Expat life

I have been doing alot of reading about expat women, and expat blogs in general. And spent alot of my time this morning reading other expat experiences and tips for others walking this same path, and embarking on their own "Great Adventure".
I'd never really thought how important this subject was, until I too, left all behind and began the sometimes exhausting task of rebuilding in a place totally unknown to me and my family. I see now, how wonderful it is to be in contact with others going through the same emotions and experiences as I am. Sometimes sitting here, feelings of isolation and even self-pity threaten to overwhelm me, but knowing that there are others out there (even on the other side of the world) who understand my feelings, just seems to help. And reading their stories encourage me, that things will get better, and this stage is only a temporary one!

Of course, my faith has also provided me with a safe haven.

I can vividly recall our (exhausting) 30 hour trip over here in March. And stepping out into the Dubai airport, at midnight, and wandering around looking for a place to let the kids rest for the next 8 hours. At one point I just slumped down on a step in the airport, looked around me at all the foreign faces, cultures and languages, and just felt overwhelmed. Thoughts of doubt started to bombard ....What have we done?.........We are so far away from home.........Have we made a terrible mistake?........... I just wanna go home..............WHAT ON EARTH ARE WE DOING HERE?

And then God spoke.

I just felt his presence there with me, amongst all the chaos and confusion, amongst all the doubt and fear. He simply told me he was there. Right there, with us. And the comfort I felt at hearing that, was amazing. It gave me the courage to carry on, get back on my feet, and know and understand that no matter where on this earth I go, He is right there with me.

I have drawn on that experience alot since moving here. And I know that I needed to go through that, to get me through the months ahead. It is never easy to sell almost everything you own, leave everything you know, everyone you love, and go somewhere totally new and foreign. Where you know no-one, and have no idea what you are in for. But I DO know, that it will get better, and roots will be put down. And friendships made.

In the meantime, I will keep writing down my emotions and experiences. Sharing with anyone willing to read them. I'll make the most of every situation, and enjoy every place I visit. After all, as my hubby and I often remind each other, how many people do we know who would love to be in our shoes right now. It's an opportunity we have been given, and we are determined to make the best of it!

Late night update..........

The end of the day......the house is quiet, and ............ALL THE IKEA BOXES ARE GONE!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's right folks. After 13 boxes, and 2 weeks, they are finished, assembled and utilised! I was just in the process of finishing off the last item, when Hubby dearest said to me, "We should really make another trip to IKEA soon."
(I wonder if IKEA has flat-pack boxes of spare fingers, and finger-nails??)

DO understand that it is 11:48pm and not wanting to bore y'all with ramblings and sweet nothings, I will keep this post short.

So, aside from sharing my sheer excitement at the disappearance of the IKEA boxes, I also wanted to pass this little video on to y'all. It had the kids and I in giggles.

It's priceless............

Boxes anyone?

Boy....another week ahead! Am I the only one who is convinced the fast-forward button has been pressed on life? The weekend gets here, and before you can say "TGIF", Monday rears it's head!

So far we have been in the house for three weeks now, and there are still two IKEA boxes staring at me from the hall, waiting to be assembled. Some other boxes in the bedroom that are crying out to be unpacked, and just things in general that need to be moved and put where they belong....and I just don't seem to be getting around to it.

I do have at least one room in the house that looks beautiful however. The Guest Loo!!! That's right!! Looks great, smells fantastic and is just lovely!
So much so, I have considered moving in there, eating, sleeping etc, etc. But that just wouldn't be right!
Okay, so I am making it sound a tad worse than it is. There is a reasonable semblance of order in our home, and every day I get to accomplish another task or two. Just not as fast as I would like.

Oh, but the joy I feel, every morning, when I get up, and the kids are still in bed, and I sit in the breakfast nook with my cup of coffee, and soak up the morning light pouring through the windows. With the peace and quiet all around (alright...we do live in a cul-de-sac!) and I thank God for this wonderful house that He has blessed us with. I am so grateful!

And I'll get round to those boxes....eventually!!

Minnesota Wedding

Don't you just love weddings?

I have been privileged to attend many weddings in my life, all in South Africa of course. I have seen the casual and formal, the early morning, and late afternoon weddings. The sunny weddings , and rain-drenched weddings too. I hope to attend one here someday too.

In the meantime, however, I have discovered this gem of a wedding video on YouTube, that has already made the news here. So to all of the American folk who read my blog, my apologies, as I'm sure you've heard about this video numerous times already.

To the others, I do hope you enjoy this , as much as I did. In my time here in the States, I have found people to be fun-loving, and spontaneous. And this video confirms that.

It is a wedding that takes place in Minnesota on June 20th.



Credit for the idea of dancing down the aisle goes to the bride , Jill. Who say they only had 90 minutes to prepare for the wedding procession. They only had one rehearsal right before the wedding. The bride's father asked for the video to be posted online, in order for some of his other family members to see it. Up to now, it has received 17,6 million views.

I enjoyed watching some of the guests faces as the dancing starts, it seems they aren't sure what's happening.....and then when they realise it's all part of the service, they start smiling and clapping along to the music.......PRICELESS!!!!

Chapter One......

Well, we are officially moved in! Our new home is wonderful, although some of the rooms are still in abit of array.

Overall, the move went very well. We received the keys for the house on the Saturday morning, and because we didn't have our bed yet, we only moved in early Monday morning. And then finally, our container arrived about 10am. It had been sealed and stored and over the seas, and was now safely in our driveway!!

After about an hour of moving and carrying boxes into their correct rooms, the wonderful removal guys waved goodbye, and left us with a whole whack of boxes to unpack! Amazingly there were only a couple of things broken, and the kids acted like they were in the toy store after finding all their old toys again that they had forgotten about. That certainly kept them busy for hours!!

We started trying to make some sense of all the chaos, and soon had some semblance of order. At the end of the day, we fell into bed, and spent our first night in our new home.

Unfortunately, Andrew had to be back at work the very next day, and as exhausted as he was, he got up and went off for the day, while I carried on sorting things out. That's pretty much how things went for the whole week. And come Saturday, we merrily drove off to IKEA, to get some furniture, and odds and ends that we needed.

FIVE HOURS later......we left IKEA, and thus began the wonderful job of assembling all of our purchases. I'm STILL busy.....................

Overall, it has been a great, productive week and a half. We now have a home phone, cable TV and Internet (oh, the joy!!!) and I can now get back to the serious business of blogging. I will also be posting some photos of our new home shortly.

Another wonderful thing we did today, was go out to the kids soon-to-be-new-elementary-school. We went to find out about enrolling them, and also to see what grades they would be put into. So we met the counsellor (wonderful lady) who assured us that they have a lot of kids from all over the world, which made me feel a whole lot better, yes it did!! Now we just have to fill in the forms, and school here we come.......yippee!! I'm not sure who's more nervous, me or the kids? Just can't wait for them to start making friends.

Oh, and by the way.....I had my first telemarketer phone call today......it's starting to feel like home already!!!!