coming home...

Today is our last full day in South Africa and we are sitting by a beautiful pool, sun beating down on us and listening to the cheering and music of the Comrade Ultra Marathon. They run 89km either uphill or downhill (each year it switches) and this year its downhill. We watched this morning for a bit as a family and got to watch the woman in the lead run by us in Westville. She came in second later on but it was still pretty great. It is so festive and so supportive which is pretty great to see! I don't think I could ever do the 89km race but it sure is inspiring! 

Mixed emotions come on a day like today. We have loved every single minute of our time here. We have loved our quiet moments as a family, getting to know another family during one of our B&B stays, having the ocean for 2 full weeks, seeing old friends and people we met last time, enjoying some of our favourite foods, places etc. The list could go on. YET, we are also so excited to come home. To start our life as a family of 4. To get into a new routine and figure life out together. Things will be similar to how we lived life when we brought Solomon home for the first little while but because we are coming home in the summer it will also look a little different. I just wanted to share with you a few things that we will be intentionally choosing to do in our parenting and even though it may not make sense its what we feel is best for our family. 

Once we are home we plan on taking some time for just our family. We may invite immediate family and some close friends when we feel our little girl is ready to come and play or meet us at a park. For quite some time we ask that you reframe from picking up our little girl. She is walking and quite independent but we do ask that you give her space as she is still continuing to figure out that we are her parents. We welcome high fives (if she wants) and waves but anything more we will let you know when she and we are ready. We will be meeting all her basic needs for the first while of feeding her, changing her, comforting her when needed, putting her to bed etc. Please understand that this is not because we don't want her to know and love all of you but because she needs to know who is who in her life and we need to set those boundaries for her. 
We may not go out a lot to places that are busy and will be reading her cues as to what she needs. We are still learning her and she is still learning us and thats what she needs right now. Once we know and feel that she is ready we can't wait for her to know and love all of you too! 

However, if you would like a chance to meet her we would welcome anyone who would like to meet and greet us at the airport on Wednesday, June 1 at 8:02 coming in on West Jet from Toronto. This will be a time for you to come and meet our little girl and to welcome home our Solomon (who is so ready to be home!)

Here are a few last pictures of our final few days in South Africa. See you back in Canada in just a few short sleeps!!!

 Hanging out on the promenade, running around, listening to the ocean and just enjoying each other. Beautiful evenings!

Gorgeous sunsets.

Our little fish. Solomon LOVES the water and little lady is a splashing queen!

Our last few days, hours, minutes on the beach. 

On our last full day at the beach Josh and Solomon took a boat tour out on the ocean. They saw dolphins and were drove right up to the big ships that hang out in the ocean waiting for their turn in the harbour. At any given time there are about 10-15 of these on the water for days, weeks and sometimes even months. At night they all light up and it is such a beautiful sight! (Without a tripod it was tricky to capture the beauty)

I can't believe our time to come home as arrived but we are very excited to get back onto Canadian soil and into our home! Here goes 48 hours of travelling! See you on the other side.

be blessed

shaeline

pictures + updates

So... I couldn't give you an update without some more great pictures of our family! Today was another day of hanging at the mall due to it being chilly and pretty cloudy out. We met up (by accident) with the family that we got to know while staying at Palmiet. It was so great to see them again!!! 

But yesterday we had a wonderful afternoon of perfect lighting and weather for some time to explore the grounds around our place and back to the beach for some wave fun! (And sitting almost in the sand fun...Ezri)

Bubbles and books!

 Two of her favourites!

She was also loving having mommy and daddy to herself 

while her brother was still napping :)

Exploring and having fun!

Everything goes in her mouth....everything!

 My boy. My beautiful, handsome boy.

Answer to prayer!!! I posted on Wednesday night that we were still waiting for our citizenship. Well the next day we got an email saying that citizenship had been granted!!! That afternoon a courier came to pick up our passport application to get it sent off and hopefully have a passport in our hands by FRIDAY, May 27! This means that we will be able to make our original flights home!!! ANSWER TO PRAYER!!!!

So.... With that...

We are so excited to welcome the newest, cutest, 

most curious, loveable, playful Canadian Citizen!!!

be blessed

shaeline

beach days & prayer requests

Just wanted to give you all a bit of an update. We have been staying at Cabanna Beach now for almost 5 days and loving every minute of it! So glad we are here for another 9! The beach is beautiful, hearing the waves is amazing and there is a wonderful warm kiddie pool that Solomon is LOVING! We can walk to get groceries and coffee. And if we take a short taxi ride we are up at the mall for a bit of shopping and change of scenery! It's a perfect place for our little family to have some amazing quiet time with still some independence. Here are a few snapshots from our last few days and then I will enter the prayer requests portion :)

This sums up our trips to the beach so far. Solomon and Daddy play while

Ezri and Mommy hang out on the blanket. 

She likes to do v-sits. I like my feet in the sand. :)

 I think someone likes the carrier (and likes to be outside).

She loves the view and he loves the sand/water.

One day we went for a walk down the promenade and onto the pier. The kids LOVED the end where you can watch the waves coming in and crashing on the rocks.

 Solomon also loved riding his motorbike on our adventure!

Time for a snack, giggles and a coffee.

Beach and Pool time. Solomon LOVES these moments.

Prayer Requests

1. Our citizenship paperwork has not come through yet. We need this paperwork to come through before we can apply for our passport and we are running out of business days for our passport to be completed by our departure date. Please pray for speedy paperwork and speedy processing so that we can make our original flight. Josh has a work conference a few days later back in Toronto and we really don't want to let him miss it! 

2. Continued prayer for our littles as they are figuring out this new life of having a sibling. They both have been doing tremendous but continued prayer can always help!

3. Ezri had a rash and with prayer and trial and error it is gone! Solomon is still complaining of his stomach being sore but is able to do everything he normally does. Just prayer that this will go away completely for him! Not sure if it might be anxiety, stress.... who knows! But prayer for him to feel better would be so great!

Thank you for your prayers, blessings and support as we have continued on our journey to bring home our sweet daughter. We can NOT wait for you all to meet her! I will be sending out a bit more info about that later on but we really are so excited to introduce our sweet girl to you!

be blessed

shaeline

a recap of the last few days...

The last few days have been quiet, enjoyable days. We spent Thursday with our friends at the stadium. We enjoyed the sky car, the Durban sharks shop (Durban rugby team) and then we found a wonderful play park for Solomon to enjoy! (And Ezri but Solomon was in his glory!) 

Any time there is a ramp Solomon runs to the top just to run to the bottom! 

Such joy!

Momma- "How excited are you for the sky car Solomon?"

Solomon- "This excited!"

My very tired little lady!

On the way up.

Family picture with an amazing view! 

Brother and sister. What an amazing big brother Solomon has been! We are blessed.

Daddy and his girl.

Fountains to play in! It was a beautiful day for this adventure!

We went home for lunch and LONG naps. Then when the kids woke up we decided we wanted to get out and walk around. We headed to the Pavilion Mall for late afternoon evening hang out. We did a bit of shopping and mostly wandered, let the kids explore, ate a cinnamon bun (Josh's craving) and just enjoyed being out. It was a bit of a late night but Ezri rocked it and fell asleep instantly when we got home! 

On Friday, Josh and Jon (the other couple who is bringing home their little boy) went to Home Affairs to tend to some more paperwork. While they were gone for the morning I enjoyed my littles. When Josh got home, Solomon of course asked Daddy to go swimming again!! So off they went! Ezri went to sleep and I got to capture the boys enjoying so much time together!

So thankful for a husband/daddy who loves to play with his kids! 

Solomon adores him and Ezri has him wrapped around her little finger :) 

Last night we had a dance party due to neighbours across the river and on top of the hill pumping some loud tunes. Our friends little guy woke up which was too bad and I was just praying that our littles wouldn't. It was so loud it sounded like we had music playing on our computer. 

SO....We enjoyed a quiet morning. We had some packing up to do so we stuck close to Palmiet. It's  a beautiful B&B that is tucked down in a rainforest type landscape. Its absolutely stunning! 

The incredible outdoor shower that I will miss! 

This afternoon we moved to our third home away from home. We are at Cabanna Beach in Umhlanga. This is like a little beach town a little ways outside of Durban. It's quaint, by the ocean, relaxing and we are excited to go exploring tomorrow with our littles. We stayed in this area last time but we were not as close to the ocean as we are now! More pictures to come but here is our view from our living room deck. We are so blessed and excited to enjoy our family time with this beautiful landscape. Our God is pretty amazing!

A few prayer requests:

1. Our paperwork was delayed at the beginning due to public holidays here in South Africa so we need to get our passport application in the mail by Wednesday at the latest to ensure that we will be on our planned flight home. Please say a prayer that our citizenship will come so soon!

2. Our little lady has developed a rash that we aren't sure what it is. She is coping well with Benadryl, calamine lotion and being naked!  But it would be nice to have it go away. 

3. Our little man has been complaining of his stomach hurting. Prayer for that to heal would be so great.

4. That our family will continue to form a strong bond with Ezri and Ezri with us. That she will feel safe, loved, attached and secure in our arms and in our family. 

Thank you for your love, thoughts, prayers and support. This journey is not one that can be done alone and we appreciate all of you! It truly does take a village to bring home our little lady and we are so thankful for the village that is surrounding us!