A Flurry of Farewells to Finish a Wonderful Three Years

The last few weeks have been crazy busy from a logistics side, and hard emotionally, as we say farewell to so many wonderful friends we have met.  We hope to see many of them again in the US one day or in Europe.

Here are some highlights of the fun stuff...we will leave out all the tears!

Kelly's Friends that attended her Sweet 16 Birthday party.

I always wanted to do a movie night for the kids at the orphanage and my amazing neighbor Grace said she would cook for the kids.

 Her daughter Naledi helped all day and they made a traditional meal for over 100 kids.  We helped where we could and taught them some American shortcuts.  These ladies work WAY too hard, for instance to make gravy the shred the tomatoes.  Katie and I shredded a few then we busted out the blender and pureed the rest!

The kids LOVED the movie and the slideshow Kelly made, the slideshow had all pictures of them from previous visits, very sweet!  One boy said, "It was more than just a movie"...all because we brought popcorn and candy!

Athletics day at Charlie's school, or Chariots of Fire day, as Greg refers to their outfits!

 Last rugby game at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg where the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in 1995.  We saw the Johannesburg Lions play the Durban Sharks in a close match.

Charlie wouldn't be in the picture because he was sad his Sharks lost in the final minutes!

We did a final egg hunt for the orphanage and had our best turnout of volunteers yet. The morning before we stuffed almost 1000 eggs in our empty house.

They had a master plan to hide eggs in various places and sent the kids to different areas based on age.  Guess how that plan worked?  CHAOS!

However the kids LOVED it and we loved seeing them enjoy all their treats.  We left happy to know that a wonderful group of Americans will continue to stay involved and assisting them with fun activities for the kids.

 Charlie got to perform in his Grade 2 Play, Kung Fu Panda, and he was Crane.  The boys are so sweet and do such an amazing job with all of their lines, I am still in awe of what the teachers can get them to do!

We have had many wonderful dinners with friends these last few nights and we are sad to go but thankful for all the great people that we have gotten to know these last three years and for all the amazing adventures we have been on as a family.

There is a rugby song that goes "South Africa we stand as one, we stand together with the green and gold."  I know that our family will always stand with South Africa and think fondly of our friends here and we sincerely hope that wherever we are in the world we will get to see many of them again!

We will board the plane in a few hours with fond memories!