Day Off

Time is passing so quickly that I just know I'm going to wake up one day, and the days of life with little ones will be gone. It's all so very cliche, but I have a strong sense in my heart that these days are sweet, though they are full of what I perceive as chaos and much dying to self. They are worthy of pausing to write down little things like the time we took our day off to head to the zoo on a perfectly sunny, North African day in February.

Dan assured me that it's not the look on his face that's important but the feelings he has on the inside ;) ...

Our little blondie insisted on being held or strolled most of the time, but she couldn't  resist the opportunity to get as close to Aslan as possible. I guess it's a good thing she dressed up for the occasion by stealing her sister's new bows from Auntie Nita and Uncle Adrian...

Other highlights for Felicity were seeing the evil Shere Khan behind bars and feeding the reindeer parsley she got from a friendly zoo-going family. 

Moriah was a perfectly content little kangaroo and loved jibber jabbering with the piglets. My favorite was seeing the pretty pink flamingos up close with their incredibly long necks. 

We marveled at what in the world this creature could be and waited for quite some time for the kids who were running around in it's enclosure to get out of the way so we could take a picture. I'm pretty sure Dan will make fun of me for saying enclosure instead of cage just as he couldn't accept my bleeding heart for the lack of space for some of the animals to run around...it's the American in me, what can I say?

We had to have some serious conversations with Felicity about how jumping fences at a zoo and throwing baguette at every animal is really not a good idea even though it seems everyone is doing it. And it was no surprise that we were asked if Moriah could be in pictures with strangers as they kissed her a million times and declared God's protection over her. 

Felicity was happy to have her sister take the attention away from her so she could eat her 25 cent cotton candy in peace. She surprised us all by choosing blue instead of pink. 

On most days, we are still very much working out our lives as an expat family living in North Africa, but every once in awhile, we have a day that feels kind of "normal". Our Sunday afternoon at the zoo was quite lovely and just what we needed in this wonderful season of crazy.