Presenting....Cheese!!!

There is a funny thing that happens when a three-year-old knows his name and can say it. Even funnier when it is unpronounceable in English.
This is not "ha, ha" funny...more like "what on earth are we going to do?" funny.

Kagiso ("Ka-hee-so") had his first U.S. physical exam and now we have to traipse him around town for the myriad of specialists who need to check his heart (a murmur), his throat (snoring), his ears (he is so loud...do they even work?), and the  lab (which checks his poop--which of course he thinks is quite normal due to the fact that Oskar and I both now are sporting parasites and other "abnormalities").

At any rate, the office managers and receptionists from these various medical specialists have been phoning the house this week and when I answer there is a chipper greeting followed by a line like, "I am looking for the parents of....." I normally help them along and volunteer the name of my youngest.
Today, however, she boldly went forward and asked for the parent of "Queso."

Seriously, I have a line. For the record, I would not let my son keep a name if it was "cheese."Nope. Never. 

Welcome home little man.
Kagiso carries this sign around the house. Oh, excuse me "HIS house."

It looks like my health troubles can ow be attributed to a lovely parasite that has traveled throughout South Africa and back the US of A with me. Goody. Hopefully after a week of treatment I will be good as new...and ready to chase a 3-year old. 

We made it home!! This just all feels so unreal.

Before we left on Wednesday we took photos with our South African "family"...

Herman, Corlia, Mannie (holding peanut) and the Olsson "five."

Jeanetta, Gert and Gary.

I cried like a baby saying goodbye to such precious friends.
I also likely cried out of disbelief that our long and sometimes arduous journey was coming to a close.
Or I cried simply because taking a lively three year old on an 18 hour flight will bring anyone to tears!

Amazingly enough, the trip was smooth (or "too smooth"due to a lingering illness of the stomach variety that had Oskar and I both in the doctor's office today...) and it was incredible to be greeted by such a boisterous and beautiful host of friends and family at the Grand Rapids airport.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Lyndi captured our arrival on film and if I was clever I would know how to post that here...as of now it is on my facebook page ;)

Whew. We start the long trek home today. Our bags are open and we are attempting to squish all of our things back into them.

We just said good bye to Andi. Kahee has such a crush on her--it is darling.
I am not sure if this is simply a photo of Mannie and Andi or an ad for Michigan Awesome?

Wild Africa!

Traffic...

Our fabulous hosts Sollie and Elise...

Happy faces...

Aha! We have a solid internet connection again!
Our weekend was amazing--a true African experience.
We traveled with Jeanetta and Gary (a very full and noisy car!) sightseeing along the way to Naboomspruit (2 hours without all of our stops). This is an African "small town"...from there we drove about half an hour into the Bush. We found a gate announcing the game farm, then drove further into what seemed like the end of the earth. (Gert met us later in the evening.)
Then...like a vision sat one of the homes of Elise and Sollie. They welcomed us with open arms and were incredibly generous the whole weekend. We lived in luxury, ate like royalty and spent Saturday driving across their beautiful property looking for sightings of the exotic African animals they breed.We saw so many animals it is hard to remember all of their names!
The kids swam in a dam with a waterfall--the highlight of the whole trip for them!

Unfortunately for Kahee he fell out of bed Friday night and did a face plant on the floor. This meant a fat lip, bloody nose and a fair bit of drama. Good heavens! Now his nose and lip match his funky eye!

We had a successful visit to the U.S. Consulate yesterday and it feels incredibly good to be done with all of our paperwork.

Today we pack and relax...tomorrow we head to the airport. Hard to believe we are going to be coming home--and that it will be five of us! We can't wait!!!

More photos to come...

We are trilled to announce our paperwork here is over! The US consulate granted Kagiso a travel visa. So we should be all set to fly home on Wednesday! We find ourselves at the bittersweet crossroad of being so excited to finally return home and so sad to leave our south african "family." We are experiencing some internet issues and as soon as those are resolved we will upload all of our fabulous pictures of our wonderful weekend with exotic African animals! Stay tuned! :)

Good morning from south Africa, this is Oskar. We are back in JoBurg after a weekend at a game farm. We went swimming and saw cool animals. Today we are going to the U.S embassy for kahee's visa interview.

Last night we drove to Pretoria to have dinner with our dear friends Hany and Natalie (and the kiddos Zara and Daniel).
Natalie's father has built a family compound where they live in a fabulous home surrounded by loved ones. We were entertained with stories from Natalie's father's many years in military intelligence for the South African government as his later role as restauranteur.

Natalie is Afrikaans, Hany is Egyptian, their kids were born in America....
and now we add our own "diversity" to the mix.  And, of course, Hany had just flown in from a trip to...Grand Rapids! 

Done. Finito. No more endless queues at Home Affairs. We now have (1) temporary South African passport and (1) unabridged birth certificate. Yes, We Care!

Today we went with Louise and Sonja from Mosaiek Church to an impoverished school where the church hosts a feeding program and to the Florida Baby Home (where--in many ways--our whole South African adoption journey began).

Everyone loved holding the babies :)

Hooray!!! Today Kagiso has an identity!
Well...actually an identity number, which in this country can feel one and the same.
A huge answer to prayer. And...Home Affairs was so nice to us today. I kept praying for God's favor--actually praying for it to be like a breeze to blow through the offices and through the hearts of those with the ability to help us. Well...we now have an abridged birth certificate and a completed passport application. Apparently this is a big deal.
Whew.
Tomorrow we were told we can pick up a temporary passport and--hopefully--an unabridged birth certificate. Isn't it funny how one needs a "certificate" to prove one's birth? Shouldn't mere existence be enough? ;)
Here is documentation of our wait...

And Kahee waiting to have his passport application (photo?) processed...

The woman at the camera kept having to remind him to LOOK at the camera and close his mouth. Ha! Isn't that a great reminder in life?

Today as I asked for the millionth time for help from Lorraine in Herman's office (she has the scanner, fax, etc.)...I remembered that last week at the peak of my frustration I sat at her desk and her daily devotional flip calendar was facing me with the thought for October 24th:
Lord, I know I can't hope to escape every unpleasant circumstance in this world. Just the same, I will trust in you, whatever comes...
Perfect. Maybe something YOU needed today too? 

Corlia captured our little house party with Jeanetta and Gary the other night....

Hmm...like mother like daughter? ;)

Today we met the woman who first loved Kagiso.

Her name is Wendy Harris and 3 years ago she got a call from social services asking if he would take a "tiny baby." She said yes and reported to us that she had never seen a baby so small. At one month Kahee weighed one kilo (2.2 lbs). She fed him every two hours around the clock and poured love onto his little body.

At 18 months he needed to be transferred to a home that would be able to prepare him for adoption. She said that was one of the hardest drives of her life--when she dropped him off at Oasis Haven.

She hosted us for tea at her lovely home and shared stories with us about his early days, and we told her about our life and what Kahee has to look forward to. Her mother ("granny") and oldest son David joined us. The kids loved playing in her fabulous back yard.

I tried to express my appreciation for what she did for our son...but where to start? Where to end? I promised her that Kahee will always know how loved he was from such a young age. She will always hold a special place in our hearts and in his life story.

Ah, a nice, hot bath...what could be more relaxing?

Home Affairs is not our friend, but we really need it to be. No progress yet this week and it is getting frustrating. Every South African I have spoken to just sighs and rolls their eyes. The "system" appears to be a bit broken and getting worse. Sigh.

Yesterday Jeff and the kids went shopping and did school work while I got to spend most of the day at Mosaiek Church with dear friends that I have grown to deeply love and respect over the last 8 years I have traveling to this country.

Johan Geyser is the teaching pastor at Mosaiek and his wife Wilma ("Vilma") is the "Potential Coach" (isn't that a great title? She helps individuals, teams, businesses, etc. know themselves and each other and how to reach their most incredible potential).

*A little side not about this couple: Johan is training for the "Epic"the world's most prestigious mountain bike race which is taking place in two weeks. And Wilma (a former nationally ranked body builder) is an extreme equestrian racer. Seriously--these are their hobbies. Wow.

I also was able to see my dear friend pastor Jacob. He is also on the staff of Mosaiek (notable because the church is a largely white, Afrikaans one) and his leadership role involves planting churches in the settlement areas as well as the rural areas. There are now 25 church plants and they are thriving. Jacob is also a well known radio personality. It is fun to travel into the countryside with him as he is hailed and greeted everywhere he goes. He blessed our adoption and affirmed what we are doing bringing Kagiso to the U.S. The significance of this is particularly special to me. He is deeply, deeply respected.

Jeanetta and I picked up Gary from school. Apparently he changes out of his uniform about as quickly as possible (a 9 year old does not want to linger in a formal outfit? Ha)

I love the Gary grin and the Sponge Bob grin stacked on each other  :)

Yesterday's culinary treat for all of the non-vegetarians (i.e. everyone except me):
Warthog sausage. Yes, warthog. Amazing.

Corlia captured Zinnia, Kagiso and I in Nelson Mandela Square:

The Olsson Pharmacy ("I had a pharm in Africa..."):

As of yesterday, all 5 Olssons are now on meds. All sorts of them. I am happy to report that we do not seem to be getting worse...

The culmination of the Kahee "eye drama" coincided with Oskar bottoming out. Corlia snapped a fabulous photo depicting this at a restaurant. Thankfully Oskar appears to be through the worst of his ailments (digestive in nature--to which we receive details reports!)

Kahee's eye looked like someone stuck a marble under his eyelid.

So...after dinner Corlia, Zinnia and I took him to Ronet's house to have it "poked"(thankfully Ronet is a doctor so this is not as weird as it sounds).

After the little "procedure" Ronet brought out cake and coffee. Her husband and sons--home for the weekend from the University--joined us and it turned into a little party.

Kahee mentioned repeatedly today that he needed to have his eye "poked" again. Really? That was so fun? Having your eyelid punctured with a surgical needle (sorry Uncle Jon I know you are about to faint right now)? No...he admitted...he just wanted the cake and attention :)

The driving age in South Africa is 18...maybe someone should tell my sons?

Oh, and the little detail of the steering wheel on the "wrong" side ;)

We had dinner last night with some of the most amazing women I know--champions in the fight against HIV in South Africa (and the world!). I am honored to know them and call them friends. The STIR Africa site will soon be live and will be ground breaking!!!

Corlia (our hostess extraordinaire), Annaline and Elna (and Kahee of course!)

The other day I asked Oskar, "where is your brother?"
And an excited little voice hollered, "I'm hiding!"

Oh really?