Hippos, Rhinos, Giraffes...Oh My!!

Well - today we took a mental health day! We promised Liam that we would take him to a game park to see elephants and so today we awoke at 5:30 am, rallied the troops, gulped down some Cheerios, introduced ourselves to our driver and guide for the day "Pete", jumped in his mini bus and headed two hours north to Pilanesberg National Park for the day...I know - I've been studying Paul for so long that my sentences are starting to look like his....they just go on and on and on and on :)!

Anywho - It was amazing! We were only metres away from giraffe, rhinos, Zebras, wildabeast, springbok, waterbok, hippos, warthogs, more wildabeast, impala, more wildabeast...let's just say there were tons of wildabeast, and lots of elephant pooh!  Liam loved the pooh! However, there were no elephants...anywhere! We spent from 9 am until 4 pm driving around the 52000 hectare park and no elephants. All Liam wanted to see was an elephant! I began to wonder - seriously God! We are in S.A. in a game park known for it's elephants and all my 4 year old wants - besides be able to go home and see grandma and grandpa - is an elephant! Please God let the boy see an elephant...just one elephant...please God just one elephant! 

But all we saw were...you guessed it Wildabeast!!! Tons and tons of Wildabeast! We were literally within a km of the gate, the gate was actually in sight as we were getting ready to leave the park for the day when all of a sudden T spied something moving on the hillside up to our right. Pete stopped the mini bus, pulled his binoculars and sure enough - it was a honkin' huge Wildabeast disguised as an elephant...kidding...it was a monstrous elephant, lumbering his way along with his huge trunk swinging rhythmically like a scene from Dumbo. He was quite a ways  away but he was an elephant, and Liam saw him, and he was soooo pumped! I was a little teary behind the old sunglasses as I thanked God for just one elephant!

As we made the two hour trip home I was reminded that our God is the God of the one elephant! And so, I turned my thoughts and prayers to our pending visa. He knows the desires of our heart, he loves to give good gifts to his children, and even though it might be at the last minute - in his time, and his way, I believe he will come through! And so, as we blog tonight with still no answers about when our visa will come through, we are comforted that our God is the God of the one elephant!

We spoke to the other Canadian couple who are with us here and they checked in at the High Commission today. Apparently our medical visas have not arrived yet and no medical visa means no permanent resident visa. We also found out from our travel agent that there are no tickets available to fly out of Jo-burg until after the 20th of April!!! Which means if the visa does not come through by Thursday - we will be stuck in S.A. until the end of the month! This is heartbreaking news but we are hanging in there - praying for a miracle and hoping that the High Commission will come through! 

Please pray for me as I go and try to meet with the officer in charge of our case tomorrow morning at 10 am S.A. time. Pray that she would look upon us with favour and would choose to expedite the process so that we can get home. Please also pray for Stockwell Day and his assistant Barbara that God would give them wisdom as they work with us to try and get us home! Thanks again to all those who are walking with us through this incredibly challenging journey! There is no way we could do this without you! You will never know how much your prayers and support mean to us! We love you all and miss you much...and that's the McKnight Report!