Moving to Atyrau

Here is a picture of My brother and Jeff helping us get our house ready to put on the market! My family helped us so much!

Isaac and I are hanging out in our empty living room after the packers finished up. We had to stay in a hotel for a week while our house was getting packed up and cleaned, etc!

This picture is of the boys in front of our new home in Atyrau. Just getting here and settled in was an adventure in itself...we've been here a month and I'm still not truly "settled" since most of our things won't get here until sometime in August! It's very strange to live in a house without all your pictures and decorations, without your own dishes, without the clothes you couldn't fit into the luggage. We took all we could get into our luggage at the airport and squeezed in every item we could get the packers to put in the air shipment, but when you think about all that you have to wait months for, it's so frustrating.

The flight with our two boys was another experience! I must say, they were wonderful for such a long flight (about 15 hrs of just flight time). I'm so glad I did some of the recommended reading for an expat assignment. Raising Global Nomads was worth reading just to get the wonderful advice on packing a "magic bag" with little treats individually wrapped that the boys could reach in and unwrap something new to eat or play with every 30 minutes (or whenever they needed it!). It was genius and kept the boys occupied for the hours they were awake :)

Here are the boys at the Amsterdam airport eating some snacks before our next flight!

I must say, the company Matt works for made the move remarkably painless. I guess they've moved enough people around the world that there's pretty good structure set up to make it go smoothly. The only major headache I had to deal with was the inventory of our house...that was a massive project...but it's over now!

Another blessing was how helpful all the families are here on the compound. When we got here, they already had our house set up with the furniture we needed, all the beds were made, the settling in kit was in place (pots and pans, small appliances, dishes, towels, etc until our shipment arrives), and there was food in the fridge! Plus, our "host" family had set out homemade goodies for us. It was so nice to be able to eat something and go right to bed without having to lift a finger.

Now all we had to do was get over jet lag (which took Isaac a full 10 days!!!) and fall into some sort of normal routine for the boys. I'll get to that another day!

A job offer where???

I very clearly remember the phone call from Matt, "What do you think of Kazakhstan?" The first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Where is that?" I had never even heard of this country, had no idea where it was on the globe, no idea what language was spoken there. After a brief description of the country (e.g. winters of -40), I told him that it wasn't high on my list of where to live, but I'd be open to it if the opportunity was good for him. I can survive anything for two years, right? The last thing I expected was to be sent there in a matter of three months!

The weeks to follow are a blur of chaos. We had to get medical clearance for all four of us. My poor boys didn't know what was going on with all the appointments and vaccinations. More than once I asked myself if this opportunity was worth the torture I was putting my boys through, getting "pokes" as Mattox put it. Was it worth leaving our network of friends. Mostly, was it worth leaving our support network of family? We were used to seeing my parents every other month. In the end, I knew that the opportunity was worth it. This was an opportunity that might only present itself once. An expat position is a great career move for Matt, the travel opportunities are hands-down amazing, and I've always wanted to be immersed another language and culture. So, the paperwork continued, the pre-assignment visit was set, and meetings with realtors were scheduled.

This picture is on the plane going on our pre-assignment visit. It was mandatory and no kids allowed...the first time to be without my boys for a week and be more than a 3 hour drive away! The worst part is that we got stuck in Kazakhstan because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Our flight to Amsterdam was cancelled...so we eventually found our own way home going through Beijing. We literally had a trip around the world! I was so happy to get home and hold my boys!This picture is us on the foot bridge crossing the Ural River in Atyrau. The town is both in Europe and Asia since the river runs right in through the middle of it.

I will post again soon, since I haven't even gotten to our actual move to Kazakhstan yet! Hopefully, I will figure out all the layouts to make this blog flow better :). I'm learning.

Here we go!

I have never been much of a writer; I never kept a journal or diary as a kid, nor have I ever imagined myself keeping up with a blog. But, a number of people have suggested that I start a blog of our experience in Kazakhstan. After a month here, I have realized that much of what we experience here will always be in my memory. Moving to a different country where I don't speak the language is a big deal in my life; I will remember it forever. But, my boys are very young, two and almost four. I would hate for them to not be able to have some record of their time here in Atyrau. So here it goes! I can't promise to be a dedicated blogger, and I definitely cannot promise to be entertaining. But, I can say that I will give it a go!