My Half Birthday

I must share that I have the best husband in the entire world. Last week, amongst the craziness of life, he remembered that is was my half-birthday and he surprised me with gifts, flowers, and candles. He had this planned far enough in advance to have something brought over for me from the States with the team that was here. A iMac Magic Mouse. What a guy!

Thankfully we had made brownies for dessert that night and he used it as my cake. To stay in the theme of "half" he put half the amount of candles on one-half of the cake. He's not only wonderful but clever!

To clarify why he surprised me with a half celebration, it is because my birthday is in December along with our anniversary and Christmas. He always feels like I get gypped because of that and we've joked about having half-birthdays and anniversaries but never have done it before.

Thanks Babe-love you so much!

Our 8 year Anniversary

Today Brian and I have been married 8 years. Wow, times sure goes by quickly when you are having fun. We've been so blessed throughout our 8 years of marriage-we've experienced a lot of wonderful things together. Our two most precious gifts from God-Liam and Lindie came along in the past 2 1/2 years and have filled our lives with so much joy.

We also have spent half of our married life living in South Africa and loving it. The Lord has given us so many blessings to be thankful for.

Last week we took 5 days off and went on a holiday to Uvongo and the Indian Ocean. We relaxed, took naps, played in the ocean, visited a light house, and ate banana pancakes at a banana farm. The kids stayed home with grandma and grandpa-so we truly had a relaxing time. We discovered that this was our first time to travel alone in South Africa since 2005. We've decided we should make it an annual holiday.

{Indian Ocean}

{View of the ocean from the balcony of our flat}

{Lighthouse in Port Edwards. We climbed to the top

but couldn't go outside on the balcony because of the high winds}

{Brian on some big rocks out in the ocean}

{We spent a few hours everyday playing in the big ocean waves}

{Enjoyed watching the monkeys}

When Mommy is gone interesting things happen

While the team was here, Brian stayed home with the kids on a Saturday morning and I took the team to the hospital to visit some children and onto Thabong for a traditional township lunch. Besides watching the kids, Brian was also left with instructions to make a salad for supper that night. When I arrived home about 4 hours later, the salad was made, the kitchen clean, Lindie was napping and Liam looked like this. I didn't even ask...Ya gotta love it!

{It looks like he is wearing shorts, but it really is his underwear}

Liam "Where the peanut"

Yesterday after picking up Liam from preschool, he came home and wanted a snack. He took his snack of peanuts and raisins to the living room and sat of the floor to play . Lori Wegner, from the POG team, was sitting in the living room with him and I was in our bedroom putting things away. Pretty soon I heard Lori say "I think Liam put a peanut up his nose." I came into the room and Liam said with his hands in the air "where the peanut" and then he pointed to his nose.

I found a flash light and looked up his nose and found the peanut. It took a bit to find it because it was really high. Lori and I were trying to show Liam how to sneeze but he couldn't understand what we wanted, he would just throw his head forward like a sneeze. I sent Brian a text and told him about Liam and he came home shortly after that. Before Brian arrived, I tried getting the peanut out with tweezers but the snot around it was making it too slippery. When daddy arrived he also tried the tweezer but that was not going to work.

Only Brian would think of this. He taped a drinking straw to the end of our vacuum hose to suck out the peanut. It was a bit different but it sure did work. And of course I had to take a video of it. Hope you enjoy the video of the Liam and the Peanut.

{Disclaimer: Do not try this at home. Serious injury could occur to the nasal and sinus cavity if not done under the proper supervision of a Master Building in South Africa. If your child gets a peanut stuck in their nose please contact your local doctor and don't take our advice. But it did work and we didn't have any medical bills afterwards.}

Hosting Point of Grace Team

On Sunday Brian picked up a group of 6 from Point of Grace. All the team members are returning for their second, third or even the fourth time. So, its kinda like welcoming family back.

Because we don't have guest housing built yet we are hosting 2 two members in our home, 2 at the O'Tools house and 2 at some friend's house. Amber and I make lunch and deliver it to the property and everyone gather's at our home for supper, team devos and games in the evening.

The team arrived in Welkom Sunday night around 10pm and we had them working by 10AM Monday. By lunch time on Monday the team had already moved 280 cement blocks, that each weigh 32 pounds, to the property. After lunch, they jumped right into learning how to lay the blocks. By the end of the day, they had walls window high all the way around and the walls without windows were a bit higher.

This morning the team visited Dunamis Christian School and received a nice tour and then gave out backpacks and school supplies to children who needed them. The kindergarten and preschool classes sang songs and recited scripture for us. It was a wonderful morning and we were blessed by everything.

The rest of the day was spent building the house--yeah. The walls are almost roof high. You can clearly see the outline of all windows and doorways. The progress being made is awesome, encouraging, and exciting. Everything is now becoming a true reality. Trusses have been delivered for the roof and windows are ready to be picked up.

Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow and over the next two weeks.

Being Flexible-that's what life is all about!

Ah, life has been Good, Hectic, Encouraging, Always Changing & Never Dull.

From August 4-17, we hosted a group of guys from ISU and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into the groove of having teams. All of the guys stayed with the O'Tools but we were involved daily with the team.

Brian organized all the daily projects and kept everyone busy at the property. I was mainly involved with helping Amber cook at their house. Everyday around 11Am, the kids and I would go to their house to make lunch for the group and then take it to the property. We made a lot of sandwiches! In the afternoons, I'd go back and help with supper preparations. Sometimes we would join the group for supper and other times just headed home. We never knew when the guys were going to stop working for the day-so supper needed to be ready anytime between 6-7:30pm. {This is one area where flexibility was important}

{24 tune-apple sandwiches}

{Lunch at the property}

Sometime the kids and I would visit the property 2 or 3 times a day to keep up with the progress being made. I need lots of pictures and video! On really busy work days {pouring cement} we provide mid morning and mid afternoon snacks and drinks. Liam loves visiting daddy and the guys at the property. It is a true highlight of his day. I often don't know what Brian will think of next for Liam to enjoy. Check out the latest video of Liam! Who would have thought? But it worked out just fine! Liam loves watching this video clip. Meredith also enjoyed her turn. By far, this isn't the craziest thing he has done-I do believe riding in the cement mixer still tops it all! {to view Liam riding in the cement mixer check this post out http://niehoffsa.blogspot.com/2010/06/unconventional-daddy.html}

Starting the 1st Children's House at The Village!

{The Guys from ISU}

After working two 12 hour days of shoveling cement, sand and stone into cement mixers, the guys from ISU jumped right in, on Wednesday, to start the foundation of the first children's house. These guys worked so hard and fast, that they dug the majority of the foundation in a day. Their goal was to dig and prepare the foundation by Friday, so the foundation could be poured on Monday. Ambitious goal and they achieved it.

{The guys digging the foundation for the children's house}

Thursday they finished digging the foundation, compacting the top stone, laying the plastic down and installing the steel for the foundation. Friday half of the guys made bricks with Louie and the other half formed up the foundation. By the afternoon everything was ready to go for Monday. {Exciting}

{Brian talking with a building inspector during the pour, all is A-O-K}

Around 6:30AM the guys started in shoveling and mixing cement again. This Monday, the weather was awesome-sunny, warm, and no wind. When I visited around 9AM, with a delivery of muffins, they were already 1/4 of the way done. The guys were working super fast. {of course they had a lot of experience from the week before}. When we delivered lunch around noon, the guys were more then 3/4 of the way done.

{lots of sand, stone and cement to shovel}

{the guys using the humongous screed}

They finished pouring of the foundation by 2pm and had everything cleaned up by 3:30pm. {Super exciting!} We now have 2 foundations completed and will soon be laying bricks and making houses!

{Brian power troweling the foundation}

The Lord's Hand Is In It All

Since May Brian has been working with a local architect and engineer to get all the paperwork and drawings submitted for 3 building permits-1 staff house and 2 children's houses. Everything seems to take so long to accomplish-there seems to always be one more thing that needs changed or waiting on one more quote for windows ect. Finally about 2 weeks ago everything was completed and the application was submitted for our building permits.

Brian has been working the city building inspector since the start, but all things take time. The head guy in charge of approving or denying building plans is way behind, all building plans are supposed to be approved/rejected within 30 days. We were told that some people have been waiting for more then 6 months. Ugg.

After waiting about one week, Brian then started visiting the guy in charge, just asking if our plans could be rushed through and trying to answer any questions he might have. Brian explained we had a group of Americans coming to help us build these houses and we really needed these permits. Brian has become very gifted in explaining what we are doing and then asking people to help, in this case rush our plans through. The guy said he would see what he could do and told Brian to come back Thursday at 2pm. So in due course, Brian went that morning to make sure he remembered about the 2'O clock meeting and to provide more materials for him.

The afternoon meeting went very well. The house foundations were designed by a local engineer so there was no problems there, but he did try to find problems with our block making methods. After a phone call to the company in Cape Town, an email and a 30 minute meeting, Brian left with all 3 permits for the houses! Praise God!

What you need to understand that this is completely of the Lord-nothing that we have done but only the Lord's desire to see things continue on. There are 180 plans submitted before ours, some were submitted 6 months ago and those people are still waiting. As Brian left the office, the staff members asked Brian how he managed to get his permits so quickly. All the amazement and glory has been given to God.

Please rejoice with us and give God the praise!

{Finally preparations on the foundation were completed on Friday}

Friday the city inspector and foundation engineer both signed off for their inspection and the guys finished the last of the prep work for pouring the foundations. Tomorrow morning, Monday August 9, the guys will start around 6AM {Sun up} in mixing and pouring the first foundation at Restoring Hope Village. We have a team of 6 ISU guys here to help, in all there will be 12 guys working all day until this is completed. Please pray for safety, wonderful weather and wisdom in all that must be completed.

{On Monday this pile of rock and stacks of cement will become our foundation}

What A Day!?!?

Brian always has the best stories and since he won't blog tonight about his day, I am going to share his story. Disclaimer: We have learned that all the plans we make are plans that will be changed by something unplanned.

The day began like this: Brian met Louie to unmold the bricks. They quickly saw that the bricks were not yet ready so they left to come back later in the day.

Brian goes to Phillip V. office to get his signature on a bank paper so he can make a change on one of RHI's accounts.

Brian then went to the bank to give the letter to RHI's business banker only to be informed that the letter doesn't have a key phrase that it should have. So, Brian decided to take care of some additional business at the bank and goes to the teller to get two bank guaranteed checks for the municipality to start the rezoning process for our property. The teller informs Brian that he must have 2 signatures for bank guaranteed checks. So, Brian calls Louie and gets him to come and sign a slip. Finally with the bank checks he leaves the bank.

Brian then goes to get another letter signed by Phillip with the additional phrase included. No time to go back to the bank at this point however.

Brian is now at the property and the city workers are there to install our water meter. Hooray-they dug the hole like 2 weeks ago.

(video of the hole being dug)

The delay has occurred because the city doesn't have all the materials needed to install the water meter. The city can't go out and purchase the necessary materials because they haven't paid their bill to the supplier. The city workers arrived with what they thought were the right materials. When Brian arrived he saw the materials they were using and told them that was not going to work. The head guy came to look at the progress and also said, as soon as the water is turned back on the water pressure will blow that pipe. So the workers left to find something different. They came back with a new water meter. We were required to purchase a 50mm (2 inch) water meter. However, because they are short on the correct piping they decided to give us an 80mm water meter because they had the correct materials. When Brian came back to check on their progress he saw how they were going to install the water meter and he said, no no that will not work. They had decided to go right through the fence and then leave it there. They said we could notch out the cement fence around the meter. No no this will not work. Then the workers demanded Coke and Chips (french fries) and took a break. ((Brian bought them a Coke, no chips))

(this is how they wanted to install the meter. What were they thinking?)

During this time Brian also had a side converstaion with one of the city workers. This guy told Brian that he was 37 yrs old but looks really young, Brian agreed with that statement. This guy continued to say that he can tell 13 yr old girls that he is 17 yrs old and the girls believe him and sleep with him. He said he has to be careful and not get caught or he could go to jail for statutory rape. ((What a crazy conversation. And why tell this to a person you don't know? And how sad and disgusting is this? But this is reality in South Africa))

Back to the water meter. Because Brian won't let them go through the fence they had to leave to find different materials. They finally came back with a different water meter again. The water meter size is now 100mm (big enough to hook up a fire hydrant) all because they don't have 50mm piping for the water meter we purchased. So the city is giving us a water meter that has a capacity of putting out fires for the same price as a regular residential meter.

Brian said the materials they came up with are still not completely correct but he thinks it will work. The new pipe is being held together with wire and rocks. The workers quickly did it like that and covered it up with dirt. So time will tell if it holds or if we have leaks but we now have a water meter! If it leaks it will be on the city side of the meter and not ours.

In the mean time, Brian had to make two more visits to the bank to get the changes to the account complete. The bank is never an easy place to get things done. By the end of the day he did accomplish that task also.

Just another day in Africa...

Liam and His Dirt Bike!

Shortly before Liam's first birthday, Brian sold my dirt bike because I rarely used it and he bought a small quad bike and this little dirt bike to replace it. At the time he was teaching the kids at The Pines how to ride a dirt bike-so it was the perfect teaching size. It was also the perfect size for Liam's first dirt bike, for when he is a little bigger. Since Liam was about 10 months old he had been riding with Brian and he has always LOVED it. His love for dirt bikes and fun naturally comes from his father!

Christmas in July!

We have had a fantastic week. On Monday, the container we shipped from Iowa in March arrived! Hip Hip Hooray is all that needs to be said, but I will say a little more.

The container was schedule to arrive much earlier than July, like May 29. But because of the South Africa transport strike in May the harbors were back logged. Last Friday we received word that the container would be arriving to us in Welkom on Monday. We were told we would be receiving the truck company's phone number so we could stay in touch as to the time it would arriving. Well, this is Africa and that call never came. The call that did come rang at 4:45AM on Monday morning. The truck driver was at a gas station waiting to be escorted to the location. So, Brian got up, dressed and escorted the driver to the property. The crane wasn't able to get to the property until 10AM, which actually turned into 11.

(Lindie and Pops)

(Kids playing on the rock pile)

To help celebrate this joyous occasion and to give some little people an educational experience, we had a small crowd cheering on the crew as they unloaded the container. Nana and Pops (Trish and Lawrence) brought their three grandchildren, Dannie-a close friend, the O'Tool gang and our family gathered to wait and watch the BIG moment. Because the crane was almost an hour late and the property only consists of dirt, a pile of rock and a pile of sand the kids found great entertainment on the rock pile. They also received a bath as soon as we got home.

(Guys hooking up the chains)

The container was safely unloaded. From there we headed to The Pines to move the O'Tool's container and then our container. Now all three containers reside at the property. On Tuesday, we spent the day repacking our personal containers to make room for the items coming out of the container that just arrived. More to come on that later...

(moving our containers from The Pines)

Just know that we are enjoying Christmas in July. It is winter here so it is rather fitting with the weather.

Germany vs England

On Sunday we had the opportunity to go to Bloemfontein with Louie, Amber, & Ben to see the Germany vs England game.
When we bought the tickets we were thinking/hoping that the US would be playing in this game. We were expecting the US to be second in their category not #1 but the US ended up being first which left us watching this match. It was an excellent game to see!



We were able to leave all the kids back in Welkom with babysitters, so we had a fantastic day all around. We arrived plenty early to allow us to get good parking (so we could get out quickly, because we didn't want our babysitters to get stuck all night), eat lunch, take in all the soccer festivities of watching crazy fans & just to enjoy ourselves. Hey you only go to a World Cup game once in your life.

Brian & I weren't exactly sure who we wanted to cheer for, but we decided to go for Germany. Our decision was based on three very scientific reasons 1. We've both have been to Germany 2. We have friends that live in Germany & 3. We have 2 German vehicles. It was a good thing we decided to cheer for them because they ended up winning.