That Rollercoaster

Never mind the 'Big One ' in Blackpool, we've got our own personal rollercoaster and it's way more exciting/frightening than the static sort you find at funfairs!

Well, we're home...... without the baby!!! It has been a very emotional time in Bloemfontein. The birth mother has been induced 4 times - poor woman, but nothing happened. Her due date isn't till Sunday, so we're not quite sure why they advised us to come this week, but there we go, there must have been a reason.

We had some excellent family time, but it all feels very expensive to come home without the baby. That said, we spent a great afternoon and morning in Bloem' zoo, from the outside it looks really run down and dilapidated but it was brilliant inside and Joel had a great time there. We'll post some photos in the next day or so.

Despite the frustration we had the most amazing time with birth mum this morning and were able to be honest together and ask all sorts of things. She is wonderful and it is an experience that I don't think we will ever forget. She is a committed Christian (and this experience has served to mature her spiritually tremendously) and we were even able to pray together at the end. We are very humbled. It was so incredible. We were quite concerned about this meeting, but we really had nothing to worry about at all. She is thrilled that the baby will be brought up in our family and it was great to talk so openly about her experiences. We feel this was the reason for our trip to Bloem'.

So, we think it will be Paula going back up to Bloem' next week (probably around Wednesday), as the birth mother is definitely going back into hospital on Monday for more induction and possible a c-section.

Please continue to pray that the baby would be born sooner rather than later (this would really bless birth mother) and without need for further intervention by the medics. Pray too that all would go smoothly with Paula going to collect the baby, hopefully next week.