Day 5, 6 & 7

Well, we lost Day 7 altogether, as Juan-Dre was fetched a day early, but here is the gist of Day 5 & 6:

Thursday night:

Mission completed. For the Second Time:

    We enjoyed each other's company and some pancakes - which is all I managed to "bake" for him while he was here (but he did eat very well!).

    We again watched Aleph Beta and some Atzmut teachings (which he didn't really appreciate and went to the lounge with his phone till they were finished), chatted, Granny ticked his back and we dozed off happily.

    In the morning his mom came for a brief visit as she had gotten sick from being in the rain with wet feet one evening recently. The two of them spent some tender moments together and once she had left to go home and sleep, we played Go Fish, Memory Match and Pictionary until I could no longer delay doing Shabbat prep. We laid the table together, placed the candles and ate our dinner together. What a blessed Erev Shabbat.

   We had another day, evening & morning to look forward to until the message from his dad came through at 8.20pm Friday night that he was being fetched the next morning. I quickly canceled the plans he had to play with Connor and the dinner plans my twin daughters and I had to say goodbye to him on Saturday night. He did end up spending a couple of hours early on Saturday morning with Connor and Bethany did a video call with him in the morning and Melanie just visited me - shame, she had made special plans at work to be able to say goodbye to Juan-Dre on Saturday night. We were all very sad, but I am sure there was a good reason for the sudden change of plan.

    It was a joyous goodbye, as it had been a joyous visit. I am planning, with God's help, to go to PE and visit him for his birthday. Less than 2 months. Something to keep me going.

    In the meantime, I planted some Commando potatoes this morning as well as my Chayamansa tree that came late on Shabbat afternoon. Thanks Mimette for the HUGE pot!

    I need to spend some quality time in my garden. There is so much good growth going on that I can't eat it fast enough. I must find a balance on how much to plant and how often. One has to do the jiggle-dance to get up and down my stairs the way my dill, radishes, spinach and carrots are growing all over!

    I'm going to leave to see my mom in 45 minutes. She was moved to a general ward from ICU a couple of days ago - Baruch HaShem - and this will be  my first visit to her in the general ward. Hopefully, the next visit to her will be back at her home at Fairlands Retirement Village.

    I have endeavoured to move all my Hebrew classes to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays so that I can catch the shuttle to PE on a Thursday morning and return on a Sunday afternoon. So, if you are one of my students and you're reading this, you now know why we can't have classes on Thursdays anymore! I appreciate your understanding.

    So my last few hours with Juan-Dre were a bit sad, but we quickly decided that we couldn't change things by being sad so we decided to make the most of our last bit of time together. We did an extra back tickle, added a tummy tickle (though that was a bit too ticklish, granny!), we chatted about Brandy (his Border Collie at home, who he was really starting to miss), school, Grade 4 and many other things. 

    On Shabbat morning we woke up at 7, had breakfast, played a game of Go Fish and he went to Connor at 9, where he stayed until his dad fetched him at 11.30. They came here to collect his things and I was overjoyed to be told I would be welcome to visit for his birthday. Big sigh of relief! Thank you HaShem!

    We prayed together again last night at 7.15 - but Juan-Dre is right - it just isn't the same. Thank God for Zoom, but one cannot hold the hand or touch the arm, or hug or kiss, the beloved one through the screen. But I choose to believe my Father knows best and He ordains everything in my life. The sad feeling will go away as I fill myself with Torah and prayer. I will see him again. Every day on Zoom and at least 4 times a year in person. 

Trust in the LORD!