Our lawyers told us today that they weren’t surprised that Benjamin’s 🇿🇦 visa application was rejected because at least 70% of them are. I had called to understand our options. The options were there was no option except to bring him in this afternoon to the visa processing center to appeal.
We showed up at the end of an already-tricky day and found an over-crowded room that flabbergasted even the center’s staff and our legal representative.

This week has been full of sinus pressure and extra evening events. Frank, the very large puppy, has decided to follow me through the house, only stepping in the exact places I step at the exact time I'm stepping there. Benjamin and Wyatt have started sneaking food off each other's plates and battle-throwing it on the floor instead of eating. This is Lifa's last week of grade 11 before he starts writing exams. THEN IT'S HIS LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, AND IS ANYBODY ELSE FREAKING OUT!?!

In 2010, I found myself on a bumpy, creepy-crawly 18-hour bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to a remote village on Lake Tanganyika. I saw the brightness of the stars in the complete absence of electricity for a month. I learned to "grocery shop" at the market, and how to turn two skinny, living chickens into dinner for 20.

Lifa is halfway through 11th grade and thinking about what comes next. Benjamin and Wyatt are ever-changing whirlwinds of personality and preferences - full of tackling, tickling, and tantrumming. We are going deeper and wider all at once at church and working through a missionary kind of sting we’re encountering for the first time after 14 years. Oh, AND, I’m learning how to cohabitate in my own body with an ever-present and absolutely crazy companion called perimenopause.

Today is a public holiday in South Africa so people can vote. We aren't qualified to vote here, but we sure do pray for this nation. The kids were home from school, so I took all three brothers on a hike. I thought about how their dirty little toes had never touched American soil. And how I carry a Texas driver's license, have a Tennessee permanent address, and haven't left South Africa's rich soil in almost 10 years.