How It All Began...

My husband Steven performs work that is subject to year-to-year funding. We had received notice that the upcoming fiscal year's budget just wasn't going to support another year contract. So, after almost three lucrative years, our luck had finally run out.

Steven, (being the good provider that he is) immediately put out feelers, determined there would be NO lapses in income, and within a few days had received interest in his résumé from a recruitment company specializing in Saudi contracts. We'd heard that jobs in the Middle East potentially paid well, but beyond that we really had no idea what to expect. As anyone associated with me knows, a lack of knowledge on my part pushes me to do intensive research-until I feel satisfied that I've at least got a good overview on the topic! After about four straight days of research, I presented my findings to Steven, and told him, "Let's do it!"

It really was the right time. Our son has a few years before he's school age, Steven's job was ending anyway, and I was growing increasingly burnt out and exhausted in my job. After almost nine years in a job that continually increased its demands on you with less and less resources available, I knew the time had come for me to call it quits--if only to retain my sanity! Working a compressed schedule (four 10 hr days a week) severely limited the time I was getting to spend with my son. He was literally changing before my eyes, growing up, and I was on the sidelines, less of a participant, more of an observer. I remember the turning point, the exact day when my attitude towards my job shifted, when I knew it was no longer acceptable to spend so much time away from my son.  My mother-in-law had picked my son up from preschool and was dropping him off at our house. Quite casually she mentioned that maybe I'd let our son stay the night at her house on the weekend. I felt tense, cornered. I tried explaining why the idea was so upsetting and ended up bursting into tears. Even I was surprised by them. I had had no idea I was close to tears, and it was only in trying to articulate how I was feeling that it actually came together in a cohesive thought for me: during a typical weekday, I was seeing my son for less than three hours a day. My workday started at 6:30am, long before he needed to be up and not wanting to disturb him, I'd leave for work before he awoke.  I wouldn't see him usually until 5:30-6:00 pm, and he was in bed by 8:30/8:45.  Those precious three hours had to include cooking and eating time, cleaning, bath time, prepping for the next day, etc. In other words, of that three hours, maybe only an hour and a half was dedicated time spent with him...an hour and a half! In a 24 hr period!!  I felt sick to my stomach. I was failing. The truth is, I believe you can be a good mother AND a good career woman AND a good wife.  But there is NO amount of argument that can convince me you can be a GREAT mother, career woman AND wife at the same time. Great by its very nature requires a lot of time and attention, and something, somewhere has to be sacrificed to be great in another area. In spite of my epiphany, I wasn't in a position to immediately change my circumstances. After all, our lifestyle required us to be a two-income family. But the seed was planted, I wanted a change.

And that my friends, is how I was so ready to support Steven in this new adventure.  I would be able to quit my job, join Steven in Saudi, and, wait for it, actually raise my son?! Incredible right?
So fast forward...the recruiters wanted him over there to begin processing as soon as possible. Ramadan was just starting and the earlier he travelled, the better and easier the process. First stop, Kuwait City where he surrendered his passport to a stranger so they could begin processing his visa.  Being in Kuwait without a passport in his possession has made him incredibly leery about wandering about the city, but he has gotten up the courage (and the energy in spite of a horrific case of jet lag) to go across the street from his hotel to the mall.  He was given a litany of rules from the front desk, to include no eating or drinking in public (due to Ramadan) until after the evening prayer, to include no gum chewing!
So he flew out Sunday the 14th of July, and hopes to be done with Kuwait by the end of the week. If not, he's not in too much of a hurry; they met him at the airport with a private car, put him up in a boutique hotel, gave him an envelope of pocket money and have in general treated him like a king. Meanwhile, I'm hauling my tired ass around between work, my untidy house, Walmart and my son's preschool, in a Starbucks-induced haze of fake energy! But enough complaining! :)
So, this blog will chronicle his journey (as interpreted by me), our journey to hopefully reunite with him and move to Saudi Arabia, and everything in between. And if it all goes to hell, ( which I'm praying it doesn't) then I'll share the gory details of that too.
Either way, thanks for sharing our journey. If you're friends or family, we love you, thanks for your support. And if you're a stranger who stumbled across my musings, welcome. At the very least I promise it should be an interesting read:)