The Path Prepared

 On Tuesday (November 25) we ventured out to Durban to go to uShaka Marine World! This is Africa’s largest aquarium! We got there in the morning and enjoyed a seal show and dolphin show! We walked all through the aquarium. Here we got to see them feeding the stingrays, which was awesome!  This is our van! Haha we think it looks like a space vehicle. But easy to spot in a parking lot 😉 We went out for lunch after for the first time. Which went really well! Maya coloured and then enjoyed a hot dog! Haha with her being unpredictable with food we haven’t really chanced it yet but it was a good experience for all. 😊 There is a whole water park side with a pool and water slides too! We are saving this for another day! Preferably a hot day as they don’t heat any pools or water parks here in South Africa so the water can get cold! Haha  We think of you often! Especially today as I hear it is snowing back at home! We keep praying our wait is shorter than longer and will be able ...

 We are still in our long wait for citizenship for Maya, as we are about half way through! We are trying to fill our days with everything South Africa has to offer. Haha Last Saturday we went to Shongweni Farmers Market! This was such a fun day as we walked through the different tents looking at local vendors. There were a lot of clothes, jewelry, and hand woven baskets. Maya and I both got dresses. We also purchase a local painting to bring home to remember this trip! We also got lunch here as they had every and any type of food you could want!! Both kiddos slept on the way back to our Airbnb! Was a fun filled morning.  As you can see Maya is on my lap in the van. South Africa is very relaxed with children carseat rules. We rented a car seat for her which consisted of a booster seat with a back. Driving on the hwys you see kids with no seat belts on or infants in the front seat on laps. We try to keep her in her seat at all times but this girl was tired and in need of mommy s...

 It feels like it has been a while since we’ve updated! We’ve been busy with a sick little Maya and welcoming Phil’s parents!  Before Maya was sick we went to one of the close malls here and man they do not compare to our malls in Ontario. They have bowling alleys, go charts, bumper cards, arcades with massive fair size rides, movie theatres, pools you can learn to surf in! It’s just crazy! Since it was raining we learned to kill a lot of time here and will definitely be back! After this Maya had a fever for 3 days on and off and just wasn’t herself. Figured she had some sort of bug as we think her throat was sore too. Hard to know with a toddler! But we enjoyed the extra snuggles. 🥰 with her being sick we have stayed close to home. Sticking to our morning walks and maybe the beach if she’s up for it. Phils parents arrived this morning (Wednesday, Nov 19) and it’s so great to see familiar faces! They will be staying with us until we go home and will fly back together. It’s be...

We received our adoption order back last Friday! Which was about the timing they told us (they said 1-2 weeks) we got it back in 8 days. On the same day we submitted our part 2 Citizenship! This is the big wait! They say at least 30 working days for this to come back. So our waiting period begins! While we wait for this we have to go to the DHA (which is like service Ontario but way more difficult to deal with) and fill out forms to change her name on her birth certificate to Puklicz. From what we heard we will never see the birth certificate or even know if the other forms have been processed. We only need the receipt of this to submit with her Canadian passport application.  Phil went today and got all the forms, which we have heard is hard to get 1 of them. So we are grateful we got them all on the first try. We will fill them out and he’ll go back to submit them. It’s a pretty chaotic place run by such a broken system. Prayers that his next trip goes smoothly and safely would b...

 On Tuesday we left Westville area and drove to the coast to our next Airbnb in Umhlanga. What a literal breath of fresh air! ☀️ Our new place is right on the beach, with a shared pool and a wonderful boardwalk/promenade along the beach we can walk. We weren’t sure about the safety of walking the streets at our Airbnb in Westville so this has been so nice to be able to go outside and walk! We are loving it here. The kids especially love the beach. So great to have things to do right outside our door!  We will be here until early December, but will just move units and stay in the same building. We weren’t sure what we were going to book after this but we’re feeling very at home here and love the location.  This week has had some good days and some really hard days. It’s been a lot of change for Maya. We have to remember she has only really known us for 2 weeks. In that span of time she has left the baby home, drove in a van, slept in a pack n play, stayed with us in Westvi...

 We’ve been busy trying to fill our days but also have slow days bonding as a family. On Monday we went to a safari at Phezulu Safari Park and it was so amazing!! We tried to catch the 10am safari but we were a little late. So we went to go check out some reptiles while we waited for the 11am safari. Here we saw crocodiles, turtles and lots of snakes! Haha  After the crocodiles we went on our safari! In true African fashion we took this cool, yet very bumpy vehicle! The view of the country side was the first thing that we saw and it was breathtaking!  Then we had the most beautiful view of all! Giraffes 🦒 and zebras 🦓!! It was so amazing to see them up close in person. Maya fell asleep after this and had a solid 40 min nap while we bounced around on the vehicle exploring.  What an amazing experience!! We are feeling so blessed to be able to explore this beautiful country and all it holds. 

  We tried to hike to a waterfall! Didn’t realize it was so far and didn’t make it. Was good to get out and walk though! There were mountain bike trails everywhere. Jo loved this track because it had lots of jumps! Just because she’s so cute 🥰 It’s been a couple days since Maya officially became ours! And we have been slowly getting into a new routine and just trying to do normal life here as we wait now for paper work. Which goes something like this: 1. We are now waiting for our adoption order to go through. This doesn’t happen til after Court, which we did last Thursday. It was very casual in an office with a stack of papers and inch thick! We legally have signed to have Maya as our daughter but the paperwork needs to go through all the correct hands, etc. this usually takes about 1-2 weeks. So hopefully by the weekend it will be done.  2. Next we apply for  birth certificate in her new last name. We will have to go to the “service ontario” of South Africa and do this...