In the Meantime...

My husband took a different job 8 hours away from home as it will take a little bit of time to get things together before he can take advantage of the opportunity in Kuwait (that is to say, he was not at all happy with the salary offered, and is currently in negotiations with the company for a salary comiserate with his years of experience ... and his ego).  He has been away at his temporary job for a week and a half now, and I am very anxious to see things move along (in other words, I am ready for this long distance marriage stuff to end already).  You see, for the past three and a half years, my husband worked in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor.  In all that time, he was home twice a year.  That's it.  He came home this past March "for good" (which, for my husband means "for as long as the travel bug does not bite), but after being home in sunny south Florida for the past 3 months, he has had his fill of the ocean, the pool and tinkering around the house like an old man and is now ready to start another adventure (besides, with three kids, a mortgage, student loans for the both of us and medical bills for our youngest with autism, we really need the money).   Before this last job, he was with a company that had him traveling away from home once a week and home for one day a week.  Before that, we owned a business that had him working long hours and again traveling often.  Before that he had another job that involved lots of travel, and before that... well, you get the picture.  Kuwait would be ideal as it would allow our family the opportunity to go together this time, which is something my well -traveled husband would love to offer to us. It's important to him as a homeschooling father that his children experience the cultures they are learning about in their lessons.  As for myself, I'm just ready for a change.  I am looking forward to some sense of family normalcy (dinners together, church together, weekend activities together) even if it means moving halfway around the world to have that again on a consistent basis.

"I Got The Job!"

"I got the job!"  

Now, most housewives would be jumping for joy, but upon hearing this announcement, I thought, "Oh, God... please... anywhere but ..." and then he said:
"Kuwait!"

Seriously? Kuwait?  Qatar, maybe.  We have friends there. That would have been quite alright actually, but I was really hoping for Germany, or England.  Just some place more familiar.  Kuwait? I know nothing about this place, other than it's hot, it's small, and its population is mostly muslim.  That's about it.  I was also hoping for a place more temperate.  Temperate would have been nice because in my old age of thirty- shoomeeshoo, I'm at the point now where Florida weather is just too hot for me.  I couldn't imagine living anywhere hotter.  As it is, I don't work out till about 7PM just to avoid having to deal with the heat here.  Yikes!  My bigger concerns about moving away? Homeschooling our three children in a strange new place, finding a church, adequate healthcare for our youngest battling autism and verbal apraxia... I can't imagine what it's going to be like in Kuwait!  The alternative is going back to what we've done for the past three and a half years: a geographically separated family.  As interesting as it was having a husband living and working overseas these past few years, our family is more than ready to actually live together in the same time zone again.  Needless to say, in this respect, Kuwait is a blessing, as we can actually go with him this time (his last contract was on an army base in Afghanistan ... not family friendly if you know what I mean).  For now, it's still all up in the air as this move is not official ... yet.  My husband was given only a verbal go ahead over the phone (that was last Friday and today is Tuesday).  We are still waiting for the offer letter to show up in his email.

In the meantime, I've been looking for other families online who have already traveled this road we're heading on in order to learn as much as I can about this new place we'll be calling home for the next year, and the process involved with getting there. 

I am praying this will be an interesting adventure for our family (as a matter of fact, as soon as my husband made this announcement to our family, he led us in prayer precisely to address this issue).  As apprehensive as I may be about this move, a part of me can't help but be excited about starting a new life somewhere else... together, as a family.

Here are links to two blogs of families who have gone on before us:

http://kuwaitftw.blogspot.com/

http://healthyheartshappyhome.blogspot.com/search/label/Kuwait