much. Snakes are just not so great for me :). Josh was able to hold a 100lb python with a friend of ours and he was in his glory! 
On Thursday we visited the Hope House for the foster moms to be able to see Solomon again. Then we came back and hung low for the rest of the day!
On Friday we went to a shopping market and had a GREAT lunch at a fantastic restaurant! 
Today we had a new adventure of driving! This morning we rented a car and made it to a mall where we met up with some friends for the day! We ate, shopped, walked and enjoyed some ice cream! 

Both of my boys are sleeping and I am on my way too! We are off to a new church tomorrow and look forward to experiencing worship in a new community! But I wanted to share some pictures from our adventures this week!

The amazing dancers from the Zulu village.

 The most amazing view from Phezulu! Gorgeous valley

--we were told on a clear day its even more beautiful!

One of the most amazing restaurants we have eaten at so far.

There are stairs all the way up the middle and the tables to sit at are on platforms on either side. Pretty cool!

A beautiful boy by the beautiful ocean!

A great day at Umhlanga Rocks! 

We stopped at the mall and then went to walk the boardwalk by the ocean!

I love my family pictures!! 

Time for me to head to bed now! Thanks for reading and we wish you a great weekend from South Africa!

Be Blessed...

Happy Thanksgiving from South Africa!!

Happy "belated" Thanksgiving! We searched many stores and ended up finding 2 small turkeys and we were able to make a version of thanksgiving supper (many ingredients were altered :)) with 5 Canadian families and our South African hosts! It was a wonderful evening! 

First off though, on Sunday we were able to skype with both sets of grandparents to Solomon so that was super amazing! He was happy and showed off a little too :) So thankful for technology!! 

We look forward to skyping with other family too!

On Thanksgiving monday we spent our time at Ushaka Beach and Marine world. It was a fantastic day and so good to get out and see something different with our son! Solomon didn't love the water but could have played in the sand for hours! At the marine world he loved the different fish and animals in marine world and even took in a seal show and a dolphin show. 

Here are a few pictures for you to tag along with us on our adventures...

Ushaka Beach

Digging in the sand--not so sure of the waves but LOVES the sand! 

Ushaka beach--if you look REALLY careful you could see the soccer stadium!

FAMILY OF 3!!!

Where's Solomon? Peek!

Wrestling with daddy! He was loving this and just giggling like crazy!

I even got a great video!

Thanks for tagging along with us on our adventures!

Be Blessed...

So much to be thankful for.

We have been in Durban for 11 days now and are absolutely loving being parents and getting to know our son.

Solomon has been sick since earlier this week and today he finally started drinking liquids for us, had a wonderful nap and even went down for bed quite well today. I am hoping for a better sleep for him so he can get over this virus. He is full of giggles, loves to play with ANY type of ball and loves to splash and make waves in any water. There is a pool where we are staying and once he is in (it is as cold as a northern SK lake) he loves it! 

We are in such a good place right now and are so thankful for so many things:

~ Thankful for OUR SON!!! He is the most amazing little boy and we are so in love!

~Thankful for my wonderful husband who is on this amazing adventure with me!

~Thankful for some amazing families that are here right now as well!

~Thankful for my family and friends back home that are so supportive!

~ Thankful for my new niece that was born just last night! I can not wait to meet her!

~ Thankful for all of my other nieces and nephews that bring smiles to my face when I see pictures of them or hear about them!

~ Thankful for our wonderful host at Heaton Cottage who is so wonderful!

~ Thankful for our God who through the thick and thin has always carried us right through! 

~ Thankful for my family of 3!

(The last picture wouldn't load--it was our first official family picture. Will try again tomorrow)

Be Blessed on this thanksgiving weekend! 

So much to be thankful for!

It's official!!!!!

We OFFICIALLY have a son! The legal stuff is being processed as we speak and we will start on citizenship and passport paperwork early next week!
It feels so real when we got to put him to bed HERE with us!!! And in the morning I woke up to his smiles and cuddles! He really is a mamma's boy right now! We swam in the pool for about an hour, he had a nap earlier this morning and is napping at the moment...well trying to :) Being sick makes it tricky. 
Anyways, here are two pictures from our first time with him where we are staying! It was a wonderful visit! And now he no longer visits--he is our little boy!!!

He loves to go for walks with daddy! 

He also LOVES to play with any kind of ball--his favorite we have found is a tennis ball! Good thing where we are staying there are tennis courts with many tennis balls!

Welcome to the new journey of becoming and learning how to be a family of 3! 

Be Blessed...

Join us in prayer...

Will update more tomorrow but please join us in prayer for 2 reasons:

1. Our son came down with quite the fever tonight! Please pray that he will feel better by tomorrow and that his fever will break! So hard to keep a little guy cool when it's +29 celsius.
2. Our court date is TOMORROW!! (October 10). Please join us in prayer that it goes smoothly and all can be finalized! 

Thank you for your prayers, support and love! Amazing!
Be Blessed...

Our travels thus far...

So, I woke up this morning realizing that I can share pictures of our adventure of getting here and what we have experienced here so far but just none of our son quite yet. SO... I apologize for the not as great of quality but let me share with you our adventure beginning on September 29, 2013...

The eve of our departure...what a packing feat!!!

Right before we are ready to check our luggage in just a few hours early :)

But we then got to enjoy breakfast with some amazing people! So worth the early drop off!

Some amazing family and friends that came out to send us off! I know there are more that would have loved to be there and we missed you but knew you were praying for us! 

Our night layover in New York. We got to our hotel around 11:00 and decided that we wanted to go see Time Square. So we hopped on the subway and made it to time square by 1:30am. We then proceeded to eat supper at a Five guys (no pizza place open at 1:30 am) and then took a taxi back to our hotel and was home by about 3:00am. We then had to wake up and be at the airport by 8:00am at the latest. A whirlwind sight visit but definitely worth the sight! 

Our HUGE airplane from New York to Dubai. There were 2 stair cases in the plane and we really wanted to go up but it had a leather strap blocking the entrance of us "commoners" :) It was a wonderful flight and another amazing experience.

Welcome to the airport that felt like a shopping mall! It was such a busy happening place that we so didn't feel like we were in a airport. So many people of all sorts and this was only in one area of the airport We also experienced a "squatting toilet". This is literally a hole in the stall where you squat and then there is a hose to wash everything down when you are finished. I opted out of that and chose to wait for a normal toilet :)

There were also lounge chairs that lined the gates for people to relax on. It felt like there should have been a pool nearby :)

Finally made it to the birth place of our son! The first picture is of Heaton Cottage which is amazing!!!! The owner is so wonderful and we feel so spoiled here with her and the other 2 families that are staying here as well! 

The second picture is of the massive stadium where the World Cup was held and the day we went there was a market which was so fun! It was our first outing as parents and Solomon did incredible! What a beautiful sight as we got to shop outside in the sunshine!

Well so far, this has been the exciting pieces of our journey. We can't wait to share more pictures so very soon! 

An update on our son: He has begun to reach towards Josh and I for a variety of reasons. He responded to his name Solomon 3 times today!!!!! He says mama, dada, please, ya, tree, honk honk, Solomon, I love you, hautie dau (sp? a South African bird) and vroom vroom. He LOVES bath time we are learning, as soon as he gets in the water everyone involved in bath time gets soaked! Water in general he enjoys. We were outside for the majority of the day today and he got soaked as he found every puddle possible. :) He also loves to be chased and tickled! He will crawl away, look back, giggle and then do some slow motion crawls until we get him! I love his giggle!

Only 2 more days until court day! We are so excited to have him forever and still feels a little bit surreal that he is ours! But its coming soon and we couldn't be more thrilled! Can't wait to share pictures of our son with all of you!

I hope you all feel blessed in one way or another today! God has been showering blessings on us in so many ways since we arrived! It has been amazing to watch God go before us and show us the way! Continuing to lean on him and trust totally in his plan! 

Be Blessed..

~shaeline~

Many firsts...

Some new words that Josh and I have learned while being in South Africa--it almost feels like we are learning to speak again :)

Robots = Traffic Lights

Hoot Hoot = Honk Honk

Geezer = Hot Water Tank

Boot = Trunk

Dummie = Soother

Pram = Stroller

These are just a few words that we have been learning as we adjust to the wonderful South African hospitality and country!

Today was a wonderful day with our son! We had a great morning at Hope House hanging out with him and his friends! We also had a birthday party this morning for a wonderful 7 year old who is a big sister to one of Solomon's friends! They are here at Heaton with us and are such an amazing family! We look forward to getting to know them and another family more and more over the years! 

After Solomon's LONG nap, we woke him up and brought him back to Heaton for the afternoon. We played, had snacks, played some more, had supper, gave him a bath and took him back to Hope House for sleep time! He giggled more than we had heard the last few days, used words that we knew he had just never used and smiled and reached for us more often throughout the afternoon! 

We did find out that Solomon's feet are actually a size bigger than we thought. Apparently the size 4 shoes here are size 5 in Canada. We also haven't tried his clothes on yet but with his giant thighs we aren't so sure his pants will fit but we will try tomorrow!!! But shopping will begin for new shoes, bibs, wash clothes, some clothes, and sippy cups! 

Tomorrow is a full day with bringing Solomon back to Heaton first thing in the morning until bed time! It's our first day being parents full time!! We are so excited but also expect to be tired in the evening :) 

Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts as we continue on our journey to become parents to a beautiful little boy!

Be Blessed.

Shaeline

The day has finally come....

The day finally came today that we got to meet our son in flesh for the first time!!!! Amazing can't even begin to describe the feelings and emotions that were going on as we walked up to the door and saw him being walked towards us! He took his first steps today and even though we didn't see it hearing that it was today made it feel like we were there! (Thanking God that he waited until we were in the same city!!) Today was full of grunts, giggles, smiles, even some whining, and kisses! Josh got a few kisses and I got many snuggles! We hung out on the swing singing twinkle twinkle for the longest time! He loves music, dancing and any type of ball! 

We have also met two other families who's children are from the same home as Solomon and they both live in Manitoba! How wonderful is that! One of the families even comes to Warman to visit family often, so we will definitely be having play dates! How amazing is God! Two of Solomon's friends have forever homes not too far!

We so look forward to sharing pictures and more details but this will all have to wait until after our court date! Up until then stay tuned for exciting moments, milestones and adventures as first time parents! :) 
Thanks to those of you who are praying for us, thinking of us and praising WITH us! God is so good!

Be Blessed!
Shaeline