Mama's Takin' Us to the Zoo!

Mama's taking us to the zoo tomorrow! That's what our girls were singing the weekend we got the call. We had planned a weekend with the girls in Toronto and so...heads still reeling from our joyful news, basement a mess with renovations, we packed up our stuff and headed to the Toronto Zoo on perhaps the most beautiful day of the year.

We had such a beautiful day with the girls, weather wise, and other wise. We explored a new aspect of creation, and celebrated family. It was wonderful to spend time together.

We stayed in a hotel with a pool and swam at least twice a day, enjoyed meals out, and picnic lunches and watched tv in the hotel room. The girls LOVE hotel rooms and were so excited.

The other highlight, and the initial reason for the Toronto trip, was to celebrate South Africa Freedom Day with other families adopting from South Africa. The yahoo support group of families adopting from S.A. plans different events throughout the year, and one of them is Mahata Mmoho, a festival to celebrate the anniversary of the black vote in South Africa. It was a terrific day, very loud and busy, but a great celebration of black South African culture.

They had Lindiwe, a Zulu South African singer who led us in South Africa's national anthem, taught us a Zulu lullabye and sang one of her own songs. Three incredible South African dancers who study at the Creole ballet school in Toronto. They demonstrated the Gumboot dance (a dance developed as a means of communication by black miners in the gold and diamond mines), traditional stick fighting with knackberries, and other dances. They also got us dancing. The children all brought rainboots and the dancers taught them how to dance the gumboot dance. They also taught us the famous diski dance for the World Cup. Finally, the day ended with a drumming workshop for the children.

The place was packed, and the children all had an incredible time. Sara and Leah are still dancing the gumboot style dance at home!

We also caught up with former schoolmates of ours, from Marc's highschool and our university. They are also planning to adopt from South Africa. Their son Nathan and Leah hit it off and became fast friends. After the festival, we enjoyed dinner with them at a local Indian restaurant.

The weekend was fun, exciting, family oriented, and a great way to celebrate our family and the culture of our little Jeremy. We had a great time!