a dream fulfilled.

Hi everyone! Sorry it's taken me SO LONG to update again!! It's been so busy here with diarrhea, runny noses, and remembering when everyone takes their medicine. :)

HOWEVER, on one of my days off this past week (Wednesday), I was able to go to Pilanesburg National Park with most of the girls and Russell and one of his friends from the States who's visiting!!! For those of you who don't know, that means that I WENT ON A REAL AFRICAN SAFARI!!!! It was so awesome! We basically were all in this big van which luckily had many windows and drove around teeny dirt roads through this huge park. About five minutes into the park, we saw a herd of wildebeest and zebra, all munching on some grass! I was so excited. I kept saying, "These are REAL! There are real live ZEBRAS right in front of our CAR!!" Everyone kindof laughed at me, because I seriously said it so many times, but they were just as excited. :)

I also saw rhinos, giraffes, elephants, springbok (kindof like gazelle/deer looking things...they are the name of the South African rugby team, so they're kindof a big deal), many different kinds of gazelle things like impala and kudu, this huge snake sunning itself on a rock, hippo, warthogs (they seriously looked just like Pumba from the Lion King!), etc. etc. I was SO EXCITED!!! I have so many pictures that I will post to Facebook, then I will post the link on my blog for you guys. My favorites were the elephants and the giraffes!! I love them!! And they were SO big!! I couldn't believe that I was able to see all of those animals in the wild! That is one thing that I have always said that I wanted to do before I died...so I guess I am one step closer to dying! Haha just kidding...

But speaking of dying, I couldn't believe it when I heard that Michael Jackson died yesterday! That was the first thing I heard when I woke up today-Kat looked at me and said, "Hey, did you know that Michael Jackson died?" It was really weird to wake up to that comment haha. It is all over the radio today, so we have heard many, many Michael Jackson songs. I have declared to all of the children in Starfish that every time one of his songs comes on, we need to have a mini dance party. It is HILARIOUS-I basically just dance around them looking like an idiot, and they all stare at me and laugh. I am so glad that there are no videos or pictures of this. :)

Well, I will update more later! Thanks to all of those who are praying for Auntie Mary! A good update on the baby who was in the hospital is that she is back home now! She is doing much, much better, and has even been weaned off a liter of oxygen (she was on 2.5, now she's just on 1.5). Praise God!

All to Him,
Emily