Knock Down, Drag Out

I've been in a whirlwind since getting back from Africa. I was in a fog for three straight days. On the fourth day, Aaron and I were wide awake at 5am for another three days. It was actually nice because we'd both get up together and have almost an hour of talk and tea time before he'd have to start getting ready for work or one of the kids would wake up. Since those days have passed, somehow I meandered back over toward the fog. So in light of that, I wanted to share a funny Walmart story that is totally unrelated, but hopefully you will get a kick out of it.
One day I decided I HAD to go to Walmart and since I had all four kids with me at home, I HAD to take them all. Mistake #1. I was obviously in the fog that day. I traveled over to the kids' clothes department and began looking for a size. The boys were running around and I figured that as long as no one was around, they weren't bothering anyone, so I let them go. Mistake #2. Mazie is at the age where she has decided she no longer wants to sit in the front part of the cart, she wants to stand inside of it. That day she didn't want to be in it at all. Her brothers must have looked enticing with all the running around they were doing. To let me know that she wanted out, she began squealing in a very high pitched tone. I was deep in thought trying to pick the perfect size and tired of the squealing, so I asked one of the boys to get her out of the cart. Big Mistake #3. After a few minutes of quiet, I hear a woman yell, "Hey!! Stop that!!!" I knew immediately my boys were the culprits. I looked her way and found one of my boys dragging Mazie down the isle by her feet, face down! He quickly picked her up and her poor little face was filthy dirty, her expression dazed and confused. The woman looked at me with shock and disapproval and all I could do was laugh. She rolled her eyes and walked off. I laughed the whole way home.
I'm sure every mother has had one or more of those days. I have found the best thing to do is laugh first, discipline later.

Our Last Two Days

The last two days of our trip we stayed at a resort in the Drakensburg Mountains to decompress (pictured below). It was absolutely beautiful. We went horseback riding in the mountains, I got a pedicure in their spa, and we ate like kings. The view was breathtaking.

Baboons!!

Today we went on a horse ride and came across a family of baboons!

The Gardens

We worked hard on the gardens today planting cabbage, beets, carrots, and spinach. The stick in my hand is their homemade shovel. It comes to a point at the end. You shove it down in the mud and it makes a perfect size hole. Pretty cool!

Another Preschool

Today we went to another preschool. These children are all orphans. It was the first time they had ever seen a white person in their lives. They were actually scared. Two of them cried and ran away when I went up to them but they warned up to us quickly.

GoGo Granny

These beautiful women are the older women of the village who take care of their grandchildren when their own children have passed away from AIDS. Some are taking care of eight young grandchildren at a time!

Dedicating the Gardens

We finished the garden and dedicated it to the Lord for a great harvest for the people.

The Gardens

Our primary work in SA is building gardens for the local people to feed the orphans and their families. The women here are strong and very hard workers.

South Africa

We are having a wonderful trip! We have very limited time and access to phones and the Internet. Here we are at a Christian Preschool Center for orphans. They have lost either one or both of their parents from AIDS and even some of them have AIDS themselves. They are so incredibly sweet.

Atlanta bound -> Africa destined!

After packing for each of our four children and myself this entire week, then dropping them off with their grandparents, we finally see our first sign of our missions trip to Africa with CERI!

Story Land

Today was our first MOPS playgroup of the summer at Story Land in City Park!!

Only 10 minutes after we were there it started pouring! All the moms spent the rest of the time chatting under cover.

The boys enjoyed running around in the rain!

She even got wet!