Second South African Surprise

Around this time last year, I showed up in
South Africa a few weeks early to surprise my mom.
(You might remember her best ever reaction here ;)
My dad and I planned it and it was the best!

Ever since having the baby, my parents have been
trying to get me to come visit one more time.
I told them there was no way I was coming back
down a third time all that way, but one day I
decided it would be worth it only if we could
surprise my dad — the king of surprise! He has
surprised all of us his entire life, and he is the
sweetest grandpa ever (even via FaceTime) so
I wanted him to meet my baby so badly! He is
serving as a mission president which is the only
reason in the world he hadn’t met her in person
yet. He had no option to come to us, so — we came
to him! He just didn’t know it beforehand :)

Their 3 years in South Africa is up this summer, but
Reagan would have been a year old and probably
walking and talking by the time she would have met him…
so it has been sweet that she could meet him now in this stage!

She may not remember it, but all of us will…and it will be
fun to show her pictures & videos and tell her she came
all the way to Africa to meet her Papa Bear. So sweet!

I landed last Monday in after a loooong 30+ hours of travel
from San Francisco –> Zurich –> Johannesburg (with a
major last-minute paperwork crisis for getting baby into
SA…but more on that and the flights + layover later).
We finally made it and my mom picked us up. We were
both unspeakably tired but we drove straight to the mission
offices and just decided to surprise him right then and
there before we really crashed from jet lag. We asked his
AP missionaries to pull him into a meeting to distract him,
and a few minutes later I knocked on the door holding
baby Reagan and walked in. His reaction was so sweet
and tender and something I’ll remember forever:
So glad we captured it to be able to show baby when she’s older!
She is lucky to have this guy as her Papa Bear. She already loves
him so much and smiles EVERY time she sees him which doesn’t
even happen for Chase or I ;) I can’t wait to share more from our
visit, but here are some pictures from the fun surprise! (Don’t mind
my severely jet lagged state…I barely slept a wink being with baby!)
 Sweetest reaction. ^^ If you know my dad, you know there’s
nothing he loves more than his grandchildren..and it shows!
Who has you?! ^^
I can’t explain how happy it made my heart to see my dad
holding my baby girl…suddenly all was right in the world!
My cute mom was so happy to be reunited too of course… 
because even though she came for the birth, the last time
she saw Reagan she was only 2 weeks old! So different!
The best sight ^^
Can’t believe we made it after alllll that travel! Worth it!
Lots more to come from this sweet time in South Africa
(if we ever catch up on sleep, that is ;)

xo