Goodbye Africa!!

I dont know if its just my crazy pregnancy hormones or what but this week has been way too full of emotions as i have been preparing/packing for my one way trip home on saturday. I always dreamed of the day when we would finally live closer to family and everything else i grew up being familiar with and now that that time has come i can't help but look back over the past 2 1/2 years and think about all the many things/people i will miss so much. It has not been easy but i do feel soo lucky that we have been able to experience soo many things i never imagined possible. I can't even begin to describe the things i have learned while watching and being associated with people and their culture here. I feel extremely blessed and im soo grateful for the memories i will always have of Africa........and this is where i will stop thinking about leaving because i already can't see through my tears. I really am not this big of a baby....it really is the hormones!! ha!

I have been trying to take pictures of everything this past couple weeks so here are a bunch of random africa pictures.....

We celebrated July first (aka just sang Oh Canada and tried not to think about all the fun we were missing out on) with one of the senior missionary couples in Yaounde. The Thompsons just so happen to be from Lethbridge of all places! Crazy how small the world is!



The other senior missionary couple here in Douala have kind of adopted this little boy Faisal. He is 10 years old, the oldest of 7 kids and his mother just passed away a couple of months ago while delivering twins. His dad is the day guard at the missionaries apartment and is taking the missionary discussions so Faisal is always around after school and we seem to be around him a lot lately too. He seriously is SUCH a hand full.....like he never stop getting into things...but he really is a sweet boy. We took him to church with us on sunday and i gave him a paper/pen in attempt to TRY and keep him quite during sacrament. He was writing little sentences like how are you, what is your name, and we would write back to him in english and he would try and figure out what we were saying. Anyways randomly during the middle of sacrament Faisal passes jeff a note thats says, "Jeff you eat too much and your wife is a meat eater." Hahaha Jeff and I burst out laughing and seriously couldnt stop.



Here is one way to transport your jerry cans.......or really sharp dangerous tools.....




Too bad we didn't think of this when we were being ticketed for a broken light cover.....



This is Rose from the ward here in Douala. She is one of the few that speak english so we have became friends. She is 18 years old but is the young women pres and runs pretty much anything to do with music in the ward. She really is such a sweet girl....



Just when i thought McDonald's didn't exist here.....



And just incase you were hungry for cow intestines......



There are no words to describe how much im am going to miss the mangos and pineapples here. I have been trying to get my fill these last couple weeks but im still not even close to being sick of them....




And only because i promised.....12 weeks vs now (22 weeks)



Somethings definitely growing! The last 3 weeks i all the sudden gained 10 lbs. I guess its about time. I still am not 100% over all my throwing up but i finally have most of my appetite back which is nice. I am very exciting to be back home where i can get good food....and clothes that fit. Im getting sick of all my clothes being too tight and uncomfortable. Our baby seems to love kicking up a storm espeically at bedtime. We hopefully are finding out the gender of our baby tomorrow and I can not wait!! Im kind of convinced its a girl just because Jeff wants boys soo badly but both of my sister-in-laws are having/had boys so 3 little boy cousins born in the same year would be soo much fun too. Any last predictions??



This is little Joshua from this post. Babies are seriously the cutest!!! It is going to be sad leaving this place behind but at the same time im finally starting another journey to a dream ive had since a was young...being a mom. I already can't wait to see and meet our little baby. Its definitely a bitter sweet feeling saying goodbye but i am also very excited to start this new chapter in our lives!!