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!!!!!

Changes

I have many things that I would like to post on our blog including updates on our holidays spent in Canada with family and friends.
Due to some of the attention we have received on our blog I need to be careful what I say to respect my families privacy!
Please understand if the blog is fairly silent until Evan and I decide whether to make the blog private or not! If we do go ahead and make it private we will be giving everyone adequate notice before it happens.
With that being said does anyone know how to go about making a blog private? We would like to find out all information before we make our decision.

Please keep checking back, hoping to not leave you hanging to long!

Full lips........ or lip!

I have just discovered how to get instant fullness in your lips without getting any needles or botox!

excuse the nastiness of the picture, I was is lots of pain and sleep deprived!

I have been fighting a skin abscess that originated right under the left side of my lip, as swollen as my lip is going up it is probably double that in width making very hard to eat, drink and fairly uncomfortable to talk!
Thankfully I have been on antibiotics and large doses of anti-inflamatories since Tuesday morning which have help so much!

Always an adventure in our house :)

This picture sums me up perfectly............................ LOVE IT ! ! ! ! ! !

You know who you are!

To all my grade 6 students who have found our blog..........................................................

HI !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! ! !

Apparently I have not been given you enough credit for your interent skills!

Mrs. Mel