Q-Blog

In January 2005 I found out I was coming to South Africa and the most excited response I received was from Kim and Ed McConnell who told me that I would get to spend Christmas with them in South Africa. I arrived in South Africa and settled—and in September sometime I received emails inviting me to join their family for Christmas…I’ve rarely made plans one year in advance but it worked this time.

It was great. Its fun to spend Christmas with kids (I haven’t done that it a long time). Jesus, Santa, presents, family…it was all electric! And with a couple of kids like Quinn and James…I was truly blessed. Quinn, by the way, is the wittiest four year old you’ll ever meet and James is a great guy who lives in a six year old body…They form ‘team chaos’ and when they’re around everything is an adventure. They also make up a formidable snoring team that will keep you from sleeping for hours…

Kim and Ed are neat people too and nothing seems to really bother them…not even getting lost in the middle of the South African bush. They let it become a point of discussion and this includes the comments of those following (team chaos)…We didn’t get lost for long but it was still an adventure. I think we almost lost Quinn to dehydration and James made it with minor strain…All this in 30 minutes of climbing through fences and trying to distinguish a trail from a bare patch of land that stretched for more than 2 meters…

We went to a cool place called bum-slide and walked some. Most of our time was spent near the pool or eating, or running around. One of the greatest times I had was driving through the Pilansberg Game Reserve. What a treat—to see Giraffe, Elephant, Rhino, Hippo-most of the Big five and a few of the tiny five (dung beetle, millipede…). I was truly blessed and encouraged by their family and I can’t wait until they come back to live here in South Africa!

Right? You’re coming to live here? Aren’t you?