Construction and other happenings...

I was sitting on the couch, texting my friend Meg when the ceiling fell down in front of me! Jude had just left the room and it missed me by about a metre. They were busy insulating the ceiling and the previous contractors had used the wrong screws or something! Thankfully they have reinforced all of our ceilings since then and I have stopped looking up with concern whenever I hear any sort of creaking sound! 

Here is a picture of some of the aftermath (a lot of the mess had already been cleaned, but you can see the part of the ceiling that had yet to be taken away leaning on the couch!

Then some of our pipes needed serious work and this has proved to provide hours of entertainment for the boys who had previously enjoyed the TV show called 'Bob the Builder' before being introduced to first hand experience in watching the real thing!

Jude has recently understood the gravity of just how much growing he has to do before filling Izak's shoes at any length! Haha! Finding this made my heart smile!

Jude is finally confidently walking around on his own! :)

This is hard to believe, but Izak may have another fan almost as big as me in the Gauteng area: (haha!)

Here is one of J really getting more and more used to his new bike:

My mischievous yet sweet Ben:

We have had some challenges with figuring out some important logistical details (like the car for our family) and our shipment from the States has been delayed but it has been a very helpful experience. Like Izak reminded me recently, our trials are tailor-made and we can be sure that He is very intentional with what He allows. I am thankful to be in His hands and safe. :)

Another few weeks...

Grace Fellowship has a Grace School of Ministries (GSM) that was held on the property this last week and Izak enjoyed being a part of the team hosting it! They had Dr. Ernie Baker (from the Master's College) doing the training and it was a blessing to see all the cars parked outside and to know that there was some great learning going on while I tried to keep the boys somewhat contained and less rowdy for a change! It did just help to show me how much freedom they are typically spoiled with! :) 

Apart from that, here are some more pictures of the boys enjoying our 'backyard':

Farmer Jude:

Boys playing with some new trucks they were given:

Teaching them the tradition of drinking rooibos tea from a proper teacup: Eeeek!

Making wrapping paper for our first ever South African birthday party! We had fun doing it and Jude hopefully discovered that eating paint was not his thing! ;)

Once again, it is so great to get the opportunity to reflect on the Lord's goodness to us by writing this post and to think about how we are enjoying getting to know new people and to find our South African rhythm once again! Thanks for keeping us in your prayers- it means a great deal to us! :)

Exploring our new surroundings

We are so thankful for our new surroundings. It has been so sweet to see the boys get comfortable with being outdoors and enjoying simple things in nature. We are so blessed to have such a big outdoors area. There is something so fun about being based on the church property and being a part of the action! It feels like everybody comes to visit us TWICE on a Sunday! :) :) :) 

Recently, we were walking around outside and we found this really unique looking insect that was red and had black African looking shapes on it! When we looked closer we noticed that it was carrying a little baby version of itself on its back! Needless to say, we followed it around carefully trying to protect it from a grabbing Jude for quite some time! Here is a picture of it, you may have to try and zoom in to see it!

Here are some more of our outdoors times:
The first is of Jude going off and wanting to go exploring all on his own from the door leading from our courtyard:

This has been Izak's first week of work and we are so thankful for this time here and the Lord's amazing kindness.