Want to hear some good news!?!

Two week ago, we put out a big ask with a LOT of prayer. It will cost $13,400 to send our boys to school in 2025. We need help to make that happen - we explain why in this video. The good news... Lifa and Wyatt’s school fees are covered IN FULL! We are over halfway there.

Brothers. Beach. Balls.

The best. The Lord has blessed us tremendously.

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” Proverbs 27:17

These two boys (and the tagalong little brother) excavate the edges of their creativity, bravery, strengths and weaknesses in the security of an unbreakable friendship. That’s how God designed it. You become the fullest version of yourself and experience the fullest version of Him in the context of accepting, loving relationships.

Today was a perfect, unplanned Tuesday afternoon. We stayed in town at the park until bedtime, and then came home and jumped in the pool for “summer baths”. There is nothing better than having all three boys out exploring together. This is Lifa’s last summer in high school, and we all cherish time with him. And he’s so fun!

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” -Charles Schaefer

The Ladd family adults have had a heavy week. I haven’t been showing up for my kids the way I want to. So today, we play. Sunshine, peanut butter sandwiches, bodies in action. I don’t need to wait until it feels better.

Benjamin has been BEGGING to build at the Cape Town Science Centre. We had an exciting morning building, breaking, learning and sliding!

Parenting strategy at the end of a tricky week: Sit down in the soft green grass of one of the most beautiful places on earth and create challenges that involve your children sprinting to a timer and doing their own occupational therapy. 👏Everybody👏Wins👏

Just when you start to think you’ve done it all… you take your son in a crop top Spider-Man suit to see ostrich organs in jars! Another adventure in the books! I love watching the boys learn and explore. Let it be known that Benjamin very brave and sat on an ostrich, and he intends to never do that ever again. But the ostrich burger got two thumbs up! 👍👍

I haven’t been online much this week because life has been extra full of normal life stuff. I just haven’t prioritized posting it. I’m pausing this evening before I put down my phone for the night to re-watch, remember and take a deep inhale of this rich, beautiful, sometimes normal and sometimes not life God has given me…

We’ve got a formula. We go to the best places at the worst times. It was cold and windy at Green Point Park this morning. We all had wet bottoms from the slide, and I bought Benjamin TWO steamed milks to keep him sitting still long enough to get dry. We’ve found our way to win in a big, busy city when one of us can’t do crowds. We had the park to ourselves, and the kids felt like kings - with milk moustaches instead of crowns!

A morning at Anna Beulah Farm with the little guys was a beautiful breath of fresh air. We all needed the car ride, peace and donkeys!

I've lived in Cape Town for almost eight years. That's the longest I've lived anywhere since I was 18. We got dealt a few hard blows upon arrival in the city we left everything for... so hard my stomach twisted in knots at the sight of that big, beautiful Table Mountain.

Eight years later, I've learned to love this city through the lens of special needs parenting and "a church to call home, a family to call our own". I know how the weather changes based on what side of the mountain you're on, to check tide times and wind speeds, and how to navigate the traffic.

Spring is blooming in South Africa! It’s the perfect time of the year to put all fives senses to work in God’s glorious creation. You can’t help but encounter the Creator in the midst of it. I relished in watching and cheering the littlest Ladds on as they did exactly what they were meant to do - found the perfect walking sticks, dug in the dirt, studied footprints and tracks, threw rocks that were way too big, climbed, jumped, balanced, and rolled.

My birthday started with Chris, coffee and Jesus before the sun came up. Then we were whisked away to an extravagant, picture perfect breakfast with church family. The family had homemade (and sugar free!) ice cream cake in the sunshine after naps, and then the boys and I took a quick trip to the beach. It was a dream day that ended with a pile of chicken nuggets and bedtime stories. I’d say it doesn’t get any better than this.

I am continually amazed by the joy of the Lord springing up unexpectedly and faithfully through the zigs and zags of life. I feel surrounded by Him and blessed by so many. Thank YOU for being a part of my life!

Earlier this week, I asked Wyatt if he wanted to run to the soccer field like his “baba” (Benjamin). He kept his pudgy little hand gripped firmly on mine and told me, “No, Mama. Baba’s five. I’m two. Hold my hand.” And that was the most sensible thing I’ve heard all week.

Time is our most precious commodity. It’s the only thing we don’t get back or earn on a success ladder. It’s in the very human concept of time that God creates space for the rhythm of relationships.

Please pray for this event this weekend!

Southpoint Church is hosting workshops for moms called "Essential Conversations". We're talking Biblical perspective on big topics and taking home practical tools to engage with your kids at every stage of development.

You’ll never believe this. We saved Two Oceans Aquarium last night. And it didn’t even know it needed saving. We held down the floors with mighty muscles, uncovered evidence of the Joker in the eel tank, secured a yellow submarine, and climbed unspeakable heights to summit Superhero Tower. It wasn’t easy, but somebody had to do it.

And then we ate crackers and muffins and took bubble baths. Top night! 🎩

Southpoint Church was full of Christmas cheer and laughing ladies today. Fifty women from all ages and stages sipped hot chocolate, snacked, decorated cookies, and participated in an oh-so-sassy Christmas re-gift game. We “stole” gifts from an almost-90 year old gem and celebrated another’s Christmas bun in the oven! 🤰(not me!!!!)

And that’s a wrap on our “At the Movies” series at @southpointct ! Shrek week’s “happily ever after” theme was just as sweet as it sounds. Benjamin and his best friend told me all about heaven over snacks, and Auntie Rachel glowed while she told me she worked with the Holy Spirit as she sewed Trudi’s Princess Fiona dress. We had lots of fun shaking things up for the series, but we kept our eyes on Jesus the whole time. He is everywhere, so why not practice finding Him in the silly and social things too?

We had an extraordinary experience this week at soccer camp. It was Benjamin's most unsheltered, "mainstream" kind of experience with boys of all different ages. It was an awkward, yet completely natural, hokey-pokey kind of experience. We were all the way in, all the way out, and then we did a lot of playing right beside them.