"We Are Family"

“We Are Family”…the theme song at dinner tonight…with some heavy accents and of course only two lines of the song repeated with some cha cha in between.  Meal time is family time here.  It is manner time, English lesson time, I love you time, “more please…” time…it is precious time!  We have a great schedule here that is proving to keep us all organized with a routine that works… the kids know what to expect and we have some sense of regularity in the day.

Today we drove up, up and up to the Mohale dam.  It is one of 4 dams in the country, connecting a water line all the way down to South Africa…the drive up and through the mountains is twisty and turny and around every corner is another corner and another, all the way up!

Cars were few and far between, but people weren’t…all along the roads are adults and children as young as 4 or 5 commuting their way to and from who knows where…today we saw a man walking up the hill and he gestured to us, holding something up… so Scott stopped the car (in the middle of the mountain and the middle of nowhere) and the man came to the car with a beautiful woven basket, and said, “150 or best price 100 (rand)”…we bought it of course! Just another moment not easily forgotten… a reminder of the mystery of this place and the magic of being receptive to the moment in front of us…

Goats speckling the mountain sides, donkeys interrupting the roadway, children carrying wood bundles on their heads, a single sheep on the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the dam, speed bump signs reading: “humped zebra crossing”, women washing clothes at shallow rivers, shepherds herding their flocks wearing the traditional Basutho blankets, and endless smiles and waves from all ages, bright faces with willing greetings and the ever so familiar greeting of….the thumbs up!

The day ended with our local crew of kids, hanging off of Scott, attempting to hang off me, playing mock soccer on the hillside....sweet smiles and laughs...we are part of their gang and they are part of ours:

 

We lay here now reflecting again on a day with our boys.  Their little chuckles are becoming familiar sounds and they call to us when they need anything…and the best part, we are there!

Xo!

a quiet day in Roma, Lesotho

Today was another full day evidenced by two clean mini shirts at 8:00 am and 2 unwearable mini shirts by 8:00 p.m.  Shirts that begin to get messy with breakfast, get water logged by lunch time, and get rightly soaked in with play dust by about 3:30 when we visit the local community centre in the afternoon.

It is one dusty playground that is filled with oh around 50 or so children aged 2-17...playing sweetly and creatively with each other and the few bits and odds around. The community centre has become a part of our daily ritual each day where by the late afternoon we join the hillside of kids and go to this fab place where there is a playground, a "computer lab" - no computers, a library, and dance hall!  It's all fairly humble, but it is well loved and well used.  For us, we are immersed in children's culture here and the boys have so much fun with the locals...it is a perfect fit!

We are staying about 40 minutes outside Maseru in a little town called Roma, at a local trading post up on the hill.  Further up the hill the roads get more bumpy, travelled only by horses and foot.  The hills are sprinkled with little tin shacks that sell sweets, some house supplies, and i think there may even be a saloon a ways up.  Mostly though, we see laundry hung outside, some gardens of cabbage, and several rondavels/homes.  The roads are all a light brown dirt and the dust is around all the time.  While it is winter here, it is dry and warm through the day by our standards.

The days are full for all of us, but by day's end, it is easy to find highlights.  For today, the highlight is recognizing that our family is smoothing out and finding a rhythm that is all ours.  The weather is beautiful and most of our time is outside....as we like it!

day 4 of parenthood

ummm.... there are child whispers next door! but they are whispering in Sesotho.

Today was another fab day here in Lesotho.  We woke up early, had a hearty breaky and hit the road, i mean, hit the road for the high mountains, or shall is say, higher mountains.  We had a wonderful guide with us, Sede, who brought us to a cultural village where we were toured through the traditional Basuto houses through time and the Basuto hats...well, take a look at those:

of course, i found these two random models there and the hats fit!
The hats are aptly designed after a mountain here:

Still used and hand crafted to this day.

We then went and visited some traditional cave homes.  They are beautiful and the same families have lived in these since the 1800's....cool in the summer, warm in the winter...silky smooth and cozy.

Driving through the mountains here is so comforting.  Maybe it is because it is the forever home of my children, maybe it is because my BC heart is at ease in the mountains, or maybe it is simply because our family found each other here...but day by day we are filled up with an appreciation for this country, and by 9:00 at night, it really is, lights out.

a quick coffee stop for treats...

xo!

day 2...

It is hard to believe that this journey to our boys is finally met with burps, farts and giggles...meal times, pj times, snack times, "toilet" times, and even two bed times....the last two days feel like we have come home, while far from that, we have made a home here in the hills east of Maseru in a tiny little village called Roma.

We are all settling in to each others rhythms gently and minute by minute....we are growing but it is pure sweetness!

Today we joined the community of about 50 or so kids at the local community centre and watched and participated in some good ole dusty play.  Lebo fell backwards onto his head off the merry-go-round and Tebo carefully played alongside the locals, always keeping a watchful eye out for his mama and his Ndade....

Lebo always talks about the airplane and going to Canada...someone has planted a serious bug in his ear about CANADA. Tebo has surprised us with a strong command of English already!  Well, they are both awesome, of course!!!

Family of 4!

Kruger park part 2, is in the dust!

We arrived in Maseru, and after a very short introduction to this wonderful country, we met our boys!

and life somehow is fuller, even brighter...sweeter...

animals of Kruger part 1

so much to learn from the African wild!

The first part of this trip has been spent exploring via a self-drive safari through Kruger park!  Inside the dusty roads and bush veld, tall golden grasses, and deep red earth, live the extraordinary animals of Africa: Lion, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, warthog, giraffe, buffalo, baboons and monkeys! Up close, nose to nose nearly, it was easy to fall in love with each encounter! Never fully knowing what might jam the road ahead, or sprout out of the side bushes....we had several surprises.  Lions attacking impala in the night and fighting over it, growling loud and walking robust...servet monkeys greeting our Tamboti tent, dare i say, full lion copulation...giraffes jousting in front of our road, nearly making us late for our camp curfew...elephants, around every corner...some in families with wee ones, some old, male and stubborn...apparently the ones to watch out for...

we have taken many photos and hopefully the stories will unfold through those...

internet is barely available and now we are one our way to Maseru! it is pure love here, pure adventure.

Gail and Scott, out...

Hello Johannesburg!

 Victoria to Vancouver, to Heathrow for some quick fish and chips, and then Johannesburg.....voila!  The flights were smooth and so far, there is little jet lag.  We arrived early this morning and have settled into a sweet little hotel here for a couple nights to rest and orientate ourselves.  We pick up our car rental tomorrow which will become our home on wheels for the next 6 weeks.  Today we will pick up a cooler so we have a portable fridge for all of our upcoming "Braii" cooking, which we are super excited about!  We have 3x 50lb bags for orphanages and schools in Lesotho, two backpacks and a hard shell case for the boys.... we are not traveling light! But these loads will lighten.

and we're off!

Our adoption road has been long, hard, and dreamy!  We started the planning of this adventure over 4.5 years ago, and then like a drop of magic in the night, we have now booked plane tickets, planned safaris, booked lodges in the mountains of Lesotho, and most importantly packed a suitcase for our two little boys: Lebohang (Lebo) and Teboho (Tebo).  Their bunk beds are made, the soccer balls are in the closet, the garden is planted, and the grow charts are ready!  At long last.

We are on our way to South Africa tomorrow and will be meeting our boys within a week's time, on their turf: Pitseng, Lesotho. 

On route to them, we will pass through Kruger Game Reserve for some sneak peaks at the "Big Five"!  Most of our time though, we will be building our family up in rural Lesotho, near to where the boys are from.  We plan on hiking, playing, cooking up family meals, and well...bonding and building up a love that has touched us like no other.

We are so blessed here in Canada with a huge loving family and an equally loving group of friends who have supported this process wholeheartedly.  The boys will be surrounded in love!

Along the way way, depending on internet connectivity, we will blog ...sharing the magic of this road with you.