Back to Joburg

After the completion of the conference, my little family traveled back to Johannesburg while the rest of our team went to spot animals in the Kruger National Park. Ronny and I have always wanted to go to Kruger and one day we will, but it just wouldn't have worked for us this time. It involves a lot of driving and being quiet and looking for animals and that doesn't match our kids :) Plus we had people we wanted to see in the Joburg area. So, we hitched a ride with one of the missionaries. Avery got car sick and threw up in his van, but it was otherwise an OK drive back to the big city. Then, the vacation part to our trip could begin!
First things first, Ronny went to rent us a car while the kids and I played at McDonalds. Apparently the only thing available for us to rent that day as a "walk up" was a c200 Compressor Mercedes. So we blew the remainder of our budget on that, but we rode in leather style for two days! Hudson stills talks about liking that car the best! ha :)

We drove past "Hudson" road so we got out to take a picture! We enjoyed the malls, shopping, going out to eat and just being in Johannesburg.

We found a great toy store for the kids to play in. The place we stayed also had a fun playground for the kids.Here's Hudson playing with one of the missionary kids that lives at the Baptist guest house.

We made Avery her very own sleep space which worked very nicely. I did not have to worry about her not wanting back in her crib when we got home. She missed her bed terribly! This spot felt like a crib though and she slept very well. :)

I got to meet in person, one of my favorite blogging buddies, Hayley! She stumbled across my blog one day and left a comment. I got excited that someone in South Africa was reading my blog and we've been reading and commenting back and forth ever since. Turns out she lives near where we were staying and we got to meet for a cup of coffee. It was so fun! I enjoyed getting to talk with her so much. She has such a pleasant, sweet South African voice. I wish my voice sounded like that! :) Wish we could have hung out more. I have no doubt would hang out regularly if we lived in the same country! Yes, next time Hayley, will be in Texas!

Ronny and I also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. It wasn't exactly romantic but it was very fitting. We were with our family in Africa. We had breakfast out and got to meet up that night some of our favorite people from Namibia, now living and studying in Pretoria (about 30 minutes from Joburg) and it was a super day!

Which brings me to my next topic- getting to see Morgan (next to me), Francis (front row left to right), Chastin and meeting her boyfriend Chris. Our time was WAY too short but we were SO glad that our paths could cross for a little while. Chastin and Francis are brother and sister and their family was very good to us while we were living in Namibia. Chastin has even visited us here and it was so good to catch up with them. Ronny and Morgan became friends early in our time in Nam and Ronny was actually able to lead Morgan to Christ, baptize him and disciple him before we moved back home. Morgan is now studying theology and working with students in Pretoria. Seeing him now literally made me cry. We are so proud of who he is and what God has done in his life. He has lead both of his parents to Christ as well and we got to see them at church when we got to Namibia! Anyway, we went out to dinner and loitered in the parking lot for a long time while the children ran amuck to avoid saying good-bye. What dear, dear friends.

And the following day, well, early, early morning, we returned the nicest car we'd ever driven and flew out of South Africa for our beloved Windhoek, Namibia!