It’s Countdown Time Again

I might be hyperventilating next time you see me (or sobbing my eyes out)…  Less than 3 weeks now!  The official good-byes have started and that feels a bit overwhelming, but yet good at the same time.  Hope you enjoyed reading the kids’ viewpoints for the last couple of weeks.  You may hear from them again before this countdown is over, but for today, it is my turn. 

I haven’t decided whether all my studying is going to help with this transition or prevent me from really processing it until it is too late.  My life revolves around my studies!  I have an exam or an assignment due every 4-5 days.  This morning I wrote an exam, and this afternoon I am already starting to study for the next one that is on Tuesday, and do research for my next case study assignment.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I wear my emotion on my face, on my sleeve, written on my forehead, or printed on my backside...  in other words, one can easily see how I am doing.  Because I am so busy with these studies, I don’t have time to focus on the good-byes, which means I don’t feel as sad.  So is that good?  Or is that a form of repression?  Denial?  I don’t know, but for now, it means I only cry once a week or so.  It could have been so much worse! 😉

We have read books about how to do this transition well – after living 10 years in a place, that you have given your heart and soul too, it is not easy to say good-bye.  So we have really tried to prepare – ourselves and our children.  We have done some research about how to “end well” and are planning some activities to do just that.

One of those activities is a farewell party for each of my kids.  Marae has already had hers and it was amazing.  Nate and Elise’s are this weekend.  They each got to invite whoever they wanted, and it will be about saying good-bye to all these wonderful friends they have made over the years, and honouring the beautiful friendships that they have made.  We will be taking LOTS of pictures!  🙂  Special memories will be made, for sure!

Some seasoned missionaries gave us some other advice, which we readily took.  They told us not to go straight back to Canada – that we needed an “in between” after leaving South Africa.  A neutral place that we can debrief our exit from South Africa and enjoy some family time, before embarking on the next stage of our life.  Otherwise we will arrive in Canada  to “start our new lives” but yet still be reeling from the good-byes that we have just said.

So with that fantastic advice, we put in place a plan – a plan to debrief and regroup… in Europe!  We fly through England on our way home, so we just elongated our layover by about 3 weeks!!! 😉   After Europe we will spend 2 1/2 weeks with my mom in the States before finally arriving back in Canada on May 10.  I won’t give away all the details of our little trip as we will, hopefully, blog our way through Europe and the States, but just want to say a HUGE thank you in advance to all our friends in England who are giving us guest beds and bath tubs to sleep in as we tour our way around the country!