Day 9

We made it through customs in Durban and Jo'burg fine and had no problems with the strike, so much to our family's happiness looks like we'll make it home just as planned :)...leaving here for Frankfort, Germany shortly.

We had our last prayer and worship time with the staff this morning. They gave us our official Zulu goodbye...someone starts to sing and then they all form a line of singing and dancing and one by one we all hugged goodbye. Saying goodbye to the staff wasn't any easier than it was to tell the children goodbye. Many of these people I can't even communicate with but the way I have seen them give of themselves in serving these children grabbed my heart and made me love them without having to use words to communicate. I made sure to have a good cry before I went in to see the kids because I didn't want to confuse them...I guess they expected me too though because several asked me 'mama brandy, where are your tears?'...believe me I wanted to allow them to come...I wanted to lay myself down in that floor and drown myself in them...especially when Nqobile asked if he could come home on the airplane with us...if we would be back next week? next month? 6 months from now? God sweetly allowed us to make it to the door before our tears began to flow. How do you respond to that question anyway...there isn't a good one. The truth is I don't know if I will ever see him or the others again and I cannot bear the thought of that. The truth is I wanted to bring him home and my heart is torn into a million pieces right now.