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AngolaDiaries
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Name: Angela
Country: United States
State: District of Columbia
Birthday: 9/7/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: photography, children, friends, travel, design and decor, colors, self-growth, learning, development, spirituality, yummy smells, nature, reading, chocolate and gummies, and most of all my fiance, Craig :)
Occupation: Photographic Journalist
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
7/23/2005
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| Gosh, I've been delinquent on here! Despite trying to keep a very chill approach before the wedding, our lives got quite a bit more hectic than we ever planned. So, here will be a little picture entry to bring you up to date.
In August, Craig's sister and her husband ventured over to South Africa for a little post law-school treat so we got them to ourselves for a whole week! Amongst the many activities we did, we went to Kruger National Park where we saw the Big 5 in 24 hours (highly rare!), babysat at the orphanage and lots of other sightseeing.
We came upon this sight (in the wild, mind you!) so we had to get in on the action...
...so here we are seeing what we could see...
which was THIS lounging leopard after dragging his kill up a tree. Moments from now two huge hyenias attack the leopard hoping for his kill but to no avail...the leopard was too fast. Leopards are very hard to see in the wild which made for the huge traffic jam and people sitting atop their cars.
this was at the Three Rondovals at sunset
same place, different angle...
at the Lion Park just down the road from our house. Sweet lion cubs!
During their visit we were also surprised with a party from our dear friends here, kinda like an engagement party. Fun! Here we are with some of our gifts...
Those events more or less led us to the wedding, which was a dream in every way! I will only post a very few photos here from friends while we wait for the "real" ones from our stunning photographer. :) But in short, the wedding was gorgeous and incredibly meaningful with so many of our friends and family celebrating with us.
And...the honeymoon highlights from the Maldive islands just south of India!!
first arriving on the island...WOW!
our overwater lagoon suite - perfectly situated on the end of the pier!
our view over the infinity pool every day....ahhhh
Now we are home and settling in together while just loving married life! :) I'll do another post with some photos of our home and some projects we've done together.
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| Things have been going at such a fast pace lately that I've hardly had time to stop and think, much less post blogs! But let me take a moment while I'm chomping on my veggie tray lunch to say a few things.
I am in the process of dealing with the unexpected in a mature way. Things at Craig's work have been beyond intense and their biggest program is in a mess and he's been named the Interim Country Director for Mozambique! This is a HUGE deal and boost of confidence as there are 250 employees and it's a $25 million dollar a year project. That said, he is being sent up there the last three weeks before we get married, which means we won't be together. And I'm so sad about that. We've been doing all this advance planning for our wedding (and it's a darn good thing we did too) so in my mind we could have the last two months before we get married just to take it easy and coast along peacefully. Well, I don't know WHAT dream world I was living in, but those dreams are far away from reality! :( In fact, they couldn't be more opposite of what I wanted and would hope for: to spend quality time with my fiance before we get married. Now I'll have to settle for email chatting like we did when we first started dating and I was in Angola and he in South Africa. Anyone of faith reading this can start praying now. :)
And that's just my perspective on it all. Craig is really more in need of prayer than I am. The pressure and the stress is unimaginable and my heart goes out to him.
His sister and brother in law are also arriving next week for a week with us here! We are so excited! She just finished the bar exam on Wednesday so this will be a nice time for a vacation for them.
Work is going well for me. I was in Zimbabwe last week for the launch of a fantastic partnership to get medicines into the public hospitals. I love my trips to Zim. I also love being home and I'm happy that I will get to be here for the next few weeks. :) Granted, I'm not looking forward to being alone those few weeks. I think I might try and stay with a few different friends to try and distract me from boredom and loneliness.
Oh, and how can I end without a picture of my neice!? I think this is SUCH an adorable photo of my sister's baby girl. I can't wait to meet her at my wedding finally! Olivia says she's a tiny baby and even one of the newborn outfits I sent her is too big and she is already a month old.
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| Hey hey! Geepers it's been a while since I've blogged! I am trying to stay away from all this technology business after work hours, which means very few posts and a mind dedicated to things other than my next blog. :) That said, I do like to keep in touch and I'm not sure if anyone even still reads this but here's a wee update.
I was on that 2 week "all over Africa" trip that I already posted about back in May, then I was home for a week where I shot a friend's wedding, hosted a guest from the US for a few days, went on safari, and I came down with strep throat right after those events. It was the only week Craig and I had together that month and I was sick :(
I then jetted off to the US to continue working while doing a ton of wedding finalization and prep in Norfolk. I got to see Alli too and meet her precious little McKenzie! It's a blurry picture but her smile is just tooo sweet! Diane and Marci were with me to the end on wedding planning and it was priceless to have them there. My dress is beautiful!!
From there I went to San Jose, CA for a work conference where I met my colleagues for the first time! It was a fantastic, hectic, busy, exhausting trip! I stopped my last day in DC for a brief overnight where some of my bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower with my DC friends. It was beautiful and so sweet and I was overwhelmingly blessed with generous gifts! :)
Craig and I had been apart for the greater part of 2 months so it was disappointing news when I heard he would be in Sudan when I got back home. I took the opportunity to sleep for a few days as I was still feeling sick from the strep. We loved finally seeing each other again and have been enjoying each other's company a lot the past few weeks. :) In taking some down time, we've also kept up our social calendar with a friend's 30th birthday party, had another friend in from the US for a few days, babysat a 10 day old orphan for a weekend, had a karyoke night that was pure fun and craziness, went to a July 4th party hosted by some dear SA friends, oh and we went to the Confederation Cup Finals game with USA and Brazil! So, we are having fun and enjoying life.
(before the Confed Cup game)
(a pre-ceremony performance)
(the CUTE little guy we babysat for the weekend!!)
Oh, in all of this, my sweet and totally cute neice Priestly June Beiler was born on June 26th! She is so stinkin' cute and I am longing to meet her at the wedding! 2 more months...:)
We are starting to build our home and prep things for when Craig moves in to my unit (it's bigger than his) so we got a dresser and bedside tables. I'm also starting lots of creative projects to figure out how to maximize our tiny space for both of us. I'm getting creative with space saving storage ideas. And this weekend we are going to mosaic the patio table we got that will serve as our dinning room table...only it has to be outside because there isn't room inside. hehe. Craig is going to help me stain that and get the plan going for the design. Fun stuff!
Wedding plans are good and going strong. We just have little bitty things to take care of now like writing our vows and finalizing seating charts for the reception. We also have some fun things we are looking forward to in the months ahead. Here's a brief rundown:
-Craig heads off to Mozambique for a week near the end of July
-I head up to Zimbabwe for a few days that same week
-Craig's sister and brother in law come for a week in August!
-our SA bachlor and bachlorette parties
-and I know there are other things I'm missing too...
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