robinchartier

I didn’t expect to be navigating another foreign move this summer, but as I look back (and ahead) on this retirement process, that’s exactly what it feels like. We are migrants to the military retired life and have had to learn an entirely new language. LES, PCS, TSP and EFM have been replaced by VA, TEQ, and ISR, to name only a few of the abbreviations that fill our conversations.***

In addition to the new language, we’re also having to learn to navigate all over again. Not new streets, but new processes. I have to figure out how to pay for school — US dollar check? bank wire transfer? How do I best get the money from here to there while incurring the least amount of fees? We will have to set up utilities and pay deposits with entities we’ve never dealt with before. ADDC for water, electric, and something called a tawtheeq (registration of our lease contract with the government). Wait, we don’t even have a local bank account yet. Back up to that for step 1. Nope, we need to get our Emirates IDs first. That’s the real step 1. At least until I learn about something else that supersedes that too.

But fresh borders bring new freedoms to explore. I will be able to have my school paycheck direct deposited into my local bank account instead of getting a paper check and having to go into the bank office to get it cashed. And we’ll have the freedom to fly on any airline instead of choosing the best of the worst routes because of the Fly America Act (why Josh and I had to fly home through Europe this past summer instead of direct from Abu Dhabi). Josh can travel to any of the 165 countries that his blue passport allows without having to ask permission from a government agency. Hello Lebanon!

There’s much more to figure out and unfortunately no Trip Advisor or Lonely Planet book to describe the ins and outs of this new region. If there were, I could research the heck out of it the way I do with all of our travel. I’d love to flip through a book and turn to a chapter titled Top 10 Military Retiree Healthcare Options and read the section How to Go to the Doctor in America. I’ve googled my heart out and I’m still not sure which health care program we’ll be on. Merge that with Josh’s NewJob health insurance and I have no idea where to start or who will be paying what. Thankfully it’s only theory at the moment and I’m just thinking ahead for when the need arises. Apply that process to everything we have to do for the first time as retired people and you can probably figure out why I’m feeling a bit undereducated and ill-prepared.

Speaking of global travels, my half-grown babies are having a great time on their first trip to the east coast. I have one more day in CA before I head east myself, with a 3 day stop in DC before heading home.

***(Cheat sheet: Leave and Earnings Statement [military pay stub], Permanent Change of Station [military move], Thrift Savings Plan [government 401k] and Eligible Family Member [related to embassy privileges]. New ones are Veterans Administration [for retiree medical and benefits], Tax Equalization [a tax calculation for expats], and ISR is the department Josh works for that I forget the name of. I’m still learning the language!)

A 3 am wakeup is the worst. It’s too late to stay up, but too early to get more than a dusting of sleep. 3 am this morning found us bleary eyed and headed to the airport. The kids are heading off on their east coast adventure with their other set of grandparents. 2 weeks of southern hospitality and US history split between South Carolina and Washington, DC.

Camille was nervous last night because it was her first time flying without mom or dad, but I reminded her that her older brothers would be there too and that seemed to satisfy her. As far as security measures go, the kids were all given wristbands and ID numbers and I had to verify my identity, escort them to the gate, and wait until the plane was pulling away before I could leave. It’s probably terrible to admit that I would have been fine dropping them off with Carter in charge, especially since they were too busy watching Netflix to care if I was there or not.

I’m not sure how they’ll feel about domestic air travel. I’m pretty sure they aren’t getting fed every 10 minutes and they have to pay for any food that they want. I sent them off with a bag of trail mix and instructions to buy what they needed and I’d pay them back. 

They pulled out as the sun was coming up and now I’m home before I’d normally even be awake. I’m going to give myself jetlag without even getting on a plane. Night night/Good morning!

PS: a little over 7 hours later. . . 

Way back here on day 65 Josh had his interview for his current job and I quote:

 

and:

At the time, based on the things that they said and the tone of the interview, it seemed as if he was the only candidate left that they were considering. In this case, ignorance was definitely bliss, as he found out yesterday that there were actually 3 interviews held in Abu Dhabi that weekend and that they didn’t decide to hire him until after they left the country.

I’m thankful that the outcome matched our confidence level, but it’s amazing to get a behind the scenes look at the process and see what was really happening on the other side.

Another piece of good news. It looks like we will have tickets provided to come home next summer and Calvin will also get a ticket to come visit us. I’m glad all the pieces of this puzzle are coming together.

I’ve started to retreat into my head — my mind is divided between here, Texas, and Abu Dhabi. It’s made harder by the fact that I can’t actually do anything to move ahead. Just like waiting for retirement. Lots of items on my list, but nothing that I can start working on.

Same with Josh. He’s had several days of his new job in-processing, but it hasn’t been work related. Instead it’s seminars on OSHA (workplace safety), health insurance benefits package information, HR paperwork (that still isn’t quite right), and all the important details that don’t apply to him like where employees can take a smoke break. (Interesting fact: they can’t. Not on company property. Smokers have to drive off-site during their lunch hour to smoke.) The point is there’s a lot of brain clutter that we are having to filter through, but between the two of us we’re hopefully latching on to the important bits and dropping the rest.

Before I get caught up in the future, what have we been doing the past few weeks? The girls created a spa and spend the morning giving foot massages, applying lotion to hands and feet, polishing nails of anyone willing to sit in their chairs (each chair offered a different service. Super cute — and all the cousins were great sports).

We visited The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The mystery is why everything inside “the spot” leans weirdly and why water rolls uphill and other strange occurrences that seem to defy the laws of gravity and science. It was fun, but not for anyone who gets dizzy easily. Just walking through the crazy tilted cabin was enough to make me believe that the world really was spinning in this spot.
(I’m a skeptic and think it’s an optical illusion — but a very convincing one)

We headed to Oakland to watch the San Francisco Giants beat the A’s

I would have been happy with either team winning since they’re both my home teams.

And after the game we saw the best fireworks. They were so close that when the first ones exploded into the sky right in front of us, Camille clutched my arm and pressed back into her seat. 15 minutes of amazement and we had the perfect seats to enjoy it. 

Celebrating new clothes — hand me downs are the best!

An exciting visit to the Monterey Aquarium with the youngest cousins.

We celebrated Caleb’s 14th birthday with a salted caramel chocolate cake.

Chicken fun — feeding, petting, and daily entertainment

And more baseball. This time a trip to watch the San Jose Giants (minor league team) and eat the best churros on the planet. This is near the top of my list of things to do next summer. Both for the baseball and the churros. I don’t even love baseball, but there were side games and audience participation events going on every time I looked up from my knitting (the best of both worlds). And a final score of 12 – 5 means there was a ton of action to watch on the field as well.

Four more days of CA vacation for the kids and then they get to run off to South Carolina for another 2 weeks of grandparent fun on the east coast. They will be in for a rude awakening when they have to go back to school, homework, chores, and all of the un-fun of normal life.

It’s time to unfreeze time. We’ve been on vacation, the days have been ticking by, and suddenly, Josh starts his new job tomorrow. We’ve eaten a year’s worth of bacon and berries, consumed the best Mexican food we can find, and indulged in 1 pump salted caramel cold brew coffees every other day.

And now summer is coming to an end. The kids have one more week in CA and less than 2 weeks from now Josh and I will be in back in Abu Dhabi, starting over from square 2. Since the kids are already enrolled in school and the animals are in-country, it’s not quite back to square one. And we have a church home and I still have my job . . . maybe we’ll call it square 3? But there’s new, unexpected work ahead of us, like figuring out which health insurance plan we need to purchase and setting up retirement account options and other new-to-us adult things that are part of getting a regular job. Choices?! What are those and what do we do with them? We’re not used to having options.

Today was our farewell to Calvin for another year and the first of many “see you next summer!” goodbyes.

I didn’t get to see this kid nearly enough, but it was enough because he’s busy doing great things. He’s caring for and leading kids from 4th grade up through High School, one week at a time. Sharing, guiding, teaching, and modeling a Christ-centered life is all I could hope for for him. I’d give up all my time to see him succeed in this way, but I’m hoping that someday soon he’ll be able to take a break and recharge with our family.

I’ve started packing and finding room in our luggage for the things we are taking back to AD. It’s not much because we don’t have a house to stock, but Camille inherited a fab stash of hand me down clothes and I bought 5 or 6 birthday gifts to keep in reserve for the inevitable flood of 3rd grade birthday parties that she will be invited to as soon as school starts. That takes up 1 suitcase. Add in a year’s supply of Good Day Chocolates, extra school uniform tops and bottoms, my stock of Motrin liquid-gels, Dr. Bronner’s toothpaste, and other items off of my running list titled Items to buy in America (like Costco saran wrap!) and I might have to offload some almost outgrown clothes to the nearest Goodwill to have enough room.

You can laugh, but this saran wrap is life changing. My first box was given to me by a neighbor in Oman almost 7 years ago and I will never use another brand as long as Kirkland keeps making this. It eliminates all of the wrestling, uneven tearing, and aggravation because of the ingenious built in slide-cutter. I don’t even use plastic wrap that often, but when I need it, it works perfectly and that’s enough for it to win a spot in the limited luggage space lottery.

This last week in CA I get to enjoy spending time with two of my sisters as our kids play together from the time they wake up until the time they fall asleep #cousinlove and soak up as much of America as I can (which really means sit in the sunshine and knit while sipping Starbucks, amen).

Happy first day of work Josh! I can’t wait to hear about your Texas adventures. I knew from the moment we met that you had grand plans, but I never thought they’d bring us here. It’s crazy to think that we’ve made it through the all the unknown and tomorrow it starts to become known.