New Beginnings

New Beginnings....

At the end of each year my husband and I choose a word or phrase that we believe will depict the upcoming year.  Last year it was Khalas (arabic for finish).  This year it is new beginnings.  Although I am still working on accepting this, I wanted it to be Perseverance, I know this year will have many new beginnings as well.

On Dec. 1, 2015 I found a lump in my right breast and about 14 days later it was confirmed to be cancerous.  At first I was in a  bit of shock, me, I'm only 35 years old.  Yes, I know Im over weight and could eat healthier, but I had just begun walking in the morning with a friend.  We joined the local gym about 4 months ago and attend 3-4 days a week, what is really going on?  After praying and seeking God about what this means, I have come to realize that I have been chosen, crazy huh.  God has seen me fit enough to carry out this plan, that some may seem as death and destruction.  He reminded me of my journey to get here in the UAE, my battle with trying to commit suicide in high school, the youth ministry my husband and I oversaw for 10 years.  All these memories and through them all I've always said that God placed me here to go through some things that He knew others could not handle. So... here I am Lord, use me up!!

We have been here almost 2 years (will be 2 years in March) and this entire time we have been, what I call, pew sitters.  We go to church, don't really get involved, but just have been basking in His Glory.  We almost joined the youth ministry team, but decided not to until we heard from God.  At first I thought, "Wow, this is nice, just sitting back watching others work for God", but I later realized that we had to rejuvenate, rest up, reflect on how our lives will be utilized for His Kingdom.  These past 2 years was a time of rest and reflection.  A time for us to grow closer as a family.  Just before we left the US, we were going 100mph; working, coaching, running a business and a ministry.  Being here was time for us to get back to the basics and focus on us.  The light work load, no business (although I've researched several here), no coaching has allowed us to spend some incredible amounts of family time together.  We have weekly game nights (which were unheard of at home), time to work out together and just be family, I'm loving it!!

So...I said all this to say, new beginnings... a time for us to walk in the plans God has for us.  I embrace this journey and I pray that my flesh does not get in the way of His destiny for our lives and the lives we are called to touch.  It's time to dig our heels in a little deeper, lean on who we know is our strength and press.  God Bless!!

So much in a Year Part 4 (Finally!!)

Well, my mother came to visit us in October, we had a blast.  We visited the Burj Khalifa, Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, went on a desert safari excursion, shopped, took desert pics and shopped a bit more at the local souks.  The night before she was due to leave we had a conversation about her staying a couple days longer.  As the mother she is, she was concerned about the cost to change the flight, especially since I got the flight during Etihad's error fare almost a year ago (ticket was ~$300 R/T).  She continued to refuse so I said (khalas- finish) she will leave in the morning.  Well, we get to the airport 2 hrs before her flight is scheduled to leave and find out that they require a 3 hr advance check in and would not allow her to board.  lol.  My first thought was, "Ok, I guess I got what I wanted anyway".  Of course she felt bad, but I was happy.  We turned around, went home and enjoyed a few more days together.  I did however, feel bad for the 3 other couples (yes 3) that were not allowed to board, they were just visiting the area and had no family or friends they could stay with until they rebooked their flights.  One even had a flight later that week to Belize that would have to suffer financially due to having to pay for a new flight.  In the end, it all worked out, my mother was able to spend 2 whole days with the kids while Brian and I had to go to work.  Each day they came home more spoiled than the last (glad that only lasted 2 days).
I really miss having her close, we lived together for the last 3 years before I moved here to the UAE and I now realize how much of a blessing she really has been.  Some of you may now, but I was not the best child to take care of (yeah, go figure).  I put my mom through a lot; tried to commit suicide, bad grades (terrible grades), smart mouth, etc. I know that she already had a lot to deal with as a single parent and I didn't make things easy on her, but she loved me unconditionally.
I am a firm believer that nothing happens by chance, I know my childhood (and adult) experiences have brought me to this point in my life and I thank God for giving me the strength and allowing me to go through them.

A mother's Love... none can compare.

So much in a YEAR Part 3

Now we are up to August 2015, I started at my new school, which is lovely.  I only teach girls and I only teach one subject.  The downside is I have to teach middle school (I don't mind, I just really enjoyed the high schoolers).  My coworkers are great, but I try to stay to myself most of the time, too many women in one place, if you know what I mean.  Meanwhile, Brian is was still looking for a teaching job and we have to enroll our children into a new school.  Just before the summer ended Brian and I were both offered teaching positions in China.  The pay was great, the school we would send our children to was awesome, we would be teaching no more than 5 students in an IB (International Baccalaureate) program, but something just wasn't right.  After much prayer, listing pros and cons, and talking to everyone we could get our hands on about it we declined the position.  Keep in mind, Brian still didn't have a job, but we knew we had to trust God.  HE has kept us in every step of our journey through life and we weren't going to discredit HIM now (keep this in mind as I continue this post).  Within 2 months Brian had more than 10 interviews in several different countries, including; Qatar, Bahrain, China, Kuwait and the UAE.  But every time he was offered a position he declined because we knew God wasn't ready for us to leave this place.

Before the 2015 school year ended we had our children take entrance exams to the top 3 schools we wanted them to go to in Al Ain.  After being accepted to all 3 we chose one (the most expensive and BEST) school.  Knowing that Brian didn't have a job we weren't quite sure how this was going to work, but again, we had to trust God.  School for the kids were due to start in a week and we knew that if things hadn't changed we could not afford for them to go to this elite school.  Brian spoke to one of his friends (who's children were also due to go to the school) and suggest that we go talk to the headmaster and explain our situation.  After talking to the school administration they suggested that we enroll the kids (as she made very clear that their education is most important) and if Brian finds a job that would not pay enough to afford the school the kids would have just gotten a free education for a couple weeks.  To hear that the school administration would prefer to give our kids a free education for a couple weeks instead of refusing them to enter helped us to realize that this was in fact the place we wanted them to be.

During this same time he was offered a position in the western region of the UAE which would require a move for us, but I was OK with that.  The pay was more, kids would go to school for free (although not as good as the one we prefer) and I could be transferred with ADEC to the west.  After accepting the job we found out the they gave the position away.  This happened at another campus as well.  We started to lose hope, but continued to pray and seek God.  Well, mid September Brian receives an email that asks him to interview for a position and he would have a chose to teach in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, or Dubai.  He was offered the position and chose Al Ain.  The pay was a bit less than what he left, but this position would also include tuition assistance for the kids (did I mention the school we chose is the most expensive school in Al Ain?)  The school is and iPad initiative school (like the county we came from in US) so he would have access to all the latest Apple technology and training (BUT GOD!!).  We figured he would be teaching boys again, since the schools here are gender segregated and he could possibly get bad boys again.  Low and behold, when the contract came in, not only was he offered enough tuition assistance to cover 95% of the children's tuition, but he would also teach girls!!! OMG, my God, my God.  Brian is now the ONLY male in his department (he often complains about how catty women are) and really enjoys his school.  After about a month teaching everyone received and email that stated they would have to move someone to the male campus and we both just assumed it would be him (last one hired and the only male).  We resolved to accept it, but when the final decision was made, he was not chosen, another female teacher was chosen.

Brian was due to start 2 days before my mother was due to arrive, but we knew that everything was going to work out, and it did.

So much in a YEAR Part 2

So after the long ordeal with fighting my previous school for 30000aed we now faced a new challenge.  I was rehired with ADEC (yeah), but with this came a new challenge, would I have to wait for a visa again, would i be called to join group 1 (usually July start date) or group 7 or 8 (Nov./Dec. start), would we have enough money to make it to either group?  All questions I would not have answers to and could get answers.

About one month left to the school year Brian gets a letter stating that would be terminated from ADEC (the same organization i will start with in Aug.).  WHAT THE WHAT?  I was actually very happy when he came home on that Thursday evening, because he was miserable at his job.  He taught 10th grade boys (did I mention the boys here are be terrible?).  He came home miserable EVERYDAY, but unlike me, he had signed a 2 year contract and was only 1.5 years in so resigning was not an option.  Being fired was the best think that happened to us.  He still received all his pay AND received his end of contract gratuity (2 months pay).  Now the only question was, will either of us be working in the UAE come August?

OH, did I mention we had plans to go to the Philippines in the summer and my mother was coming to visit in October?  I am a NATZI when it comes to saving, so we saved for more than 8 months for the Philippines and my moms visit and had about 6 months of savings in our account which could support us if neither of us had jobs at the beginning of the school year.  We contemplated on whether or not we needed to go to Philippines, although the flights were booked and nonrefundable the money we would save outweighed the cost of the flights (we got one way tickets for 1aed).  We decided to YOLO (You Only Live Once) and go, but stick to a very stringent budget.  I am so glad we did.  That was one of the best vacations we had every been on (with our kids- Jamaica still beats it).  We stayed for 10 days and after about 7, my kids were so ready to go home, they were vacationed out. lol.

Three weeks before our Philippines vacation I received an email that I would be in group 1 for ADEC (yeah) and would need to report to the hotel for training the day before I was due back from vacation.  After negotiating with the travel agency they agreed to let me arrive a day late so we went straight from the airport to the hotel in Abu Dhabi.  We stayed at the hotel for a week (although Brian and kids could have just went home, but free breakfast and unlimited pool access, why not?). After being in Abu Dhabi for a week with a couple trips home to get clean clothes and food (remember we are on a strict budget) we are moved to a hotel in the region I will be teaching in which is were we already live.  I mentioned earlier that Brian was fired and his job paid for our housing, but his end date overlapped my start date (BUT GOD!!) so we didn't have to move out of our housing, we just transferred it to me.  Again, we got free hotel room for another week with breakfast and unlimited pool access.  When we finally come home for good we realized that the kids swam for 46 out of 50 days.

So much in a YEAR Part 1

My, my, my.  I have thought about this post for the past 3 months.  It has been a while since my last post (Sept. 2014 I think) and soooooo much has gone on in our lives.  Let me start from where I think I left off (should have read previous post- lol), I took the teaching job at the private school here in Al Ain.  If  you recall, I was orignillay hired with ADEC but had not cleared security so I began to look at other schools.  During the first week of school I found out that the pay I was offered was not correct.  See, they offer housing but since I didn't need housing (live with Brian and he gets housing) I was told that I could take the housing stipend, well, that is not true.  AFTER being here I was told that housing is offered from the government regardless of public or private school so we couldn't "double dip" (although I asked this question several times).  Oh well, I already accepted the position and even without the stipend it was still more than the other schools.  A week later I get a call from ADEC offering me my original position (which included 4000aed more a month).  After prayer and talking with Brian we decided to stay at the private school since I already committed to working with them.  Well, after about 4 months I was asked if I wanted to be promoted to department coordinator, which came with 1000aed a month stipend (for real this time- lol).  I knew it would require more time, but hey, why not.  BIG MISTAKE!!! Teaching at this private school required too much of everything; time, commitment, just plain chaos. I was required to teach 4 different subjects (yes 4), both boys and girls (which are in 2 different buildings), one boys class had 30 students. If you know anything about this country you know that a classroom of more than 20 boys is ridiculous.  I had boys hanging out the 2nd floor window, playing with wood boards from a broken bookshelf that had nails in them (I requested they be removed from my room 6x's) AND manage 5 other science teachers (all of whom started after me).

After being there an entire year I decided to resign at the end of the school year.  My children were not happy and were not learning at the level I felt they needed.  When I informed my HR department they later stated that I would have to pay close to 30000aed ($8000).  What the what???  I asked why and was told that I signed a 2 year contract and these are the fees incurred for breaking the contract.  I quickly realized that I never signed a contract and therefore should not be held liable for any of the fees they said I owed.  They disagreed, that I didn't owe the fees, so I took them to court.  While going through the court process I found out that my school is not governed by the local court system, it is owed and governed by the Sheik.  Really?  It all began to make since though, I was hired and a visa within a week when ADEC could not get me a cleared visa for 6 months, this school has wasta (i.e.-connections).  To make an even longer story short, I won, kinda.  I didn't have to pay the entire 30000aed, but did have to pay a little less then half. I was happy and separated from that BEAST of a school.

Summer's End

The summer is officially over for me :(  We decided to go home (US) for the summer even though we've only been here for 5 months.  Brian and I booked a trip to Jamaica to celebrate our 12 year anniversary so even if we wanted to change our minds we couldn't get a refund on our trip, so, why not?  Ive never been to Jamaica and have always wanted to go.  I HAD THE BEST TIME!!! The resort was beautiful, the weather awesome and the company of my husband was much needed.  Also, we decided that if we want to be financially free that we need help so we hired a financial counselor.  Our first appointment is next week so we needed to get all our frivolous spending and extravagant vacations out the way. lol.

We had my daughter's birthday party in Hinesville.  She shared her party with my godson.  That too was pretty awesome.  My friend, godson's mother, did an awesome job.  All I really did was send her money (that's my kind of party planning- lol).  I felt bad for my son though.  We left to go to the UAE two days after his birthday and I really didn't have the time (or energy) to give him a birthday party.  We do parties every other year and the way it has turned out we do 2 every other year (one per child), but it looks like we may now change that to 1 every year (one per child) since my son did have one this year.  It should be a little cheaper this way, we will see.

We decided to take another detour through London on our way home.  We didn't realize that we had to take ALL of our luggage off the plane in London.  Apparently there is a new rule that if your layover is more than 8 hours you have to take all your luggage off and check them back in at the connecting flight.  We had 9 checked bags and 3 carryons.  This proved to be a very difficult task.  The terminal for our connecting flight required us to take 2 trains and trolleys are not allowed on the train.  Brian and I had to carry all 9 bags between the two trolleys.   We had the kids holding the doors open and screaming for us to hurry up.  Im laughing now, but I was one hot lady.  When we got to the counter our flight wasn't even available to check our bags through self check in because we were 16 hrs early.  Our connecting flight was very gracious and did not charge us another over baggage fee because I explained that I didn't know I had to take our bags off the plane.  After finally doing an early check with our bags we check our carryon bags at a place in the airport that "watches" your bags, for up to 24 hrs., for a small fee.  This time we had a 16 hr lay over and decided to catch the big bus tour to get a quick glimpse of London.  Even though it rained it was well worth the trip.  

I start teaching one week before most teachers here in the UAE go back because I am a new teacher and my school has a separate orientation geared especially for new teachers.  I hope it is worth it!  Hopefully this will give me more time to get over jet lag and decorate my classroom.

Jet lag is a beast. 

Our home

Below is a quick video of our home in Greenland Compound.  We were originally assigned to Hili, which is a beautiful compound, but Brian said he felt like he was on the set of "Good Times" going into the compound.  The buildings are 5+ stories high and it is brick city.  There is no green space and no pool.  He asked to be reassigned but at the time the only thing available was a 2 bedroom apt. (flat) in Greenland so we took it.  We were told at the end of the current school year we can request a transfer since there will be a lot of people ending their contracts.  We really like Greenland, there is a huge green space in front of the pool that the kids play soccer in, the pool is shaded most of the day and the living room is huge, and the ceilings are at least 15 ft. high.  I hope we can get a 3 bedroom here, if not, we may just keep the 2.

Greenland kiddie pool

Greenland adult pool

Weight room in Greenland

Available activities in Greenland

View from upstairs hallway

Play area and green space for soccer outside pool area

Hili

Hili playground