Our day started early here as we decided to head to Montecasino (an elaborate—bordering on ridiculous—entertainment resort complex) with our daughter. We had been to the bird park there twice on our last visit and it seemed a perfect day to go. Despite being in the mid-70s, we saw many people dressed in long sleeves and even heavy jackets! Sort of like when it hits 65° in southwest Florida.
Tisetso feeding the ducks.
Upon entering the park, we fed the ducks, which our son and daughter particularly liked. We walked all around in the sunshine and saw monkeys not longer than 1’, lemurs, birds from all around the world and snakes. Brian loved the snakes! Ha! (Where are their arms and legs?!)
Kookaburra landing on the trainer’s hat as planned.
We attended a bird demonstration in which a Kookaburra landed on an audience member’s head, unplanned (after landing on the hat of a trainer which was planned). That was exciting. I decided that the Kookaburra is probably the cutest bird ever and may be my new favorite bird. We watched a crow named “Russell Crow” pick up aluminum cans and put them in the recycling bin. Apparently he took to the trick quickly “because he likes shiny things.”
Peacock baby
After the show, we decided to get dessert first, before lunch. We each picked out a snack and ate next to the park by the flamingos. After the sugar was consumed, we played a little tag at the park. Well, I half-heartedly ran because I didn’t want to get overly sweaty. Call me mother of the year! Then we walked around the inside of the complex and found a place for lunch. It’s a huge place and has shops and restaurants. I wanted to eat at the place that puts your pasta in a round of cheese and then lets it melt the cheese, but NO! they didn’t have hot dogs for the kids. Kids ruin everything. I’m just kidding…only sort of. :)
During lunch, we began preparing our daughter that tomorrow she will begin sleeping at our flat after court. We are calling it “her sleep-over” and asked her what she wanted to do and she said watch a movie. We said you can’t have a movie without sweets and popcorn! We found a shop with just that and let her and Tisetso walk around and pick out their favorites and drinks.
When we returned to our daughter’s care home, they were having a party. It was a birthday party for one of the house mamas and a good-bye party for our daughter. At one point, the woman who runs the care home had the children say why they would miss her. Here are a few highlights from those given:
They will miss her love and her kindness.
They will miss her jokes and her silliness.
They will miss that she draws, swims, and plays dolls with others.
They will miss her because she is her best friend.
At this point, I was trying not to cry as 20 children told our daughter why they would miss her. After the party, we had a meeting with our lawyer and social worker from Cape Town who had flown in for court tomorrow. They came to our flat and we sat outside by the VERY green (closed for the season) pool. When we arrived at the flat, we found out that we had no running water, which was fun. Anyway, the meeting went well and we felt reassured and ready for court.
We took our daughter back to the care home for dinner and we felt a brevity in saying good-bye to her for the last time. We were excited that tomorrow we wouldn’t have to say good-bye anymore.
Fun signage.
Because we had no running water, we went to the mall to use the loo (fun word for bathroom), pick up some needed items, and get dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the flat in the dark, something we do try to avoid. Thankfully we didn’t run into any issues and came back to running water. Yay!
I have been trying to get a picture of this sign for days! What does it even mean?!
If you think about it, please pray for us tomorrow. We will be in court at 9:00 am, which is 2:00 am Central Daylight Time. Apparently there may be a protest about a political leader who attacked a police officer at a funeral at this court building. It won’t make things easier, that’s for sure. Either way, we just pray that the adoption is finalized and everything is clear for the lawyer and magistrate (judge). Thank you for walking with us on this journey. We can’t wait to introduce you to our daughter!