My Mom's been here a week!!

She made it to Burkina! And has already been here nearly a week!!! Whoo hoo!!!!

Her travels were smooth and problem free, hallelujah, and when she arrived last Monday she landed, disembarked off the plane, went through customs and had her luggage all under 30 minutes. A record!!! We were in route to the airport, which thankfully happens to be about 5 minutes from our house, when she called saying she was waiting for us! It was such a great reunion!
The moment the girls had been counting down towards had finally arrived. So sweet to have her here, and so surreal! I still shake my head, not believing she is on the continent of Africa with us! The girls were just giddy with excitement!

Tuesday, my mom awoke at 2am and stayed awake to see the girls off to school at 6:30. So I figured since we were both up I'd take my mom on a morning walk to the nearest grocery store to pick up a few things. We then spent the rest of the morning getting right to business doing house stuff.....

Natalie, my strawberry lady who comes by weekly to sell me the strawberries she grows in her garden stopped by to sell me some in the afternoon so we then bleached rinsed and cut up 4 kilos worth.

 We baked honey oatmeal wheat bread and made homemade yogurt.

For lunch I made my mom some sorbet made with banana's from Ghana, mangos from the trees in our backyard and the freshly delivered strawberries...and it was delicious! That is an afternoon staple in our home, me and Marvi have one everyday, and now my mom too.

Mom wasn't feeling too good for a while during the afternoon so I too the girls to dance class and headed to bible study and left her home to rest, and when we got back she was feeling a lot better so we spent the evening playing the Wii and had a ball. And then we had a great talk about gun control and we stayed up late watching Catching Fire! We don't waste any time!!!

Wednesday my mom came with me to the orphanage and had a great time getting to know the kids. My mom has been to the orphanage twice and will continue to accompany me in serving there twice a week while she is here. Later that afternoon we went swimming at ISO while Syd was in musical practice.

Thursday morning Rebecca picked us up and we went to "mattress row", which is basically a street lined with mattress venders. I needed to pick up a piece of foam (Mattresses here are not like in the States with the nice springy ultra soft mattresses or the gel memory foam or individually wrapped coil in coil support systems for deeper sleeps. Mattresses here are just pieces of hard foam covered in material.) I made my mom lay on one to see how it felt!

After negotiating on a price I bought it for exactly what I intended to pay and brought it home and we cut it down to size for the little bed we bought that hopefully our little man will sleep in. Later that afternoon as soon as school let out we met Syd at school and went swimming again to cool off because it's getting increasingly hotter and our pool has been broken for over a month!

That evening it was African night potluck at the girl's school following African week, so my mom got to come and see the school and watch some great performances by the students.

On Friday she went back to the orphanage and then in the afternoon while I stayed home with the girls Isaak took her to the market to buy some local fabric and vegetables. It was her first time visiting an African market, and she said she had a great time. I love that Isaak took her, that blessed my heart.

That evening we went on a walk down some streets around my house and we just walked and talked and dissected everything we were seeing, and it's great to have her here to see in person what we see and just talk to her about it all. I love being able to share this experience with her. Later on we ordered pizza and watched a movie. And on Saturday we spent the afternoon at a birthday party. She's been able to meet many people since she's arrived and start to get connected.

It is lovely to have her here with us. We are blessed by her presence and I can't wait to see all the experiences she has and all the ways God uses her during her trip.

We're off to a great start!