Coming Home

 On our last day at New Day we were supposed to be going to little Laurie's birthday party but they surprised us and had a joint birthday-going away party planned! They had this nice cake and card for us.

 Everyone singing to us. As you can see, Axer (bottom left) was really sad that we had to leave... haha ;)

 

It was so hot that day that the frosting starting melting and sliding down our cake when we were holding it up for pictures!! 

It was a good thing that it was so hot though because it is tradition at New Day to pour water on the birthday person (and when I say "pour water" I mean you have 16 kids and some adults chasing you around and drenching you with water!) and even though it wasn't our birthday, they still included us in that tradition! So we were glad it was a hot day so we didn't freeze! After we finished our cake everyone but the two of us and little Laurie started quietly disappearing. We looked outside to see a small army of kids each equipped with glasses and pitchers of water just waiting for us with mischievous little smiles on their faces.

 

 Dane pretty much just gave in and let the water pouring begin.

 

He even stopped so Phillip could pour water in his pockets. We really did have water everywhere when they were done with us! Also you can see Malenga walking over, getting ready to do his damage with that bucket and a big smile :)

 I, on the other hand, wasn't about to just stand there and let them get me. They had to catch me first if they were going to pour water on me! Christina was up for the challenge.

 Unfortunately for me so were Ben, Francis and Gertrude and those little legs move fast!

 Hildah joined in on the fun once the kids caught me. They got me so wet that I had to borrow Laurie (Wilcoxs') chitenge for an extra layer because my dress was becoming see-through with the wetness.

 Here they are just lining up with their cups of water.

Annnd then Malenga showed up with his bucket of water..we were SOAKED when they were all done with us!

 But we had our revenge. We gave everyone big, wet hugs!

Some of them liked it and ran up to get in on the fun.

 And others we had to chase. You can see the birthday girl in blue, little Laurie, shivering from getting water poured on her too.

 Cynthia was least excited about her wet hug but I gave her one anyway :)

 We gave Hildah a wet-hug sandwich to get her back!

 The kids helped us catch Lizzy so we could give her one too!

The next morning we said our sad good-byes at New Day and hopped in the bus to go to the Choma bus station. At this point 3 of the 4 vehicles at New Day were broken down so the only one they had working was this bus. So Wes, Laurie, Dane and I had to take the public bus to Livingstone like Dane and I did for our safari. Hildah, Martha and Abby were all heading out on their holiday break so we got to enjoy one last ride with them. I like this picture because little Laurie and big Laurie are sitting together in the front seat :) Little Laurie was excited to go to Lusaka with her mama Hildah to visit their family.

 Martha was also going to Livingstone so she waited at the bus station with us. This is us guarding our luggage and our table while waiting for the bus. Seats are limited so once you get a table you do not leave it!

 We spent 2 nights in Livingstone and got to enjoy some quality time with Wes and Laurie for pretty much the first time on our trip since everything was so crazy at New Day the whole time we were there! So we enjoyed it a lot. And Wes enjoyed getting beat by me at cards haha ;) We went back to the market Dane and I had gone to when we were in Livingstone for our safari but it was much more fun this time because everyone knew who Wes was! It was really fun to watch him bargain with and just talk to all the Zambian shop owners. We even got free cokes! It pays to know the right people I guess :)

 For our last night in Africa we got to enjoy a yummy meal with Wes and Laurie at the Golden Leaf, a delicious Indian restaurant. We had a great time hearing some stories from Wes and Laurie's many missionary experiences. It was really fun!

 The next day we played one last round of cards with Wes and Laurie and were off to start our long journey home. We flew from Livingstone, Zambia to Johannesburg, South Africa (the day after Nelson Mandella's funeral but we didn't see any presidents or anything because they were all flying in and out of the smaller regional airports where security could be controlled more) and had a 7 hour layover there. That airport was actually our favorite from our whole trip (including Europe) so the 7 hours went by fast!

I was sitting on a bench waiting for Dane to go to the bathroom when I saw a big group of these guys walking by wearing matching track suits. I figured it was some sort of South African team but when I looked at the back of their jackets it said ZAMBIA!! So I realized that this was probably the Zambian soccer team which is just too funny that we would see them in SA when we had been in Zambia for 2.5 months. These guys are like celebrities in Zambia because soccer is such a popular sport there.

 So I just had to go up and get a picture with them (and of course asked to see if they were the Zambian soccer team- they were!)

Next we had an 11 hour flight to London, a 6 hour layover there and an 8.5 hour flight to Chicago.

 When we were walking up to board our flight from London to Chicago, the lady taking tickets told us that we had been upgraded to premium economy. We weren't really sure what that meant but when we walked on the plane we saw that we were in the section right behind first class! We had bigger, nicer seats that reclined more, had foot rests, bigger tvs, and even video game remotes for Dane :) He immediately jumped right in and started playing games before we even took off the ground so I had to get this picture of him and no he wouldn't look at me because he was too into his game- haha too funny! 

This flight ended up being crazy all around for us...about half way through the flight I looked over at the man you see in the above picture sitting right across the isle from Dane and he appeared to be having a stroke. His wife was freaking out and all the flight attendants came over. They put him on oxygen and were talking about diverting our flight to Canada to get him to a hospital! They ended up finding a doctor on board (who, we noticed, came back from first class hehe) and he did some tests on the guy and found out that he had just been super dehydrated and that the altitude had caused him to pass out. I started drinking lots of water after that. lol

 The first major culture shock we experienced coming home was at our first American meal at the Chicago airport. We went to chilli's and ordered water to drink. When our waitress brought it out we both had a moment of shock because this was the first time in about 3 months that we were getting clean, free, water. And it was served in a glass (not a bottle we bought) with ice and a straw. In Europe and Zambia we had to pay for any water we drank at restaurants and had to always get bottled water. We could never use ice at restaurants in Africa because we didn't know if the water would be clean. And even at the orphanage, although their water has been tested to be clean, our bodies still weren't totally used to it and it's not totally clear because it has a lot of lime in it. So this was a pretty big deal.

Another shock at the Chicago airport was how stinkin COLD it was!! I think the high was like 15 degrees that day and we hadn't felt air that cold for about 8 months since we had left after summer in the States and went straight to 100+ degree weather with no air conditioning every day in Zambia! So we were freeeeezing walking on the ramp from the plane into the airport!

So after a pretty exhausting 45-hour journey home, we could say we made it and it did feel pretty nice to be home. :)

Another shock for us coming home was how clean (of bugs) all the houses here are. When we got to Dane's parents' house in Beatrice our first night, we just stood in the kitchen at 2am staring at how clean the walls were and how there were no spiders or bugs anywhere. We felt kind of weird sleeping without our bug net that night too- and we felt safe from bugs!

Dane and I got to experience too many things to even begin to explain during our time in Zambia. We are thankful that we had the ability to show you some of them through pictures. However, the reality is that you simply cannot capture those moments of growth deep in our hearts in a picture and so it leaves me at a loss of words to explain some of the most pivotal and life-changing moments in our journey. What I can tell you is that when you follow the call of God to go and show His love to people across the nations, He will move in your heart in ways too deep to even understand at the time (as we are learning now). And the growth you experience will give you a deeper understanding of who He is and of His wonderful love. Dane and I are forever changed and forever thankful for the things we gained and learned in Zambia. It was a wild ride for sure but we honestly wouldn't have wanted it any other way.