A New Year in Cape Town

It is the first day of 2012 and once I glanced in a mirror this morning I saw that I had a zit on the end of my nose.  And my thought was "this is just like how I've been feeling".  On our first night in Frankfurt, the girls woke up at midnight their time, and would not go back to bed...until 8am (midnight our time).  Then they slept until 4pm!  So we didn't end up going into Frankfurt, but enjoyed the culture from the airport.  The German I learned in high school started coming back to me (a tiny little bit), though I keep wanting to speak Spanish.  We boarded the plane in Frankfurt at 10pm.  The airplane was huge and the individual touch screen TV's were a life saver and highlight of the trip for the girls!  They slept a little bit, and then were served there "kids" breakfast, which consisted of hot chocolate pudding, chocolate milk, and Nutella spread for their bread.  Basically their breakfast was a plate full of chocolate, which I knew wouldn't help us throughout the day!  But it must be fun to be a kid in Germany!  Thankfully they gave us extra yogurts for some sustenance.:)  We got to Johannesburg sometime in the morning.,,by this time I don't know what day of the week it is, let alone the time.  Once we got off the plane it was like running yet another marathon.  We got through passport control,  loaded all of our bags (12 in all) onto two carts, walked to the other end of the airport and checked the bags back in, went through security, and found our gate right as they were boarding the bus for the flight to Cape Town.  Whew!  The flight to Cape Town was only a couple of hours, but our patience and energy were running low.  When we touched down, I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness...thinking of all the next steps.  It was sometime mid-afternoon, and as we rolled our carts of luggage through the gates we were welcomed by our South African Cru staff family.  I teared up.  It was so nice to know we had help and that we didn't have the stress of driving ourselves to our apartments!  It's summer here, and beautiful!  We arrived at our apartments and my first impression was...that it is REALLY small, needs a lot of decorating, and felt a little dumpy.  A little depressing.  But our friends had put some groceries in the fridge for dinner and breakfast (such a relief), and Leon (our director) took Tyler and Christian to get their phones working, and internet (though it's not working on our computer :()  The first thing I did was put the girls' new sheets on the bunk beds and tried to make their room feel like home.  There isn't a closet or dresser in their room, but there are two closets in our room.  They were excited about their bunk beds and played on the top bunk for a long time.  As I was unpacking and girls were eating dinner, Anya went to the potty...which was great until I went in to help her and somehow there was a poopy mess all over the toilet, floor, her back and hair.  I went to give her a bath, but had to find which suitcase had everything I needed...plus I didn't have any cleaning supplies in our apartment.  On a normal day this would have been a little bump in the day.  Yesterday, it pushed me over the edge.  I got her bathed and found some clothes to put on her, and went next door to Shannon's apartment...and cried.  I was tired, overwhelmed, and struggling in liking our new apartment...especially since the Williams' apartment is completely renovated, bigger, decorated well, more secure, and was move-in ready.  I had a little break down, came home and tried to empty a few more suitcases while still being completely oblivious to what time it was.  Christian was falling asleep eating his dinner, the girls were starting to break down and I realized it was 9:30pm!  Lily threw a fit, which was expected in her overtired state.  She fell asleep right when her head hit the pillow.  Anya was excited to be in her new bed, and was asleep in no time as well.  Christian went to bed, and I sat in our living room thinking about how I could make it better when the restaurant across our "lake" who was throwing a very LOUD New Year's party played my favorite song "Footloose".  I chuckled at how it made me feel a little bit more at home, though normally I wouldn't be able to hear it without dancing!  I headed to bed knowing my perspective would be better with sleep.  Anya woke up at 3:30am, but after an hour of her trying to go back to sleep in our bed, her bed, and back to our bed, she finally did and still didn't want to get up this morning at 9:30am.  I woke up with some inspiration to settle in and make our apartment feel like home.  It's a beautiful day...the breeze is cool and the sun is warm, and our apartment feels light and fresh.  It's a new year!  And that's when I looked in the mirror and saw the zit on the end of my nose.  The zit is like this apartment...at first it's a very visible bummer.  But after I took care of it, it's barely noticeable.  I think we're going to be just fine.  I'm thinking of it like I'm on a TV show on TLC or HGTV...kind of excited about the challenge.  And I'm finding more places for things.  Plus, the mall is actually a beautiful little walk away.  We walked over there with the Williams to get lunch and pick up a few things.  Since it's New Year's day, most of the stores were closed, but the mall is HUGE!  Plus, when it's "holiday" and school isn't in session, they have a place in the middle of the mall where I can drop the kids off to do crafts and play for FREE while I shop!  And the employees are all back ground checked and safe.  So great!  It's also encouraging that shopping (even for groceries and Walmart type things) is so accessible and close.  We don't have cars yet, and the public transportation is dangerous to use with the kids, so I've felt a little paralyzed in how we are going to get anywhere.  We'll get rental cars tomorrow and will begin the adventure of driving with the steering wheel on the right side of the car and driving on the opposite side of the road!  Lily is excited to see the beach, which I guess today is the busiest beach day of the year in South Africa.  It's like 4th of July here.  We'll wait and go tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers!  Really, I think it's going to be great!  Sleep makes such a difference in perspective:).  The girls are having fun and doing well!  Please pray for us as we settle in and make this home.  Pray also that we'll find a great affordable car, be able to set up a bank account, and enjoy this time!   Happy New Year!!