Dear Gracen

My Darling Little Girl,

As your mama, my job is to help you live a happy, healthy, and fulfilled life.  Of course, this means making many decisions on your behalf, especially now while you’re so little.  Some of them, like making your sleep a family priority or ensuring your body is nourished with healthy, wholesome foods, are easy.  They’re inarguably what’s best for you and they’re worth every extra penny and every bit of extra effort.  Other decisions are not as simple…

For the last few months, your papa and I have been talking about one of those kind of decisions.  One of the ones that don’t come as easily.  We’ve weighed our options and made the lists.  We’ve discussed it with your grandparents and talked about it time and again…  And after all of it, we have some big news, Baby Girl…

We’re moving.  

And not a little move…  

We’re moving back to the Middle East.  

Back to Kuwait.

Now I know you might be thinking, didn’t we leave there only a year and a half ago? Didn’t you guys choose to come home to Canada not that long ago?  And you’re right, sweet girl.  We did.  At the time, you were still so wee and had only had a chance to spend a few short weeks with your grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We knew we needed to get you home to get to know your family members and develop those relationships.  And you have.  We’ve spent the last year and a half camping with your cousins, spending holidays with your grandparents, and experiencing all of the wonderful things that come with being a Canadian…  From brightly coloured autumn leaves, to ice skating, to a backyard garden full of veggies and hills of fluffy white snow.  It’s been wonderful, Lovey.

But soon enough, we’ll say goodbye to this little life we’ve worked hard to build in this beautiful city and begin anew.  We’ll carefully pack all of our essentials, make the 36 hour trek we’ve come to know well, and set up our new life overseas in our second home.  It’s bound to be full of challenges, and yes, our families will be far away, but Sweetpea, it’s going to be wonderful.  There’ll be new friends, old friends, constant warm weather (sometimes so hot we won’t know what to do with ourselves), days spent at the Hilton, and travel adventures throughout the seasons.  I can’t wait for you to meet the kids we’ll live with,  for us to play in the courtyard each afternoon, to take you back to Dubai, and spend our first real European Christmas as a family (I promise we’ll make it further than the Frankfurt airport this time around).  We’ll walk through the sand to the bacala in the afternoons, we’ll close up our apartment when the dust storms roll around, and we’ll cool ourselves in kiddie pools filled with cold water when the heat becomes too much.  There’s bound to be days…  Days when your papa and I  become frustrated with living in a country so different than the one we grew up in, but it’ll all be alright.  The three of us will be together and as cliché as it sounds, that’s truly all we need.

You don’t know all of this just yet…  Seven months is still a long ways away and the concept of time is a hard one when you’re two years old.  We’ll talk all about it this summer when the packing and prepping begins, and it’ll quickly become clear that big adventures are headed our way.  But until then, Baby Girl, my promise to you is that your papa and I will do everything we can to ensure that you spend your days happy, healthy, and thriving, no matter where we are in this great big world. 

Love you always and forever,

Mama

xox

Homehanging out at home  //  our apartment  //  your nursery

Mahboulaadventuring in mahboula  //  courtyard afternoon  //  a walk to the bacala

Hiltonpoolside  //  hilton baby  //  on the shore of the gulf

Fahaheelon a wild ride  //  boxing day walk along the gulf  //  fahaheel lunch

Egaila  Airporta walk along the gulf in egaila  //  waiting at the kuwait airport  //  evening at egaila park

♥ 

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20 thoughts on “Dear Gracen

    1. Surprise! :) The first time we moved to Kuwait we were up for an adventure and wanted to travel. Because my hubby and I are both teachers, we applied all over the world and our school in Kuwait was the first to offer us both jobs we liked.

      Dubai is really fun – you’d love it. It’s only an hour away from Kuwait (by plane), so we spend a lot of weekends there just letting loose and having fun. :)

    1. I will MOST CERTAINLY still be blogging, Peggy! In fact, I’ll have more reason to do so with being so far away and all. Thanks so much for your well wishes. :)

    1. Thanks so much! Going the second time around really isn’t that intimidating. Because we’ve already lived there for four years, in many ways, it’ll feel like going home. :)

  1. Exciting! If you’re heading to London, drop me a note and I will tell you all my secrets. Must make sure we have a VM blogger dinner before we go. If we start planning now we might manage it… xx

    1. I will certainly be taking you up on your offer, Erin. We didn’t visit London during our first stint, and I’d love to this time around. And yes, a VM blogger dinner in the near future is a MUST. :)

  2. Wow! What an exciting adventure this is going to be for you all. What made you decide to go back? Will you be teaching there? I agree with Erin, we must get together for another VM dinner or girls night before you go. I love your pictures and I look forward to keeping up with all of your new adventures!

    1. Thanks Brandee!!! Brad got a really great job offer and we miss living overseas quite a lot, so it was a great opportunity for us. We’ll be able to do a lot of traveling and save a good amount of money while there, both of which are tricky while living in Vancouver. I won’t be teaching (I still want to soak up some time with my little lady before she goes off to school), but I will be tutoring in the afternoons once Brad is home. :)

  3. That is such great news I can’t wait to see the adventures you have and the food you create over there for miss G! I love the middle east and can’t wait to go back one day such an amazing opportunity for you all.

    1. Thanks, Louise!!! I’m looking forward to sharing what life is like for us in the desert. :) Did you live in the Middle East also? Or did you do some traveling there? Which part were you in? I love hearing others’ stories! :)

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