5am?!

Waking up daily at 5am has serious benefits! For example, I get up, have some coffee, eat breakfast, and read a book or read my Bible or pray. By the time I'm finished with my morning routine, it's not even 6:30. But there are some disadvantages to our new routine. Like last night - I'm a night owl by nature but I couldn't keep my eyes open past 8pm. I was literally in bed and asleep before 8:30. I guess you could say we are adjusting well. We go to bed early and get up early. It's very different from life in the States, but we are putting the pieces of our new life together.

Jadon on his first day of school 

We have started all of the routine matters for our little family, including school for Jadon. Thankfully God knew our plans to move here and get started on this project, and we arrived just in time for the new school year to commence on Wednesday, Sept. 9th. Jadon will be attending Rapale Christian School, run by a fabulous team of Zimbabwean teachers. He has also been approved to enter 1st grade rather than kindergarten! It was not cheap to get him enrolled but God is providing and I'm thankful for my husband who harped on saving, saving, saving before we left the States. And, if we were paying for private school in the States we would probably be paying per month what we paid for a whole term. Due to us not having a vehicle yet, we have been able to pay for the "school bus" to take Jadon to and from school each day.

My nieces (Grace & Mary) & nephews
(Emmanuel & Gabriel) 

We are now searching for a car as well. We can get around fairly easily with local transports called Chappas, which are basically large vans with 80 people packed inside. Sometimes the sliding door hangs open because there are too many people to close the door! I'm going to go off on a quick tangent here - if you're like me and you have had your cute little Lexus with leather seats in the past (before totaling it, ehemm), the good Lord will humble you when riding Chappas and trying to get around here. It's fairly easy to get around but everything comes at a price. For example, I've held other people's kids, sat next to chickens and even had a goat strapped to the roof of one. And the roads are so bad, it feels like going four wheeling for the first 10 minutes of the 15 minute ride to town. All this to say that EVENTUALLY we will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle with some clearance from the ungodly pot holes that may or may not swallow a small truck.

Riding in the back of a chappa with about
 15 other people

We are still living with family and we are trying to make a plan for our next move. We have a friend we were going to be living with but she was very sick. She will be home soon so we will need to decide if we should move in with her or stay with our family. At least with family, we feel comfortable and know what we can do to be helpful in the house. We will likely stay with family until we are able to move into our own place, on our land. We will continue to pray about it and would appreciate your prayers, too!

We have already submitted our building plans to be made into accurate and official plans for construction, and we should see the first draft either today or tomorrow. Once we have the final draft, we will submit copies of our passports, a letter from the secretary where we purchased our land, and the building plans, and the rest will be God's hands. The government officials will be the ones to determine the cost of the leglaization, and the length of time before the governor signs off with his apprival. Some individuals have waited months for this process to be completed and others have waited years. Some have paid heavy, heavy fees and others have paid next to nothing. We are praying that God will see our efforts and He will multiply them by moving things along in His timing. We know we were prepared for this exact moment by the Lord, and we are trusting Him to bring us into the next phase. Please pray alongside us for God's hands to do what is needed.

Other than the basic adjustments, we are all doing extremely well. Jadon enjoys his cousins, loves all of his new aunties & uncles, and none of us have been sick yet. Thank you for taking the time to read this - we are humbled daily by your support and love. Please done forget us in your prayers!

With love from Moz ~ The Olaniyi's