September 9, 2010: So Long, Farewell!

After a month apart, our family was reunited in early September when Pat returned from Doha to attend my brother, John's, and his fiancee, Lucy's, wedding on September 4th.  It was a whirlwind final week with all of the wonderful wedding festivities - spa day with Lucy and her bridal party, tuxedo fitting for Carter, and my big responsibility - THE CAKE!!!  It was a dream wedding.  A dream to finally see them tie the knot, to see my brother so happy, to see Carter in his tiny tux and Maryn in her sweet dress and the wonderful chance to celebrate with so many loved ones.  Thanks John and Lucy for planning your beautiful and special day so that we could also say our farewells to so many people at once!

We spent our final nights staying with the West-side Desbarats - Andrew, Shauna, Ella and Lily.  They graciously let us take over their dining room with our many suitcases and all of the final odds and ends we were trying to stuff into them.  Oh the chaos!  But by 6:30 on Thursday evening all the bags were zipped shut and loaded into the two mini-vans that would transport us to the airport for our 10:45 p.m. flight to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The Final Farewell came  in two phases.  The first at Andrew & Shauna's where we gave Shauna, Ella and Lily our final hugs. 

That was not easy!!


Mema, Andrew, Gammy and Papa were our designated airport entourage, helping us load, unload and check our 7 suitcases, 2 of which had to be re-packed at the counter because they were over the weight allowance!  The attendants were very kind and understanding, knowing we were moving and cut us a bit of slack on a couple of those bags too.

As we hugged our parents good-bye and watched them hold their grandchildren one more time the tears were flowing.  We know we are bound for great things, but we are also leaving really great things.  Loving family, a safe, secure and beautiful country, and so many other things we've grown to know and love.

The stakes are high, but the possibilities are endless.  For all of us.  Thank you to all who love us, who've supported us and who've made us into the kind of people who can take these kinds of risks.  Next stop: Doha!!

Year 1 in Doha: A Retrospective Series of Posts Comin' At Ya!

ne Year in Qatar!

As we approach the first anniversary of our arrival in Doha it becomes more evident to me than ever that I need to capture the memories that we made in our first year overseas.  So many new, interesting, frustrating, funny, enjoyable and rewarding experiences!

Fortunately, I was also hoarding email messages so this week I went through the process of clearing out my inbox and relived many of those experiences.  It has renewed and revitalized my inspiration to blog about these experiences, so that's what the next series of posts will be: retrospectives of our first year in Doha.

It will also serve to help me in the coming months when we need to decide and inform ASD if we plan on extending our stay here (meaning it's time for Pat to renew or conclude his contract).


So let's go back to September 2010!