It's the end of May, how is it already the end of May?! ... I know it is a cliché thing to say but the past two years have literally flown. We are coming up to two years of living in the Middle East and our lives have changed so much.
When we decided to move out here we made a pact that love it or loathe it, we would stick our two year contract out and then see where we were at and how we were feeling. Now we are reaching that first set of goal posts and I am actually very proud of us. We left our friends and family in search of a better life for our children and that is what we achieved. I mean don't get me wrong the #expatlife is far from perfect but when I sit back and look at our daily lives now I am pretty impressed.
Here is a little round up of what makes me most proud;
1. We can afford to pay for our children's music, ballet and rugby lessons all on our own
2. We have been able to ignite a passion for travel in our children. Before we moved here the most exciting trip Posey and Lochlann experienced was a ferry trip to Ireland for a family getaway with my lovely in-laws (which was lovely by the way) but in the past two years we've lived in Abu Dhabi, visited Copenhagen and Bali as well as traveling back to the UK! - Posey and Lochlann now have places like China and Italy on their bucket lists!
3. Our children have friends from around the world. They are getting to learn about and experience many different cultures.
4. Not only has our marriage survived, I honestly believe it has now begun to thrive - it took time to settle and to get used to being with each other basically all the time but honestly now I think we are stronger and happier than ever!
5. We have started to take care of ourselves a little better - eating better, having a healthier mindset (me) and working out together at the gym.
When reading those things back they all seem pretty normal, mundane things, things that I am sure many people take for granted in their daily lives. But they're not small things to me. When our children were very small our family helped us to provide for our children and give them all they need and whilst there is nothing wrong with that - we wanted to be able to do these things for ourselves.
I hated the guilt of knowing I couldn't always afford things for our children - only holidaying in Wales because we were fortunate enough to use our family's caravan. The children only wearing the nicest of the cheap clothes because that was all we could afford or them having things bought by our family - I was so grateful but I yearned to do things our way - to take them to places we wanted to visit and for them to wear or play with things that we had chosen for them.
I am struggling to put this across in a way that doesn't sound like I am totally only interested in the materialistic side of life but I just mean that I wanted to feel like we could do things for our little family all by ourselves. I guess I wanted to show what we could achieve even though we got together quickly, got serious even quicker and became parents within 18 months of being official.
I wanted to show that Sam and I were strong together, that we were meant to be despite it all seeming so rushed.
I mean between 2011-2015 we got together, fell pregnant, bought a house together (with help from our parents), welcomed our daughter into the world, fell pregnant for a second time, got married, welcomed our son & then moved house AGAIN!
Fast forward to New Years 2017 and you found Sam and I in our beautiful detached four bedroom home, the home we stretched ourselves for in the hopes it would become our forever home. Sadly we fairly quickly got bogged down in nursery fees and mortgages repayments. We have some really wonderful family memories from our time in our house but I vividly remember sitting down together in the New Year just after Posey's and Lochlann's birthdays and deciding that something needed to change. We knew our home wasn't what we wanted for our forever home. We were sick of working our butts off for little pay off and money always seeming tight. Something needed to change. We wanted to made our children's lives fulfilled with two happy parents, family adventures and a little spare cash to make life easier and that is what moving to Abu Dhabi has given us.
We arrived with two toddlers, one still in nappies and 8 rather large suitcases. Two years later we've had two successful years in our current school, our children have both started school and really love it. Now we are getting our little family ready for our a new adventure in a new school.
Us not long after we arrived...
I do worry about the children not experiencing their childhood in England surrounded by our family but the opportunities we can give them here mean that they can spend summers getting in that quality time and the rest of the year living where our weekends involve guitars lessons, the beach and trips to the pool. We definitely couldn't say that when we lived in Warrington!
Us now...
I am aware this post has been a ramble fest and possibly doesn't even make much sense but as these first two years draw to close I wanted to get my thoughts down. There are honestly still moments daily where I still cannot believe that this is where we call home.
I am so glad we started this adventure, I love my little family so much.
💛
If you've reached the even of this long winded post then thank you. 🙏
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