March 2016 – Page 2 – robinchartier

Fly or drive, fly or drive . . .

I have 4 months to figure out this move — plenty of time, but there’s a lot to be done and a mountain of paperwork. The other complicating factor is that Ramadan is coming in June so certain things need to be finished before Ramadan, but other things can’t be done until a month before we go (during Ramadan) which means the odds of those things getting completed in a timely manner drops to zero.

My dream is to set out for Abu Dhabi by car, in a Saudi Arabian Vacation kind of way. SUV loaded down, Josh in the driver’s seat (since I won’t be allowed to drive), me in my abaya, kids strapped in for the 500 miles across the desert and the dog and the cat wondering what the heck they got themselves into when they joined our crazy family. However, this awesomeness comes at a price. In order to get my bucket list photo of myself in an abaya in front of the IKEA in Saudi Arabia we have to get transit visas for Saudi in addition to our entry visas for UAE. Possible, but more of a headache to try and do this during Ramadan. Then the pets add an extra layer of complication. I would have to import them to Saudi Arabia (and all the fees and paperwork) in addition to the fees and paperwork that will be required to get them into UAE at the end of our journey.

So maybe fly the pets and we’ll drive. But then I have to pay a pet importer to pick them up at the other end and board them or pay an exporter here to board them and put them on a plane after we arrive in UAE. Since that can cost thousands of dollars, the practical side of me is leaning toward scrapping the driving plans and flying with the pets, even if it is a pedestrian way to arrive and would mean losing my chance to get that Saudi stamp in my passport.

But then I have to weigh the cost of a rental car in Abu Dhabi versus the cost of the pet exporter — which way do we come out ahead? And how much value do I ascribe to ease of transition vs the adventure and experience that creates more paperwork? And so the inner debate continues.

Time

When did my child turn into a man? I saw this guy running to retrieve a ball at the soccer game and wondered if we had a new service member assisting — then I recognized that that man was my almost grown kid.

Pretty soon it will be this little guy, today sweetly helping his sister with her costume and leaving me love notes, that will become unrecognizable. It’s hard to imagine.

My apology letter from Caleb. All is forgiven.

She dressed up like a 99 year old woman for the 99th day of school. She is going to be a fancy grandma.

And just like a 99 year old grandma, after a hard day she can fall asleep anywhere.

With her friends from school celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

A party with green eggs and ham — though all the kindergartners declined the green eggs in favor of yellow. I don’t think they got the point of the book. Funny enough, since the celebration was on base (the kids walked over as a class) they served actual ham. At the school cafeteria they don’t serve any pork products and they’ve even been out of jello for a while because the last shipment “wasn’t the right kind” (meaning it was made with pork gelatin) so they couldn’t serve it. I’m not sure if anyone at the breakfast party noticed or cared, but it’s kind of a big faux pax since it’s a mixed group of kids.

After ham and eggs there was cotton candy, popcorn, henna, facepainting and bouncy houses. We waited 20 minutes for cotton candy since it’s the only thing she cared about besides the slide.

Waiting to slide.

I love that I can drop in on their special days and enjoy them with her.

Springtime means it’s time to cram all the special things into one month after the end of the first semester, but before it gets hot. In addition to 100 days of school and Dr. Seuss celebrations, they also had the elementary school choir concert. The kindergartners sang a bunch of songs telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. She looks like she was all into it, but she was mostly singing in a reserved way and only belted it out on the last song when she was happy it was finally almost over.

Relieved.

Another kind of relief. Caleb has been working on a research project about the country of Cambodia for over a month and it has been a slog for the entire family.

I don’t do the kids’ homework, but I was typing and cutting and handholding throughout. It was terrible.

And springtime means time for orders! (Finally.) We had to wait until March to get them, but our orders to Abu Dhabi finally arrived. Summer 2016, we will move to our 4th country in the region, United Arab Emirates.

In with the orders, out with the stuff — the purging has begun as the first of the “give away” boxes are headed out the door.

She’s sad to leave her kindergarten teacher and Josie, but as long as the pets are coming with us, she’s happy to go wherever our orders take us.

blended

I keep thinking if I wait to post, then I’ll actually have something to say, but time is flowing past and along with it, lots of little memories. But no orders. It’s now March and I’m like a pregnant mama in her 41st week. You logically know the baby is coming, but you’ve stopped expecting it to arrive. Ever. It’s only fitting since all of my children kept me waiting long past when they were expected, why not this very important set of orders? But just like in my human baby overdue days, I’m plodding along, pregnant with cynicism, and sweating (winter is long over and we are rapidly cruising into summer).

But on a positive note, one of my kids was accepted to what may or may not be their school next year, 2 more applications are in the middle of the evaluation process, and one child has one form left to be submitted by a teacher. So progress is being made somewhere, I’m just not sure if we’re headed in the right direction . . .

But since we might be leaving, we had to buy another carpet. Just in case. Totally reasonable, right?

We had been saying that we want one more big one since all but one of ours is medium sized (5×7 or 4×6). We had the joy of going carpet shopping for a friend and picking out a carpet for her and then as long as we were already there . . . we started looking at something for us.

I love that it’s neutral without being white (very important in my kid and animal household), it’s Persian, wool, older (50 years I think, different than anything we have already (not red), and huge.

I think it’s big enough for under our dining room table!

The kids participated in a color run on base with their youth group. Each color was a station to raise awareness of a social issue: domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and I’m not sure of the rest. As the youth group kids ran (along with the rest of the base) they also got bible verses on wrist bands for each station.

They had orange and green in their ears for the next two days . . .

Our Saturdays have been busy with soccer games. The Saturday before Josh left for California (yes, he’s gone again) was Calvin’s birthday and after Camille’s game we all went out to breakfast to celebrate. This French style cafe has a variety of fancy French toast and everyone tried a different one — Camille picked the one with marshmallows, ice cream, and chocolate bread.

Caleb went for Nutella, bananas, and vanilla ice cream and Calvin picked berry and cream crepes (that one is my new favorite).

But the “basic” pain perdu is a close second.

We got a quick rain shower this week! Huge drops, thunder and lightning, and gone in less than 5 minutes. Such a tease.

It happened while Meels and I were doing a charity run after school. They called the race because of lightning, but we both felt like we had run enough by then anyway.

This past weekend we had church in the desert. I think I’ve told you how the Bahrainis “camp,” right? In the winter they go out to the oilfields and throw up makeshift tents in the dirt and have bonfires and party all weekend. Some families have their own campsites, but there are others who have them available to rent out. Our church rented one of the campsites and had a church service right in the middle of the oil fields.

Each campsite has a temporary fence around it to stake out their area (and probably to act as a wind barrier against sand and dirt blowing.

Worship

It was a really good turnout considering that the directions were a GPS coordinate. I was worried I was going to get lost, but the boys and Google Maps brought me right to it.