The last one has gone!

So today was the day.  The last of all the boxes was unpacked and put into place.  Last night, I used my mixer for the first time to make blueberry muffins, and it felt wonderful to bake again.  There are things we wish we would have packed had we known in July what we know now, but all in all, we're glad to have what we do (so what's a few packages of taco sauce?).  Em's room is the only one that's really set up (I still need to put a curtain rod in but I have the curtains).  The rocking chair, which Great Grampy made, is here and in great shape considering all the travels it's been through.  The other two missionary girls helped me unload Em's room and they were swooning and cooing over all Em's cloths (THANK YOU to all who contributed to that... I'm deeply in your debt!!!).  She's loving all the toys and stuffed animals that she can finally play with (rather than empty water bottles and people's kitchen utensils!) and we're having a great time letting her explore.  Todd is still adjusting to having to be away from the family for so long, but he's loving his position and the people in the office.  I've taken over cooking supper a few times and it hasn't gone too well (I didn't know that there's a difference between a pot roast cut of beef and corned beef- the looked the same, but you all got a good laugh and, now I know) so pray that I don't kill any of us, and pray that my cooking gets better fast!  

Not Dead...

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the planet, or fallen into the toilet, or worse... The crates arrived Tuesday mid-morning, so I have been busy trying to find places for things in our new home.  This has been especially difficult since we really don't have the furniture for everything, but I think we've found a livable solution.  Todd is busy at work.  Most days, he leaves at 7 am and gets home just after 5 pm (with the computer!).  That's been another reason for not having this updated... We only get about two hours in the evening to be together since Em goes to sleep so early and that time has become golden to us.  

     I've been getting questions about the house, so here's some answers: we live in a gated townhouse community with a small pool and basketball courts.  Todd plays basketball with the men on Sunday afternoons and another group gets together on Monday (or is it Tuesdays?) to watch NFL games.  There is another mom in the complex who has a four month old little girl, Fiona, and while the mom and I struggle with a bit of a language barrier, the few times the girls have been together, they seems to like each other just fine.  

The house came with couch, love-seat and chair.  Also a china hutch (because we all know that I have china to fill it!), buffet and square table that seats 8. Right now, the hutch is our bookshelf, the buffet is the medicine/bags/purses/exercise equipment storage, but we're fine with that.  There's a spiral staircase between the kitchen/dining room and the living room.  There's all this unusable space below, so we've created a fun little play-den for Em.  It works out great for when I have things to get done!  The upstairs has three bedrooms and Em finally has a real crib.  The house has two and a half bathrooms, to which I don't have enough towels and what-not to decorate (shopping!).  We love the house, we love the neighbors and the fact that the door stays open for the neighbor kids to wander through.  We're looking forward to planting a garden and have purchased a few trees for the backyard... God has blessed us greatly.  We wouldn't have been able to afford so nice a place in the States.

Introducing A New Member Of The Family

As the father in this growing family, it is my honor to introduce all of you to the newest member of our household: Javier.  

Now, he may not be as warm and cuddly as some of the other members in the Leslie family, but he's ours and we love him... especially for keeping the bugs away... at least the ones that are his size or smaller!  Javier was here to greet us when we moved in and welcomes us everytime we come home, who could ask for more!

Humbling

Today was a very humbling experience.  Todd has been going into the office since Monday (which for me feels like a week ago) and each day he comes back with stories of how much he'll be responsible for and how he feels so honored and terrified at the same time.  You know those times in your life where you feel totally unqualified for something, and yet you know that you're EXACTLY where God wants you to be?  It's like those commercials for that insurance company where someone is standing in a big red circle asking if you understand them, because that's exactly where they're at... we're there.  We couldn't be more grateful and thankful for where God has been taking us.  Our townhouse here is far better than anything we could have afforded in the States with me staying at home part-time.  We feel so lucky that we were able to pack crates of things for here... it makes us feel slightly guilty for each time we wish for something American (like foaming Bath and Body Works hand soap).  If a lack of Clorox and foaming soap is our biggest worries... I think it's safe to say that God has been incredibly good to us.  

The missionaries two doors up start school tomorrow.  If you think of them, Morgan is going into 4th grade and Mackenzie is going into 7th (the school year starts here in January).  Also, Em and I are still under the weather.  Not as bad as the last few days, but I start training tomorrow, so we'll be working and that's no fun.  Lastly, Todd leaves Friday morning to get the car.  The best deals we found are on the coast in Durban.  He'll fly down there and then drive the 6 hours or so back.  Pray for his safety, the car, and him trying to work a manuel on the other side of the road.  God has been so good and I can't wait to tell you all what else He's doing...  stay tuned! 

Prim and Proper

So, there are many things I'm having to get used to here in SA.  For example, the other day some one made a comment about a dummy in Em's general direction.  The flash of "I-know-you're-not-referring-to-my-kid" dissipated somewhat when I was informed that the 'dummy' was Em's pacifier.

  Oops. 

 I also had a hard time when people kept asking me about my 'pram'.  It wasn't until someone showed me the pictures of the strollers for sale, that I understood what in the world was going on.  We've been trying to figure out the kilometers/miles conversion as we purchase our used car and I have to tell you, when someone says its 20-something degrees, my first reaction is still to laugh.  Today, however, this language barrier became a serious stumbling block.  You see, Sunday, on our way to church, I started feeling achy and tired.  I told Todd that I didn't feel well, and by the time church was done, all I wanted was the couch (the bed is up the stairs, so that wasn't happening).  Then, Em started to get fussy.  When she woke up this morning with a 100.5 degree temp, I gave her Tylenol and waited for it to work.  When after a few hours, Em was still acting abnormal and her temp hadn't really come down, I called the pediatrician.  I informed the desk clerk that we'd just moved and that they'd been recommended to us.  We then informed her that Em had never seen the doc and then continued on sharing what was going on with Em.  After I told her the temperatures, she hastily, but calmly, asked, "Ma'am, was the thermometer in centigrade or Fahrenheit?"  Yet another blunder on the road to understanding English here... although, I doubt any kid could survive a temperature the same as that of boiling water, but I could be wrong!!!   ;)  Love and miss you all!

Storytime

So I realize that my first posting from here in SA wasn't as detailed as some of you would like. So I need to tell the whole story of how we got here and then update all of you on what's been going on. If you don't have much time, come back later.

Em and I flew out of Kansas City into Orlando and spent about two and a half days with Todd's folks. I use the term "with" to mean that I took over their living room, dining room, kitchen and guest bedroom. We had all of our things laid out and I meticulously packed recent purchases, Christmas gifts and the like. Todd, in all of his wonderful mercy, burst a few blood vessels hauling each bag no less than a dozen times to the scale so that each would be appropriately weighing the maximum weight of 50 lbs and never complained once. We also packed our maximum carry-on bags, and for those of you who know me, the four small bags were were allowed on with us (not to mention getting around the checked bag limit with her carseat) came to about 100 lbs. Todd teased me about this, until we arrived without the bags, and was very grateful for for my OCD about carry-on packing of extra everything we could need for a week.

Our departure was a fiasco (in true Nazarene fashion) with a caravan of cars at 3:30am for the Orlando airport. We made it through security with all those bags (which had liquids, baby food, laptop, digital camera's, and video camera... all of which needed their own grey tub at airport security) without any problems. We arrived at the gate, got on and then promptly sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes because of fog in Atlanta. That delay made our connection time of an hour shrink to (kid you not) 21 minutes. For those of you who have never been to Atlanta, thank the Lord above. The AC was broken and we had 100 lbs of carry-ons, the baby, and the car seat. To say we were a spectacle would be a GROSS understatement! But, we made the connection and the flight attendant checked the car seat straight through to SA so we wouldn't have to deal with it again.

We landed in Washington/Dulles with about five hours to spare. So, we ate, went to the restroom, and just puttered around until someone came up to the South African Air desk so that he could print our final boarding pass (they couldn't do it on Delta because it was a different airline... or something like that). The not-so-nice man at the desk then informed us that we (and all of our carry-ons, minus the carseat) would be required to go back through security to the front desk because we only had a one-way ticket (apparently, only terrorist and non-quality folks get one-way tickets- and we were in that group). So we figured, we hadn't had any issue in Orlando, this should be cake. We then walked the 1/3 mile underground to the main desk where we met another not-very-nice young man who gave us our boarding passes and informed us that the bassinet that we reserved for Em was no longer available and that she was over the weight limit anyways. Now, I had asked several times if there was a weight limit and was assured that my daughter would be fine. So needless to say, the thought of holding a 17 lb squirming child for 18 hours didn't thrill me, but what's one set back? Everything had gone so well so far. The man highlighted some things on our boarding passes and we went to security. Then, we found out that the highlighting was actually a security something and we got the STAR treatment. Each of us had our own personal security checker who frisked us (Todd, me AND Em) and then proceeded to open and undo all (literally, ALL) our checked bags. Each jar of baby food, which was specifically bought because of the individual plastic sealing) had to be opened and tested for drugs. Em was tested. Todd's underpants were tested. Each part of each of the cameras was tested... and on and on. Now Reap (Todd's guy) and McClure (my guy) took their jobs extremely seriously, so any of you out there who wonder about our national security, rest assured that Reap and McClure are on the job!

So we have all our 100 lbs laid out on the security tables, and low and behold, we're not drug traffickers or anything else they were looking for so I had the task of repacking all those bags. Surprisingly enough, Todd and I were joking and teasing through the whole thing. We found the ordeal rather amusing and then walked the extremely long walk back to the gate. There, we again went into the restroom and discovered that our daughter loves all forms of water in every type of dispenser, so we let her play until the water started getting hot.



We then loaded onto the plane and all was basically well. There was a good tailwind and we arrived into town much sooner than we were supposed to. The bags didn't arrive, but the hassle with the carry-ons made me feel more than slightly vindicated. Customs was a breeze (we only had a few small bags!) and the airline supplied us with money for purchasing items for the days our bags were gone. They have since arrived and are in the process of being unpacked. The crate should be here by the end of next week and I'm looking forward to going to the Mr. Price Home (think Ikea/Target/Pier One and you have my new-found sanctuary... there's something about clean stores that are well lit with pretty things to look at that just makes you breath more deeply). We are loving the house and are meeting lots of neighbors. This community seems wonderful and the missionary kids (MKs) who are two doors up are already big sister/cousins for Em, and she loves the attention. She got back on her regular sleep schedule two nights ago and Todd and I are so thankful for that. I don't know how anyone is able to function when their kids don't sleep through the night... maybe I just won't have a next one, just in case... ;) Anyways, as soon as the computer gets Microsoft Office, I'll be sending out a newsletter with everything, but for now, here are a few pictures of Em's favorite new toy- the wrapping on the gift basket when we arrived, and her first bath here.

We made it... Sort of!

No pictures on this one, but that's only because I can't find anything, let alone the cord to download pictures off the camera I can't find.  We made the flight and arrived safely... our checked bags and Em's car seat... that's another story.  Hopefully they'll make it on the next flight down.  Good thing I always pack a TON in my carry-ons (thanks Dad for hating checked luggage so much!).  Anyways, we had the basics for a few days with us and the house it great.  Tomorrow's adventure?  The Super Pick-N-Pack!  Yeah for groceries!!!