are you ready for this?!?!?!

And now...the mystery revealed!!

I'll start with a little background info...I have been planning to go back to school in September 2007 - to take my Early Childhood Education at ACC in Brandon. Up until a few weeks ago, I was completely happy with that decision. Then I got to thinking, "Is that really what I want to do right now?" I hemmed and hawed for a few days. I was confused. I was unsure. One day I wanted to move to Brandon and go to school. The next, I wanted to go back to South Africa. I was all over the place.

One day I came home from work and told my mom, "I guess I"ll go to school in fall." I thought I had made my decision. She responded with, "That is the exact opposite of what I thought you'd say. I thought you would want to travel." She pointed out to me that I am in the best position for travelling...I have no debt, no student loans, nothing tying me down. That made a lot of sense to me.

And now some back-background info...I have always wanted to travel to Europe, and I have always wanted to be a nanny (au pair). In the fall of 2006, I had joined a website that featured profiles of au pairs/nannies, and families looking for au pairs/nannies, from all over the world. You could post your profile, and search for families that needed a nanny. I thought that maybe that's what I would do in the near future. But I knew that I wasn't supposed to be doing that at that time (October 2006). So I deleted my profile off of the website and went to work at the Co-Op in October, where I've been ever since.

When my mom pointed out to me that travelling would be a good option for me, I thought about posting my profile back onto the au pair website. I thought and prayed about it. So I put my profile back up. I made a "deal" with God (this is not the best term, but you know what I mean) that He would have to bring the right family to me. On this website, you can add families to your "Hot List", and by doing so, informing that family that you are interested in them. They can then check out your profile, and either "Accept" your interest and begin talking to you over email, or "Decline" your interest. I added a few families to my Hot List, mostly Christian ones. But my "deal" with God was that the family would have to contact me, instead of me contacting them.

A few days after I posted my profile, I got an email from a lady called Joanne. She told me about her family (husband Neil, twin girls Caitlin and Lauren, aged 3.5 years) and about the duties involved in becoming an au pair for her family. They live in Northern Ireland, just outside of Belfast.

Her email sounded very intriguing. I would have my own room with couch and TV, my own bathroom, my own car to drive, plus $200 Canadian per week, for 4 days of work, and roughly 4.5 hours a day looking after the girls (they go to nursery school during the mornings!). But, I knew Canadians couldn't go to Ireland as au pairs.

However! She told me that Northern Ireland is in fact part of the UK, although they are part of Ireland geographically. I can go to the UK for up to 2 years on a "working holiday visa", but can only work for 1 year of the 2.

We began exchanging emails daily, talking about me, the girls, their home and my duties. That said, I am going to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on August 17, 2007! I will work for one year, and then (hopefully!) travel around Europe for a month or two, to return home in time for Christmas 2008. Oh, and they're paying for my flights!

I am really excited about this adventure! I have prayed about this and feel a peace and excitement that can only come from God.

Along with being absolutely excited for this, I am nervous too. I am scared to drive on the left hand side of the road, I am scared to live in someone's house, and I am scared of being lonely.

Some of my prayers:
1) That I'm doing what God has planned for me.
2) For physical and mental strength for the job I'll be doing.
3) For optimism and excitement and joy!
4) That the visa, plane tickets, etc., all fall into place.
5) For courage to "get out there" in Belfast - to join a church, meet people my own age, make new friends - to make the most of my experience. I want to be fearless in this - to get over my timidity of new people and rejection.
6) For a great and relaxed relationship with my host family, Neil and Joanne, and their girls, Caitlin and Lauren. I want to feel comfortable in their home, which will become my home too. I want the girls to like me, and for me to like them.
7) Most importantly, I want to be doing what God has called me to do - I want to be in His Divine Plan for my life. I feel good about this - peaceful, excited, and real. Does that make sense? I just feel normal about this, like why wouldn't I be doing this? Like I felt before South Africa. As if doing something else would be absolutely wrong.

I know many people find this travelling/adventure side of me very odd. I never grew up thinking I would be this sort of person. But I like this about me. That I defy what so many people assume about me. It just proves that most people don't know me at all. Because I love seeing new places, meeting new people, doing new things. It scares me, but I know I love it.