we made it!

Greetings from Cape Town! We're only about 5 days into this journey, but it seems that we've experienced so much already. The Lord has been so faithful to hear your prayers for us and has granted me much peace during this time of change. So...to you that have been praying for us, thanks a bunch! The thought of blogging about our experiences here excites me and overwhelms me all at the same time. I've been feeling the same way that I felt when I spent a month in Germany years ago...there's so much that I want to share, but can't possibly fit it all in!

We arrived on Saturday evening around 9:30 and stayed up until 2 getting unpacked and settled in. Our place is decent for the area, but not nearly as cozy as home. It reminds me of a lot of the places I see on House Hunters Intl with all-over tile floors and neutral everything. I've taken some pics and will post them later. After traveling for about 27 hours total and staying up so late, we all piled up in bed and slept 11 hours! We spent the day on Sunday just checking out our hotel/condo area, getting groceries, and meeting up with a couple of new folks for dinner.

On Monday, we went to a meet & greet for the PWC participants and then headed into town with some new friends. Because we had flown in at night and hadn't really ventured out of our little area on Sunday, it was so exciting to see what surrounds us! After lunch by the water, we took a double-decker bus tour to see the city, Table Mountain, and one of the beach areas. The sights were incredible and just made me even more excited to see more in the months ahead.

Today was Jesse's first day of work which I've really been dreading. So... it was really nice to find out that E and I would have some part in it. At 11 this morning, the PWC families were picked up by a bus and taken to the office for an opening ceremony. We were greeted by tons of smiling faces and a group of native men playing music on xylophones and drums. We all joined together in a banquet-like room for greetings from company leaders and songs from local school children which was a super special treat! Along the edges of the room were local folks giving out handmade bracelets, beautiful fresh flowers and other works of art. Other folks were passing out favorite local foods for us to try. Eli was able to join other kids for games, face-painting, etc. so that was nice.

The people here have been especially nice and hospitable to us thus far. Eli is very interested in the service workers here around our place and they really get a kick out of him wanting to help them :-)

It's late here as we're 6 hours ahead of you back home. So...I should probably get some rest for now. Please continue to pray for us. At this point, please pray that Jesse will continue to enjoy and do well in the program and that Eli and I will meet more friends and establish some sort of daily schedule...I don't do well without one! Also, Jesse will be going away for a retreat this weekend so please remember us in that respect as well.

Here are some firsts of the many pics to come...