May - 18th Birthdays; Travelling & University :)

Little Women.........

Ellen and Marina turned 18 on 4 May. Yep, hard to believe these two little rascals are already 18 and preparing to leave for university next year! My Mommy heart is still trying to get around it - even today when I look at them, this is what I see :) not these two....

..... although we have to admit the smiles are still mischievous and Yvonne can testify that some days they still do "crazy" kids things :)

I think Michael is under the impression that God placed Ellen on his path to be his and only his sister. Although he is a real love bug, she is definitely his all time favorite - yes, sometimes even Mommy has to stand aside. He tolerates Ellen's attention to other siblings and gets super jealous if she even looks or attends to another baby. Ellen's gift is definitely her love for little ones. She is more involved with Samuel's therapy than her sisters as she is going to study Speech and Occupational Therapy - she wants to specifically one day work with children with special needs.

Marina is the "rough & tumble" sister. She believes the boys need to play like boys and is forever running, chasing, rolling, crawling, etc with the boys. But she is also stricter than her older sister (please note: Ellen is only 1 min older than Marina - Marina just wanted all to know:)). However her brothers and sisters know that she will always have their back - especially Samuel.

I must admit that I stand amazed that God has blessed us with 3 daughters who have an amazing relationship with each other. Despite the twins being close, Yvonne knows that they will always be there for her. To think this photo was taken just before we left for Ghana more than 7 years ago - did not expect any of them to grow up this quickly.

We also spent the last 2 weeks of May in South Africa. The "seasoned travellers" flew down, whilst George and the girls did a road trip. Both the boys absolutely love flying and are so good on the plane. Turbulence brings out the worst case of giggles in Michael, the first sign of this was when the two of us travelled in Ghana to meet his family. Once Michael starts laughing he can not stop, most neighbouring travellers find it difficult to ignore his joy. Samuel normally catches 40winks from shortly after take off till about 20min before landing, then he "reads" the airline safety brochure and their magazine - just like a grown up. The biggest blessing of the trip was that we were there for my parents wedding anniversary and my Mom's birthday.

We also had some interviews at the University of Pretoria and handed in Ellen and Marina's university applications for next year. Yep, we are the already - once again this was way more emotional for me than what I wanted to admit :( So at this stage we are looking at Ellen and Marina going down south again at the end of July to write NBT (entrance exams) and yes it will be there very first solo trip.

I know - I'm overprotective and its high time for this Mommy to let go somewhat of her "little ones" :) Whenever anxiety about their time away from home overwhelms me, I remind myself that God still has the whole world in His hands despite of what the world out there looks like. As long as the girls stand firm on the Rock of all times, and hide under His wings, they will be safe.