Christmas and the weekend

Another picture blog...

Christmas day walk with Isaiah... he loves being strapped to us. He fell asleep.


Isaiah all dressed up for Christmas dinner at the Serena with Grandma Klassen :)

Isaiah with mommy at Christmas dinner.... right before he fell asleep there.

He was back awake after his dinner sleep, opening presents on Christmas night...

Isaiah asleep in Grandma Quinn's arms at Heaven restaurant.


Isaiah in Grandpa Quinn's arms at the Novotel.

On Boxing Day, we brought our parents to the orphanage where Isaiah was from. The Sisters and his former caregivers were happy to see him. As always, visits there are emotional.

Merry Christmas!

Here he is on Christmas morning :) Merry Christmas to you all!

Grandparents Arrive and We Celebrate

The Grandparents arrived on Monday afternoon with much emotion! Johanna and I were happy for some reinforcements and they were happy to meet Isaiah. As you can see from the picture below, the grandmother's are all over the little guy and are happy to give him lots of love.

A few days before Christmas, we got our first family photo with Nakumat Santa :) He's the real deal.

It is so nice that both sets of Grandparents are here to celebrate Christmas with us. For Christmas Eve, we went to a Candlelight Service and sang carols. After that, it was off to Flamingo restaurant with a huge gang for some Chinese food... followed by nice baked goodies and drinks over at Jen & Serge's place. The bake goodies were yummy, the home was full and the candles were ablaze... you could almost close your eyes and think there was snow outside but the sweat off my brow reminded me otherwise.

Our weekend in pictures

We had quite the busy weekend. No time to blog, but here is a summary in pictures.

Here I am, holding Isaiah in the back of a Toyota. (It seems that all they have here are Toyotas and Mercedes-Benzs). We were on our way to a Rwandan Dowry ceremony.


Here is Johanna and Isaiah returning back to the Dowry during the music and dance portion of the ceremony. This is right after Isaiah peed all over Daddy's lap... khakis do not hide the wet marks very well.

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of going to the CLA church for the Kid's Christmas Concert. Though it doesn't feel like Christmas here, it was great to hear Christmas Carols to put us in the mood. After church, we walked back out into 30 degree weather though and had some sorbet :)

Here is our little 'bubba' all ready for church. Isn't he a cutie?

After church and sorbet, it was back to our guesthouse where we enjoyed the weather by the pool. Hope you are having fun digging out of the snow!

Out and about

So where have we been the past few days? While we are awaiting the arrival of the grandparents in Rwanda and waiting for his Canadian Visa, we have been out and about on the town.

We have been back to the orphanage where Isaiah spent his first ten months. We were able to get more specific details on his life up until we entered it. The Sisters were happy to see him again and were pleased with how he was doing. They noticed how his skin has gotten darker due to our daily walks :) We have also been chasing people down trying to learn more as well.

Other than that, enjoying the beautiful weather here is a favourite pastime of ours while strolling around town or sitting by the pool. Hope you enjoy the snowstorm we hear is coming your way in Toronto...

Water Baby

This past weekend was a relaxing one. Well, as relaxing as can be with a new son who is still getting used to his new parents. Restless nights and middle of the night diaper explosions have a way of bringing up the stress level :)

Anyways, on to the good parts. The weather, as most days, was a balmy 28 degrees and sunny (much nicer than the weather back home I hear). We headed out to the pool at our beautiful bed & breakfast. It was our chance to see how he reacted to the pool. We have found out that outside of eating and his bottle, bath time is his next favourite thing. So with bath time nailed down, he greeted the pool with similar enthusiasm... though the water was a little colder and there was no cool duck quacking.

Below are some pictures of him in the water. We have also added a video of him in the bath. You will get a glimpse into his personality when he is content. He does kick it up a notch when eating his cereal... but you will get a good idea. Tell us whether or not you hear him say "Momma" in the video. Lately, though, he has really been pushing the whole "Dadada" agenda.

We celebrate our anniversary

Thursday, December 11th was our 4th year wedding anniversary :) It was a nice day started off with lattes at Cafe Bourbon. We were then off on our document chase... oh joy. The key document of the day... Isaiah's Rwandan Passport. Passports here in Rwanda go like this: applications are submitted only in the mornings and passport pickups are done in the afternoon. We had submitted our application earlier in the week. After our nice lunch at Flamingo Chinese restaurant (great food), we went back to the passport office. What do you know, Isaiah's passport was ready just like they said! 3 days after we submitted his documents... beat that Canada :)

With his passport now in place and his medical done... everything from the government in Rwanda is now done! We now wait on Canadian Immigration for further instruction. Let's hope we hear something very soon and we can come home together as a family.

So back to our anniversary... Isaiah had his first 'play date'. He absolutely is enthralled with other kids, so he was happy when his new friend Isabella (2 years old) took care of him (with some adult supervision of course) while Johanna and I enjoyed a nice evening at Heaven restaurant. The atmosphere was beautiful and the food was good as we overlooked the night sky and the lights of Kigali. It was a nice couple of hours for Johanna and I to spend together and regroup. I thank God everyday for this incredible woman that He has put in my life.