24

The kids and I just completed the first 24 hours back in Kin. It has felt super busy to me but probably in reality it hasn't been terribly busy.

Due to jet leg the kids and I went to bed around 2 am this morning, we then slept in until 11 am this morning. Evan was at work so the kids and I hung around home for a couple hours wondering what to do with no water or power ( I was to lazy to go turn on the generator, so don't feel bad for us).
Evan arrived home around 1pm this afternoon, so we took the opportunity to get some stuff done.
This afternoon we went to TASOK to find out when the kids first day of school will be and to say hi to the teachers who are already working.
After that we headed downtown to do some grocery shopping, got gas in my new car ( new to me but not NEW NEW), went to a fantastic Indian restaurant and stopped to say Hi to Evan's dad.

As we were driving in town and getting gas I was doing a lot of thinking about what I was seeing around me, the sounds and smells of Kin. It is not scary this time around, Kinshasa overwhelms your senses but not like the first time we arrived here. It feels normal...well a weird normal!

Tomorrow during the day I am hoping to take a picture of my car, the kids have named in Minon because it is bright yellow with a grey stripe. It is a small SUV and the name minon fits it perfectly.

Over the next couple days we will be settling into "life" out here, hoping to have a couple down days before the kids start school on Monday. I really want to keep updating the blog on a regular basis but feel unsure what to write about.
Please feel free to ask questions, leave them in the comment section and I promise to answer them!

Oh, I am heading into TASOK tomorrow afternoon to meet with the super intendant about possibly teaching fitness classes, bootcamps and running the weight room for the next school year...we'll see how that turns out!

Domestic or international

As I sit in our living room in Kinshasa I find myself debating the differences between my domestic home in Calgary or my international home in Kin.
Bottom line....home is where we make it!!!

The kids and I are safely in Kin, battling some serious jet leg and trying to adjust to a whole new time zone.
I will hopefully blog about our trip in the next day or so.

grammatical errors

Please excuse all grammatical errors on some of my posts.... I don't care much about grammar, spelling or punctuation... I can see some of you rolling your eyes!!!! :)

When I return to Kin my sexy hubby will be proof reading and trying not to laugh as he corrects my mistakes.

We are still in Canada

The title is bang on....the kids and I are still in Canada for about 16 more hours.

The last couple weeks have been so heart wrenching, frustrating and at moments so overwhelming that I want to throw my hands in the air and give up.
I chose not to blog about it while it was happening because I didn't want my angry, sadness or frustrations to come through. I also needed some time to process everything that happened in order to be able to explain it properly.

Here is what has delayed our flights to Kinshasa.......

Originally we were supposed to leave July 18 (I think), we were having major problems getting our visas from Kinshasa. Evan and I applied  for permanent visas for our family. We were told it would be no problem and to expect the process to take 1 month MAX...... 3 months later we still didn't have our visas. Evan was checking in with the guy who was helping us often and we were given the run around all the time. I don't want to type out the whole story but what happened was. 3 days before the kids and I were supposed to leave we found out our passports and the money to pay for the visas had been stolen. yup, you read it right!
Evan was able to track down our passports but the money to pay for them and all our documents needed to support getting the visa were gone.
We had to start the process again but thankfully we were fast tracked. The 2nd date we were given to leave was last Friday July 26.
On Wednesday July 24th I was in the ER for an infection in my leg. This infection came on fast and hit hard. In the ER they lanced my leg to relieve pressure and I was put on IV antibiotic. I was told right away I wouldn't be getting on the flight on Friday for Kin.
I was on IV ( at home) for 6 days....it is pretty cool. I carried a back pack with me everywhere I went because I was getting antibiotic 24/7.... I had to chance my IV bag every morning as well as the IV site ( I didn't do the needle part) every second day.
I have been off IV since Wednesday and now I am on high doses of oral antibiotic. This morning I had my last appointment with the doctor and was given the go ahead to leave for Kin.
I am not better by any means but that will take time.

So, the kids and I leave for Kinshasa via Montreal and Brussels at 6:55 am tomorrow morning.
I promise I will be better at updating the blog!

Third times a charm right?

Let's talk feeling!

Ewwww....I don't always like to talk about my feeling ( ask Evan), I am pretty good at bottling things up until I am going to burst. At least this blog post wont be anything to deep so I think I can handle it!

I thought I would do a quick post on how I ( and the kid) are handling our return to Africa in 21 days.

When we first made the choice to go to Africa it was an adventure but a SCARY adventure, Evan and I were so busy with preparing to go that the depth of our decision didn't fully hit me until I arrived in Kinshasa Now said FULLY just because a lot of it did hit me before we left but not as hard as it hit once we arrived.
I don't have that this time, I know what we are going to and what life is like...no surprises this time! Who am I kidding it is Kinshasa...life is never boring!
Now knowing what is happening has positives and negatives, there is no unknown with the conditions you are moving to, I can picture everything, I remember the smells and the sounds. I also remember the heartache that I experienced over the last year. I am hoping to grow through this heartache.

Last year when we were in Africa I lost some Canadian friendships that at the time I cherished but a lot of my friendships also grew deeper and have taken on a whole new level. These are the friends that I will have for life no matter what is thrown your way!

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You   know what, I don't want to compare this time to last time. The first year in Africa I was SO sick ( I haven't blog about it, maybe one day), so sick that I came back to Canada to be diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and issues with my stomach acid.
I am looking forward to returning to Africa for 2 main reasons, the biggest one is Evan and I have been living apart for almost 13 months but in our hearts we are not separated. We get to be a family again and the second one is I want to experience Kinshasa healthy, strong and with open eyes! I don't want last year to taint my views on life out there.

Don't get me wrong, my heart aches, tears threaten to fall and I feel like I can't breath at the thought of saying goodbye to my friends and family again, the thought of leaving my job which I LOVE makes me nauseous and at times I am scared to go back to Kin. I get scared when the "what if's" in my head take over. My driving force is knowing that I will soon be with my hubby again and the kids with there dad.

As much as I don't always like talking about my feelings ask questions if you have them, I will answer!

To everyone who reads our blog, welcome to chapter 2 of the Africa journey. I am trying to make a commitment to blog a lot more often this time around.

hmmm

I've got to ask..... is anyone out there?

Count Down

Today I was chatting with one of my kids teachers about the end of the school year. It was brought to my attention that there is only 7.5 days left of school for my kids.

While the teacher is happy and is looking forward to being off work and having a break all I could think of is how many days until the kids and I leave for Africa.

We leave in 29 days....yeah you read it right 29 days!!!  Am I ready at all?
Well our passports are renewed, visas have been process but that is all!!!! I feel like I have done almost nothing to prepare for this move. Now, moving across the world is nothing like moving across the city.....when we moved the first time Evan was done working 4 weeks before our departure and both of us were preparing our family to leave.

This time it is only me getting my family ready, the house packed and cleaned, painting done, trying to squeeze as many play dates in for my kids as possible and I am working until July 16.
before anyone suggests I stop working before July 16 that is not an option in my mind! I love my job, it keeps me sane and happy!

time to make some lists I think....time to be proactive! :)

Next blog post is going to be about how the kids and I are feeling about going back! Can someone hold me accountable to writing it?

** I just remembered I bought myself an IPAD in preperation to leave, ask me how much I have used that Ipad???
My kids have adopted it as their own!
:)

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful hubby who is an amazing dad!

We love you Evan, looking forward to being together as a family again.

getting back into the groove

At the moment I am trying to figure out how/when to get back into the groove of blogging!

It is way harder to do then I thought!

For today I will leave you with little tid-bits about our lives...no order of importance.

- My last day of work before leaving for Africa will be July 15th. Leaving Goodlife is just as hard the second time as the first.

- Currently our passports are in Africa waiting to have our Visa's put in. Evan's mom will be bringing them back to us when she arrives in Canada at the end of June.

- Emmanuel is currently playing soccer twice a week and loving it!

- These nest 2 weeks will be filled with dr. appointments for both Micah and myself. One day I will blog about some of the medical issues I have been dealing with.

- We are waiting for our order from Old Navy to arrive. I got each of us 2 bathing suits for 60.00. they had a 50% off sale! Right now our order is 3 days late!

Anything else.....................

I am back!!!!!!

After just over a year of silence on my blog I am back and full of stories!

The stories will be coming in the very near future but for right now I only have one point to make.....

THE SCHELLENBERG'S (MEL, EMMANUEL AND MICAH) ARE RETURNING TO JOIN EVAN IN KINSHASA!

After being apart for 11 months so far ( Evan in Kinshasa and Mel and the kids in Canada) and battling health issues and academic issue for one of my kids we are FINALLY putting our family back together.
The kids and I will be returning back to Kinshasa on July 18 to finish off Evan's term together.

At the moment the kids and I are starting to feel the sadness of leaving family and friends again but we are so ready to be all together the 4 of us.

Hopefully I will remember to update over the next couple weeks as we prepare to leave  but I will definitely be updating once we arrive back in Kinshasa. Life is never boring there!!!!!