I've always said how fortunate we were to have moved overseas with our company and at the time we did since there was a large influx of families moving overseas together. We all experienced this journey together- we had the same fears, hesitations, unknowns, and we all learned to adapt and make due with Saudi life. I met some amazing, beautiful women and developed some precious friendships with women who taught me so much about life. These are women that have essentially been our expat family and made life overseas completely bearable!!
I was blessed with a going away luncheon celebrating my journey and time in Saudi along with 6 other ladies who were leaving in early June as well. It was really sad saying goodbye, but what a fun time we all had together. It's a tradition that when its time to leave everyone gets together and sends you off with a gift. I received a beautiful, gold necklace with a camel, & palm tree, filled with Saudi sand. It will definitely remind me of my time spent in the Kingdom.
I don't think I ever shared on our blog that last December, Delia, our wonderful helper moved an hour and a half away and no longer worked for us. It was very sad not having her in our home anymore, but we were blessed with one of her dear friends, Ivie, who embraced us and kept our house going and loved our kids like they were her own, too. She was an amazing helper, especially our last month while we were packing up, organizing, decluttering, etc. Even though she was only with us for 5 months, we LOVED her and had a hard time telling her goodbye. Miles and Brooklyn loved their Ivie.
Moving overseas, we had to say goodbye to a lot of our friends back home, but we never expected we'd get to say hello to some very special friends who moved to Saudi a year after we did. It was wonderful getting to spend 2 years with the Acord Family and to be apart of one another's lives and have the chance for our kids to "grow up" together. We met up with John, Che, Peyton, and Graham for dinner at Outback and spent one last evening together. It was heartbreaking watching the kids hug each other and say goodbye. It was also hard to tell a very good friend goodbye knowing once we both moved back to the states we'd be in different states.
Our amazing neighbors came by to say goodbye the day we were leaving. They also came and waved goodbye to us as we got into our cars to go to the airport that night. These are some amazing people who we loved spending 3 years together borrowing cups of sugar from, watching one another's kids, sharing meals together, and just plain ole' having fun together!
After Jake's birthday party it was time for us to say goodbye to our close group of friends. I was not looking forward to this. None of us were. An hour before we had to leave us girls started saying our goodbyes. It was an extremely emotional night!! Imagine the sick feeling in your stomach when you're struggling with the heaviness of a situation and it just lingers. That's how I felt all day and all evening. We all talked about the fun times we had and the memories we made and made a pact to one day attempt to get our husbands all working at the same Chevron Phillips plant someday. Hey, we can dream right?!?!
Gavin and Tucker were two years old when we moved to Saudi and were the only kids from our group.
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