Africa: Week 10

Well, it's only Tuesday, but I've got internet access, so I am going for it. Flexibility and patience must be at the top of the list of things one is bound to grow in here in Mozambique. For instance, the airline here is called "LAM" and is jokingly referred to as "Late And Maybe." Today the water is not running again, and it's alright. Thankfully, I packed an entire carry-on full of anti-bacterial wet ones. And if you go to a restaurant, you will wait an hour for your food and another hour for your bill. But it's okay. It's Africa. We've learned that Africa has an event-oriented culture, rather than a time-oriented one like ours. A couple of Heidi's favorite topics to teach about are 1) Stopping for the one-loving the person in front of you and 2) Not being in a hurry. It's pretty convicting for me. I am pretty chop-chop and goal-oriented much of the time. Except when we have people over for dinner. Then I lose track of time and dishes to be done and I just enjoy being in the moment. It's magical and I miss those times.

One of the sweetest things happened over the weekend. We were eating dinner in the cafeteria and it was dark outside, and I heard several kids from the baby house (about 50 feet away) shouting "Katarina! Katarina!" That is what they call me here, since "Kate" is hard for them to say. I must glow in the dark or something--I don't know. Those kids just melt my heart. They are what I will miss the most when we leave this place. And it's funny, but when thinking about adoption, I have sometimes thought, "I hope we like the baby we're matched with." Or even worse, "I hope she's cute." "And healthy and perfect." Just being honest :) But, we've been encouraged, because we would honestly be thrilled to take any one of these babies home. Only one, mind you. But, thrilled nonetheless. And this is all theoretical because adoption doesn't really happen in Mozambique, but it's still been good for me to learn that I don't need a certain kind of child.

Levi is having a lot of little sister envy. When we talk about how excited we are about cousin Logan's new baby sister or his friend Keegan's new baby sister, he says, "But can I have a little sister?"The boys have been talking about having a dog too. I think Zach may be coaching them, but I can't be sure. I told Levi that he and Max can have a dog when they are old enough to pick up the dog's poop in the back yard. Levi said, "I will be able to clean up poop when I am an adult." Hmmm. He talks a lot about being an adult these days. The other day he said, "When I am an adult, will I drink coffee and have some keys?" I was just thinking that he will be four in a few months...and I am excited. I think that four is a golden year in childhood--such a fun age. Max will be a tremendous four-year-old :) That will be fun.

Max continues to ride in the Ergo and sing songs loudly everywhere we go. He flows seamlessly from worship songs into the Bob the Builder theme song, and what more could you ask for than that? Max is super friendly and wakes up greeting everyone in the house by name, "Hellooooo Asher! Hellooooo Judah!" He sometimes throws fits when he doesn't get his way and often has to say "please forgive me for throwing a fit." He loves chasing Mozambican kids around at church and in the cafeteria and runs up to and hugs all kids of people, as if he's known them for years. People are always commenting on his vocabulary and his size :) The locals probably believe him when he says he's five (and that he lives in California.) He and Levi were hitting each other tonight and laughing, just practicing I guess, but still. It's weird. They are boys and they are getting older. I asked Levi if he would protect Max if someone was trying to hurt him, and he immediately said, "yes." Then I said, "If someone was hurting your brother, what would you do to them?" He smiled and said, "I would forgive them." Geez, I was hoping for a left-hook or something.

The kids are still enjoying the treats from our special packages and get to pick one after they wake up from their afternoon naps. Max calls the fruit roll-ups "Fruit steam roll-ups." (Perhaps a steam roller was involved. Who am I to say?) We get to pick up our final package from the airport tomorrow. Thank you Hannah! It's been amazing how well-spaced the packages have been. They've brightened up our little lives for sure :)

Our night away at the bed and breakfast was wonderful in every way-but it was still Africa :) I had this scare that the warm bath I had dreamed of was not going to really happen. There was no drain plug in the bathroom, so we called for one. Then the owner found a poorly-sized plug but it ended up doing the trick. The water came out very slowly and was a little brown, but do you think we cared??

We had baby-sitters for each of the boys and gave them money to go out for dinner on the beach. We were gone from 5:30pm to 10am, and thankfully, the boys did great. They chased crabs and fed food to the aggressive kitties on the beach, and they fell asleep in less than 5 minutes upon laying down for bed. Amazing! Thank you God. We may have to try that again someday.

And my one little luxury that I mentioned in my last post--soaking my feet with water from the electric kettle...well, as soon as I typed about that amazing discovery, the kettle decided to bite the dust. But forget about electric kettles. We're on our way home soon and we can deal with cold water, or no running water or whatever for a little bit longer. While we miss some things, it has been so completely worth it to be here. And by the way, Zach's arm is doing alright. It still hurts some, but seems to be healing well. We are looking forward to seeing friends and family, and the produce section, job-searching, and getting settled once again. We can't wait to share the things we've learned here. Thank you again for keeping us in your prayers. Next week will be busy, so this may be my last post from Mozambique. We're so excited to be coming home soon!

Love,
Kate