South Africa

Let's back up to before our first plane ride. About an hour away from home, on our way to the airport in Washington D.C., we got a call from the Bergey family, asking if we had the girl's birth certificates with us, which South African customs would use to prevent trafficking. We didn't. We pulled off the highway, while we waited to see if they thought we should turn around and get them.

They did some web searching and came back with, "Ok! Never mind! The law changed in November of 2019, and they aren't going to ask for them. Here's the link for the article proving they changed the law. Save the website to your phone and don't bother going back for them."

In London, with twenty-nine hours of travel already behind us, as we got our boarding passes for Johannesburg, the British flight attendant said, "You have the girl's birth certificates, right? We don't need them here, but they will in South Africa."

Still, we didn't have them.

Mom emailed us copies, so we'd have "something," but we began to pray for a smooth trip through customs. I hated the idea of being turned away before our last flight, but even worse, the idea of being accused of stealing our girls and not being able to prove that they were ours (aside from passports, of course) hurt my heart.

In Johannesburg, South Africa we waited in line to go through customs. I was praying silently that we wouldn't have any questions asked, and that we wouldn't even have to pull up the passport emails mom had sent us.

As we waited in a long, winding line, the girls began to sing in their double stroller. Portia (one year and almost ten months) was singing so loudly in her happy, broken toddler voice, and everyone around us was smiling at her and us. I had this beautiful peace as she belted out her song. These girls are our babies, and no one watching Portia had any question about that.

Then a man at the custom's counter waved to us. There were still fifty people in line ahead of us, but he waved for us to push through to the front of the line. He said people with strollers don't have to wait in line because they "require assistance", and then he went through a casual process of stamping our passports and talking to us, before he waved us through.

Our trip could have ended right there, but instead we passed through easily, ushered to the front.

An answer to prayer and another confirmation from God that He wants us to be where we are.

Welcome to South Africa! The next couple of days were harder than we'd anticipated, but thank God, entry was easy.