A Visit from MOM!

MOM CAME TO VISIT ME! She got to experience so much in the short time she was with me. I think just telling you about the day she got her will help you understand what her visit was like. I went with another missionary to pick her up from the airport. I didn't want to overwhelm her with the reality of Africa before we even got her back...but that plan all changed. We ended up stopping on the side of the road to pick up some phone credit (we buy phone minutes from men who sell little cards with numbers that you type into your phone on the side of the road) and then we drove up to our local market to buy a fresh pineapple for dinner. So the first time mom set foot on African soil away from the airport was at a bustling market...so much for not overwhelming her. The I had a wonderful plan of showing her around the center her first afternoon...which turned into her following me around as I tracked down patients, assessed kids, gave out medications and the like.
Pretty much her visit continued like this. She was thrown directly into what my life is like. It is BUSY. It is FULL of needy kids. It is never the same one day to another. But I think she loved it and I loved having her here.
We did spend a few days in South Africa getting me a new visa and going on SAFARI! We stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast in Nelspruit for a few nights...it was absolutely gorgeous and we saw giraffes just walking in the reserve across the street!And, we even went on a walking safari. That is right we walked in a group of 10 with 2 safari guides with guns. Seriously we were in a field with 2 rhinos and were told to hide behind a bush so they didn't charge us!!!! Absolutely amazing. We also saw lions and tigers and bears...oh wait...not really...but we did see lions (a whole family, babies and all!!!), hyenas (with babies!), tons of elephants (with babies!!!), many many monkeys (with babies!)...are you seeing the theme? The park was FULL of babies this time. It was absolutely amazing!Mom can tell you quite the story about the HUGE giraffe that surprised her behind our car at one point!Other than that we saw everything we could have seen except water buffalo...so mom is 4 out of the Big 5. Maybe that means she will just have to come back to Africa?!
Ok...enough on the animals of Africa...now on to the kids my mom loved so much and I call my own!!! I think Antonio and Chelsia were her favorites. They both seemed to really warm up to her and LOVE to be held by her. Mom taught Antonio how to stack blocks (her pieces of a train...but whatever this is Africa). And she loved Chelsia through her cold/flu that knocked her out for most of the time mom was here.Mom also got to experience Children's Day here in Moz. Children's Day is almost as big as Christmas for our children. I will blog about this day later. But, here is one more photo of mom and I together getting ready to serve the plates of food for all the kids!Altogether it was a great visit. Mom helped a lot in the sewing room teaching the girls how to applique, smock, and shadow applique. She got to experience my day to day life, Children's Day, and South Africa. It was a jam packed few days, but I loved it!