I realized I haven't been posting about things going on with us, other then specific events that are accompanied with photos, so I thought I'd take some time and catch you up on things in the Perry World.
I titled this post Watching, Waiting, and Riding because those are 3 things we've been doing a lot of lately.
WATCHING- we've been watching the events transpiring in Bahrain for the past two weeks. What started out as a peaceful protest in a very popular area of Bahrain (one that we visited or passed on each occasion that we visited Bahrain) turned differently in the middle of the night. We've never been in danger and there was never a BIG risk that something could over flow into Bahrain's neighboring country, Saudi, but none the less, we still kept our eye on things and we have prepared all of our emergency documents just incase we ever did have to get out.
Originally, when we first signed on to this project we were going to be living in Bahrain. In 2003, there was an attack on an Expat compound, which was what prompted our company into moving all the families out of Saudi and into Bahrain. Then, 5 years later, and no sign of any threats or activities on Westerners in the country, companies started moving their families back into Saudi. We still have families living in Bahrain who are either being grandfathered over into Saudi and must return by 2012 or families with high school aged kids. We were concerned for them and eventually our company started evacuating them over to Saudi. It was a voluntary evacuation and was used to allow families a place where they could be incase the presence of military tanks escalated things. Never thought in a million years the company would have to evacuate families INTO The Kingdom. I always figured we'd evacuate to Bahrain. The entire time these events have been transpiring, our companies security advisor who lives in Bahrain, was on the ground monitoring things for everyone. He provided daily updates for the company and everyone stayed safe. I'm very grateful that during this time in the Middle East, we will be heading back to the USA.
Speaking of the USA.... we've been WAITING. We've been waiting for Miles' passport. I'm happy to say that it arrived at the US Consulate's office yesterday morning and I went and picked it up (along with Miles birth certificate) to get it in our hands. We've been waiting for it for several weeks, but needed it quickly, in order to get Miles a visa, which allows him to get in and out of Saudi Arabia, as well as put him on Brooks' Igama, which serves as proof of the purpose for living in the country. Our Government Relations Officer needed two days to get all the paper work taken care of and thankfully, we should have all of Miles stuff done by Wednesday in order to allow us to get on a plane Thursday morning. We've been praying a lot for his passport to make it here on time and it just happened that we applied for it in the middle of the US changing their entire printing of passports internationally. We even had started discussing changing our flights because we didn't think we'd get them in time, but we did!!! Woo hoo!
Yes, we're coming home to the USA on Thursday! We're so excited and can't wait. We started telling Gavin that he gets to ride on a plane and that's all he keeps talking about. I'm brainstorming ideas of what we need to bring with us and am having to create strategic plans in order to bring the least amount of stuff so that we can have lots of room in our suitcases to bring items and necessities back with us. We can't wait to see all of our family, let everyone meet Miles, spend time with friends, eat at restaurants, go shopping without getting kicked out for prayer, drive our selves around.... ooohhh I just got an idea for a new post... so I'll stop there for all the things we're looking forward to. Brooks gets to be home for 3 weeks, but has to return to work at the end of the month. The boys and I are going to stay until mid April, which will give us plenty of time to do all the things we want to! Our schedules pretty jam packed as it is and we've made plans months ago to travel to Arkansas, Houston, Baton Rouge, and have family from Colorado come visit us. oooohhhh--- I'm so excited I can't wait.
The 3rd part of this post has to with Riding. You may or may not have seen on my facebook status a week ago a conversation that Brooks and I had, but it had to do with a vehicle that came and picked us up one evening to go to the store in. Our convo went like this:
Brooks: Lindsey, don't freak out okay.
Me: Why would I freak out?
Brooks: Because you're about to ride in one of the BPV's.
Me: What's a BPV?
Brooks: Bullet Proof Vehicle.
Me: ........................ (this was me just staring at him)
This was honestly a conversation I thought I'd NEVER have, like ever! I learned however, that I actually prefer that vehicle a lot. It's bigger. The windows are tinted, not to mention when you knock on the glass it doesn't make a sound, at all! These vehicles were used years ago when they transported the men working in Saudi back and forth from Bahrain (where their families lived). Incase you were wondering, no, there was no special reason the BPV's came out last week, other then that some of our normal vehicles were getting serviced, leaving the transportation department short. I must say after reading several facebook comments and getting emails about BPV's-- I have never once felt like my life was in danger since I've lived here. We don't feel threatened, nor do we feel that we're in harms way. Sure, we're cautious and have been encouraged to watch for certain things in public, or not to go in certain places, but for the most part, life is pretty normal here. Besides, the punishment for someone doing something illegal is pretty severe, not many people want to risk getting caught doing "illegal" things.
Hope this post finds you and your family doing well. We'll be home soon and can't wait to see many of you!
I titled this post Watching, Waiting, and Riding because those are 3 things we've been doing a lot of lately.
WATCHING- we've been watching the events transpiring in Bahrain for the past two weeks. What started out as a peaceful protest in a very popular area of Bahrain (one that we visited or passed on each occasion that we visited Bahrain) turned differently in the middle of the night. We've never been in danger and there was never a BIG risk that something could over flow into Bahrain's neighboring country, Saudi, but none the less, we still kept our eye on things and we have prepared all of our emergency documents just incase we ever did have to get out.
Originally, when we first signed on to this project we were going to be living in Bahrain. In 2003, there was an attack on an Expat compound, which was what prompted our company into moving all the families out of Saudi and into Bahrain. Then, 5 years later, and no sign of any threats or activities on Westerners in the country, companies started moving their families back into Saudi. We still have families living in Bahrain who are either being grandfathered over into Saudi and must return by 2012 or families with high school aged kids. We were concerned for them and eventually our company started evacuating them over to Saudi. It was a voluntary evacuation and was used to allow families a place where they could be incase the presence of military tanks escalated things. Never thought in a million years the company would have to evacuate families INTO The Kingdom. I always figured we'd evacuate to Bahrain. The entire time these events have been transpiring, our companies security advisor who lives in Bahrain, was on the ground monitoring things for everyone. He provided daily updates for the company and everyone stayed safe. I'm very grateful that during this time in the Middle East, we will be heading back to the USA.
Speaking of the USA.... we've been WAITING. We've been waiting for Miles' passport. I'm happy to say that it arrived at the US Consulate's office yesterday morning and I went and picked it up (along with Miles birth certificate) to get it in our hands. We've been waiting for it for several weeks, but needed it quickly, in order to get Miles a visa, which allows him to get in and out of Saudi Arabia, as well as put him on Brooks' Igama, which serves as proof of the purpose for living in the country. Our Government Relations Officer needed two days to get all the paper work taken care of and thankfully, we should have all of Miles stuff done by Wednesday in order to allow us to get on a plane Thursday morning. We've been praying a lot for his passport to make it here on time and it just happened that we applied for it in the middle of the US changing their entire printing of passports internationally. We even had started discussing changing our flights because we didn't think we'd get them in time, but we did!!! Woo hoo!
Yes, we're coming home to the USA on Thursday! We're so excited and can't wait. We started telling Gavin that he gets to ride on a plane and that's all he keeps talking about. I'm brainstorming ideas of what we need to bring with us and am having to create strategic plans in order to bring the least amount of stuff so that we can have lots of room in our suitcases to bring items and necessities back with us. We can't wait to see all of our family, let everyone meet Miles, spend time with friends, eat at restaurants, go shopping without getting kicked out for prayer, drive our selves around.... ooohhh I just got an idea for a new post... so I'll stop there for all the things we're looking forward to. Brooks gets to be home for 3 weeks, but has to return to work at the end of the month. The boys and I are going to stay until mid April, which will give us plenty of time to do all the things we want to! Our schedules pretty jam packed as it is and we've made plans months ago to travel to Arkansas, Houston, Baton Rouge, and have family from Colorado come visit us. oooohhhh--- I'm so excited I can't wait.
The 3rd part of this post has to with Riding. You may or may not have seen on my facebook status a week ago a conversation that Brooks and I had, but it had to do with a vehicle that came and picked us up one evening to go to the store in. Our convo went like this:
Brooks: Lindsey, don't freak out okay.
Me: Why would I freak out?
Brooks: Because you're about to ride in one of the BPV's.
Me: What's a BPV?
Brooks: Bullet Proof Vehicle.
Me: ........................ (this was me just staring at him)
This was honestly a conversation I thought I'd NEVER have, like ever! I learned however, that I actually prefer that vehicle a lot. It's bigger. The windows are tinted, not to mention when you knock on the glass it doesn't make a sound, at all! These vehicles were used years ago when they transported the men working in Saudi back and forth from Bahrain (where their families lived). Incase you were wondering, no, there was no special reason the BPV's came out last week, other then that some of our normal vehicles were getting serviced, leaving the transportation department short. I must say after reading several facebook comments and getting emails about BPV's-- I have never once felt like my life was in danger since I've lived here. We don't feel threatened, nor do we feel that we're in harms way. Sure, we're cautious and have been encouraged to watch for certain things in public, or not to go in certain places, but for the most part, life is pretty normal here. Besides, the punishment for someone doing something illegal is pretty severe, not many people want to risk getting caught doing "illegal" things.
Hope this post finds you and your family doing well. We'll be home soon and can't wait to see many of you!
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