10 weeks in

-

When we came to South Africa in 2008, we were here for 10 weeks and then went home. We spent the next several months plotting and planning different ways to come back here. After many months of trying to get back, we both felt like God was telling us we had to just stay put. Then out of nowhere, the opportunity came up for us to partner in a petrol station. We both felt like this was the door God had been waiting to open for us, so we said yes and began planning our move to South Africa. Now here we are, 10 weeks into our new life. It is kind of nice to have lived here longer than we “vacationed” here in 2008. 

We started our 3rd week of home school on Monday and so far we are having a good week. Tyson is busy working on another report for your reading pleasure and he and Darin have been spending some time working through his math workbook. Too much time, according to Tyson J He has also been reading everyday and we are so glad he still loves to read. Yesterday during “recess” we found out that Tyson is very good at estimating! We’d ask the kids a question like “How many jumps will it take you to get to that tree?” and Tyson was usually within 2 or 3 of the correct answer. Estimating is a skill Jori still needs to work on, but she tries her best. She has already dictated another adventure of Princess Charity to me, so that will be coming out soon. I have decided to slow things down even more with her. Yesterday we spent a lot of time on the letter ‘a’. She practiced writing lower case a’s, we did a workbook that focused on the short a sound, and we read a book that had a lot of short a sounds in it. We also practiced writing the lower case b. She often gets the lower case b and d confused in both writing and reading, so any advice would be appreciated!
We recently made the decision to stay out here in the Hammanskraal area for another year and are so thankful that we can stay in the house we are currently renting for that time. It feels good to have made a decision about where to live. Darin and I both feel like there are many opportunities for us to serve out here among people we already know. We are excited to see what this next year brings. We still have no word on when the petrol station will start being built, although we are hopeful we will hear something very soon. I think that is probably the same thing I said 10 weeks ago when we arrived J We know that God has every area of our lives in His control and are working to not allow fear, anxiety and frustration to take over. This time that we’ve had together as a family has been wonderful and while we are eager for Darin to begin working and bringing home the bacon, we know that God’s way is best and we are learning to trust Him more each day as we see Him at work in our lives. 

We have been getting more involved in the church we’ve been attending. We belong to a cell group, which meets every Wednesday night for dinner and Bible study. The kids come along and love having a chance to play with their friends for a few hours. We will be going to a church retreat the second weekend of September and are excited for that as well. Tyson and Jori had their first sleepovers this past weekend. We had Tyson’s friend Caden over at our house and Jori spent the night with his sister Haley. What fun to have a family with kids the same ages as our own! 

God is good and we are thankful that He has brought us this far and trust Him to continue to carry us through.

Comments

retha said…
Good that things are going so well.
August 24, 2011 at 2:17 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connection and Community

-
Image
When we had made the decision to uproot our lives in the US and move to South Africa, I was so hungry for information about what living in South Africa would look like. We had been to South Africa several times as a couple, Darin had come on work trips, and we had spent 10 weeks here with our children. We knew some people, had been into various shops, and had a familiarity with the sounds of English being spoken with a variety of accents. However, there is a big difference between leaving home to visit a place for a few weeks or months and entirely uprooting your life in one place to start over in another. What were the schools like, would I have access to familiar ingredients to cook with, what about healthcare?  I scoured the internet to find stories about living in South Africa and found a few women who were more than happy to answer my questions, however random and weird they were. There was Annie, an American living in Pretoria, whose entire blog I read in one day and when Darin c
Read more

Family Fun Friday

-
Image
We have almost reached the end of the winter holiday. Tyson and Jori go back to school on Wednesday. We have some fun activities planned for the next few days, but we will also be cleaning bedrooms and setting out uniforms and lunch boxes. Let the school fun begin! Overall, it has been a fun holiday. Tyson and Jori have both had school friends over to play, we've made it to church twice, we've been out for pizza, had donuts, did some baking, and more. Friday, however, was probably the highlight of the school holidays for us. The day started with Jori losing her first tooth! Our baby girl is growing up. We had a few errands to run and took the kids with us. While Darin was busy at Cashbuild ordering supplies for an upcoming building project at TYB, Tyson, Jori and I went to Pick N Pay and King Pie for a little treat. We shared with Darin, of course. We spent a few hours at home, then headed out at 3 for our big adventure. We drove slowly and took a mini game drive on
Read more

More thoughts on motivation

-
When I look back at the decision making process that Darin and I went through, the process which has now brought us so close to a departure date, I have little doubt that Darin felt a call and responded to this call. Yet, when I go back over the different thought processes I went through to get us to this point, I realize that it has been all about me, which might explain why I am now suffering from some "buyer's remorse". It's not that my motivations for moving were necessarily wrong in themselves-I hope that Darin and I will be closer as a couple, I hope that our family will be closer and will do more together, I hope that Tyson will thrive in this new environment, I hope that our family will be able to reach out and help those that we come into contact with, I hope that Darin will be home more often and able to be a bigger part of our family life. Yet as we get closer, these hopes seem to be such small reasons to go. It's not like moving to a new country is goi
Read more