Settling in. . .sort of.

The past few days have been a whirl of activity. We made it to Inhambane and our new home Saturday night, tired, but happy to finally be there. Mixed feelings followed as we did our best to settle in with nothing more than the things from our suitcases. An ice box became a fridge, a small hot plate our means to cook. Empty boxes became a bookshelf for the kids school books and kitchen cabinets.

We were so pleased at the things the church was able to fix and are getting used to four wheeling it up our driveway (and this is dry season), no water in the mornings, and the competition of radios. Such is life in Africa.

Sunday morning, we studied about the life Abraham and his journey of faith with the kids. It was a great encouragement for all of us to remember how Abraham stepped out on faith to a place he didn't know. A place where he was a stranger in another land just like we are now.

The kids were thrilled when headed off to the beach in the afternoon, and it ended up being exactly what I needed. Time to just rest in the midst of a beautiful piece of God's world. This will be something we enjoy on our days off.

Monday morning, we left for Maxixe to file the papers for our residency. Bia and Gustavo didn't have any problems, but we were told we had to have signed letters for each one of the kids, requesting the visas we'd already received from South Africa. Something we'd been told in the capital that we didn't need.

So today, we are back down in Maputo. Scott is getting ready head off to the government offices and get signatures for the visas we already have, and we are praying that this will be the last of the paperwork. Until these papers are signed, we can't move our things over from SA, so you can imagine our urgency to finish this. We will also buy a stove while we are here and stock up on some staples that we can't find up north.

Tomorrow I'll post a different perspective of our two day trip across southern Africa from Mariah's perspective. She had a blast photographing our journey.

Lisa