Perspective

I have been seeing everyone's fall break photos on Facebook this week and more than once have thought how nice it would be to be 'where they are' instead of here.  Andrew heard me share with Chapel where some of her friends were vacationing this week and he replied, "How cool is it that you got to spend your fall break in Africa?!"  My thoughts hadn't been "how cool it is to be in Africa", but "how can I get out of Africa and get home".  So it made me think. I realized we are in Africa! Sometimes I forget! I can get so focused on being home that I forget we are basically spending a very long 'fall break' in Africa.  My perspective changed and I chose to spend today like I would if we were on a vacation for fall break, because really, we are on vacation. No work, warm weather and palm trees! I noticed today there were palm trees.  Today we went up to the International School where Andrew played basketball and the kids and I swam.  I chose not to view it as a way to pass time, but to really enjoy my time. It's sad to think I could be on top of a mountain, at a beautiful pool overlooking the city and have to consciously make a choice to enjoy it.  Sad and embarrassing, but true.

Cara, Chapel & Liam in the huge 3 foot kid pool.  Notice the beautiful palm trees :)

After swimming and playing on the playground we took a short walk up to Quality to grab some snacks before heading back to The Lodge.  Jude Daniel often rides on my back for shorter walks (it's the popular thing to do here).  He must have been exhausted because he fell asleep and stayed asleep even after we got to Quality...the problem was his head kept sliding down resulting in this:

Once back 'home' we had a little to eat, took naps, then got ready to go to dinner.  We were invited to eat at the home of the International School's basketball coach. He lives on the same side of town as us, so it was a quick and easy drive.  The Newsome's joined us along with 2 other families who were from DC, South Africa and the coach is from Wisconsin.  Dinner was amazing! Steak, chicken, fish, mashed potatoes, veggies, homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice cream!  We ate outside on the porch looking at a beautiful sunset, then a sky full of stars.  We even had a camp fire and the kids roasted marshmallows! It was wonderful! I felt like we were sitting in someone's backyard in the states.

Had our day ended there, it would have been a great day, but it didn't! My dad's family was all together for a family breakfast at my grandparent's house.  Everyone was there which is pretty unusual, even my dad who lives in Georgia.  So we got to facetime them ALL!  I hadn't talked to my grandparents or my dad since being here, so it was so nice to get to see their faces and talk to them.  Seeing everyone and introducing Jude to all of them was the perfect ending to a great day!

I'm sure today would've been a good day no matter what, but I think it ended up being an amazing day because I chose to change my perspective.