so we went to namibia over easter.  i hadn't been anywhere since landing here november 5th.  which i am pretty sure is a record for me of not packing a suitcase.  that's over 5 months of not going anywhere...anywhere!  i was ready!

the carry on situation at airports is really irritating me.  your things are not safe in the johannesburg airport, so we do our best to avoid checking luggage at all costs.  our carry ons were big.  our carry ons were heavy.  our carry ons were not within code.  we continued to carry on.

from durban to jo'burg it was smooth sailing.  unfortunately, liv lost her school scissors at security in jo'burg on our way to swakopmund.  bummer.  why did you have scissors in your bag, liv?  weird.

swakopmund was fantastic.  apparently germans settled there at some point and their language and food choices remained.  i'm down with that.  i could eat my weight in spaetzle.  i may have eaten my weight in spaetzle.  pretty sure i ate my weight in spaetzle.

we are on the opposite side of the continent of africa here in durban.  we get the sunrise.  which is great and all...if you're awake for that.  namibia is on the other side so they get the sunset.  it's fantastic.  and i'm usually awake for that.

we went in a couple of days early for some urban tribes related stuff, but we had some time to do the things people do in swakopmund.  we went for a quad ride.

this was nerve racking for me because a certain member of my family tells me every time i speak with them about someone they know being injured on a quad.  so then i naturally let griffin, who has only ridden once or twice by himself on such a vehicle,  take off as the primary driver.  😳

my prayer life was kicking while we were in swakopmund.

then we went sand boarding.  i didn't bring my camera, which turned out to be a wise decision.  because then i would have had to carry it up the sand dune.  and the weight of the camera would have been enough to make me just drop, tuck and roll back down the dune.  it's safe to say that in my opinion, the physical exertion was not worth the "fun" of sand boarding down.  i'm grateful for the experience.  i am also too old for said experience.  which is weird because randy and i are the same age and he seemed to do fine.  it is possible i'm just out of shape.  either way, my prayer life was once again strengthened as i begged God to help me get up that dang dune.  everyone else did fine.  and then they gave us a sandwich.  that was nice.  i was hungry from my one trip up the sand mountain.

so then we flew from swakopmund to windhoek.  olivia lost her lotion in security there.  who brings their full size lotion in a carry on?  weird.

windhoek was lovely.  i promise you, we met the coolest seasoned missionary there.  he had so many great stories, and he was a heck of a driver, too!  apparently he had been driving since he was 8 years old, and honestly, you could tell.  our whole family loved meeting him and his wife.  griffin is still talking about uncle jim peterson.  (missionary kids call other missionaries uncle and aunt) this guy was great.  i hope we see him again sometime.

randy preached a couple of services for an easter conference they were having there in windhoek.  the kids and i went on youth night.  it was totally fantastic.  the youth had prepared raps, dances and songs.  the people of namibia were wonderful.  it was such an honor to be there.

we went from windhoek to johannsburg.  i got my fingernail scissors taken at security.  basically, we tried to take things in carry ons that we weren't suppose to take.  we gambled, and we pretty much lost everything.  don't gamble, friends.  it causes nothing but loss.

a special thank you goes out to another awesome missionary, lance hines.  he was our host for most of our journey, and he had the unfortunate experience of waiting for us at every security point while our bags were being dug through.  sorry.  that said, you were so kind and helpful as we traveled around...we can be kind of a handful.

as a side note, the kids all tried fresh oysters.  and now no one ever has to do that again.

and that was our easter trip to namibia.

6 months in....

Thursday will mark our having left the States 6 months ago.  In some ways it has completely flown by, and in other ways, it feels like I haven't seen the good ole U.S. of A and all the people in it in a very long time.

We are doing well.  The first month was incredibly busy with trying to find a house to live in and a school for Olivia.  We had some idea of where we wanted her to go, but it was the end of the school year here and it was tricky getting her tested and all the necessary paper work filled out and turned in.  

We found a house and signed the lease a week before we had to get out of our holiday apartment we had rented for our first month here.  The timing (this time) worked out perfect.  Our crate we had shipped from the States came in about 10 days after we moved in, and our belongings from Swaziland arrived 2 days before Christmas.  The timing was not exactly perfect on that, but it was better than not having them at all.  Hudson was able to come visit for Christmas, so he had the pleasure of helping us unload all of our Swaziland things...he loved that.   He is so lucky.  :)

We had a nice Christmas, but Randy had to go back to the States a couple of days later for World Mission's Summit.  Hudson stayed until January 8th.  That morning we took him to the airport and off he went...ripping my heart out as he walked away front the car.  Griffin and I had a sob fest in which he (I already knew), discovered that it is indeed possible to cry so much that you have no tears left to cry.   So then I cried some more because my 8 year old had this realization....because of experience.  It was probably the lowest of the lows since moving to South Africa.  Fortunately, there haven't been all that many lows.

Olivia started school in January, and she has flourished.  We could not be more proud of how she has handled her new chapter of life.  This school system is different.  Very different!  She went from a relaxed homeschool environment to a school that cares how your socks are rolled and what color your hair band is.  The details they are concerned with here are beyond our comprehension...but she smiles and goes forward.   She is very happy with her new life and so we are happy for her.

I don't know that I have always been an introvert, but the older I get the more it seems to be the case. I could stay home all day, every day.  I'm quite content to roam about my home cooking, cleaning, homeschooling and chatting with my husband and kids.  But even I realized around month 3 1/2, I needed some friends.  😳  Olivia was in school, Griffin and Ella were each taking music and art lessons...we had set up life! The schedule was going well and everyone seemed to be adjusting.  Praise the Lord!  Now it was time for me to get out there create a band of friends/sisters to live life with.  A community of women that have my back and I have theirs.  It isn't easy to start that process over again.  And for me, it is starting it over again after having started it over again already.  I wish I could see another mom outside playing and be like, "Hey, my name is dezra, do you want to be friends?"  That's the way Griffin and Ella do it! 😊   Unfortunately, it takes a little more time as we get older.  Also, I feel like I need more out of a relationship than just being the same age and gender...so there's that. 😊  The good news is, I have started to meet people and I can feel life getting going like it is supposed to.  

We will celebrate our 6 month anniversary here in South Africa with a Cinco De Mayo party at our house.   Because everyone should celebrate that.  And tacos bring people together.

Thank you to all of you who pray for us.  God is so good and He has been so faithful to us on this journey.  We pray blessings on you our friends, our family, our supporters.  We feel so blessed to have all of you in our lives, cheering us on.  We know that we could not have made it the last 6 months without prayers from all of you!  We can feel them!  We love you all!