Debbie's Den: May 2011

I was very privileged to be invited to spend Easter with Liz and her family up in Mborne, a beautiful place which her parents had bought in the 80's down in the Natal Midlands.

Liz's dad kindly called us the morning we were supposed to leave and informed us of the hectic Easter traffic through Johannesburg. The tollgate at Kranskop was backed up for 20km. He advised us to take another route, through the province of Mphumalang!

The route through Mphumalanga was very scenic

We had left that morning at 6 expecting the journey to take us only 9 hours! However, at 4pm we came across this unbelievably long traffic jam just before New Castle!

We sat in this jam for well over a hour! It turned out to be a stop/go backup as they were doing roadworks up ahead! This is when our journey took a turn...

We kept getting stuck in stop/go's continuously and as darkness fell, we got lost over and over!

Eventually we stopped at an Engen Service Station were Liz put her head back and slept for a couple of hours and we were back on the road again, getting lost every now and then and patiently waiting at countless stop/go's!

Towards what we thought was the end of our journey at 2am the next morning, we found ourselves lost on a quiet, single lane road. Here, much to our horror, we hit a pothole and had a puncture.

Poor Liz insisted that I remain in the car and try keep watch while she changed the tyre!

Liz did a brilliant job of changing the tire though just as she was tightening the last screw, the car battery died as we had kept the car running for light!

I have to admit that as two ladies sitting, lost in the dark was quite an airy experience!

But God! We by God's grace had come to a holt at the top of a slope and we were able to free wheel down the hill and get the car started! MANY prayers of thanks went up to our precious heavenly Father!

We found our way back onto the highway. Liz took a detour and found the route that she was familiar with. We finally reached our destination at 5am. The 23 hour journey was truly an adventure but we really thank the Lord for His amazing protection!Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Needless to say that we slept the whole first day of our holiday and this was just the beginning of an incredibly restful week.
Liz little Noah and myself went for a 6km walk to the dam and back, with Noah's dad Mike kindly helping with the pushing of the wheelchair.
Once again, we enjoyed the most amazing scenery on our walk The mind boggles at God's amazing creation We made it to the dam and this is where Liz came for a swim early one morning. She said that she really enjoyed it though it was very cold.
Easter Sunday, though very significant for us Christians, was an exciting day for the children. Bridget, Noah's mum had brought a stencil of a bunnies paw, auntie Liz brought baby powder and covered the lawn with rabbit spore. The adults had great fun hiding dozens of Easter eggs all over the garden. The kids had great fun following the spore and finding eggs, not to mention the fun all the adults had going around with the kiddies! Even little Myla Moo 'found' herself an egg Mike had the brilliant idea of discreetly collecting the found eggs and re hiding them in the lounge. I think the adults had more fun watching the kids than what the kids had hunting for them. Auntie Liz was "the best" when she brought out these huge chocolate bunnies for them. Their parents were just a little concerned about the sugar overload but as you can see, Kenzie and Noah were more than happy to have their bunnies.
When we first arrive Myla had a runny nose. Ang, Myla's mum was sorry that she had left the children's nebulizer at home.

When Liz and I went into Pietermaritzburg to get a new tyre, I decided to buy a nebulizer with the intention of letting the children use it while we were on holiday. I often need to be nebulized during the winter due to my weak chest and it has always been a mission to get hold of one so I thought it was a good idea to finally get one.

Well, it was not even 2 days after that purchase when I became really ill with the flu and needed to use it myself, talk about God's Providence.

The good Dr Liz was very firm with me and had me stay in bed as soon as the flu started.

As a result I only ended up needing to spend one day in bed.

A very valuable lesson FINALLY learnt: "get into bed as soon as a cold makes its nasty presence known".

The rest of our holiday was spent relaxing and spending time getting to know some awesome people!