A bright future

Things are looking up it seems! I've made personal changes, not only from within but around me as well. I've laid down boundaries, and everyone seemed to respond well (maybe a few huffs and puffs from my young SIL, but that was expected).

Ramadan always gives me a new start. Everything seems to fit and fall into place this month, the same thing happened last year. I find that routines take shape nicely, too- and I seriously needed some routine in our household! The last three months have been disorderly, I was slack on cleaning and personal goals. I've changed. It feels good!

Basically, our sleep schedule is regular, and even though we'll change it again after Ramadan it's a lot easier to change a pattern where there was one to begin with. Hopefully I'll get my daughter to sleep earlier than my husband and I, it has always been a thing where all three of us fall asleep together. I've discovered that even an hour of alone time at the end of a day makes for a happy marriage, and I'm really thankful for that simple discovery.

With a good nights sleep I've woken up energized and happy. I'm cleaning the house, cooking good, wholesome food like I used to, and I even have time to pamper myself. I'm much happier in a clean house with manicured nails!

Last week we went to Jeddah for a much needed retreat and I must say- my husband completely spoiled me. We ate well every night, we stayed out and did a lot of fun things, we even went shopping and he didn't complain! Sometimes I get the feeling like good things wont last, but not this time. I knew he was doing it all because he loved me and he told me as long as that didn't change neither would the good treatment. It was very, very nice.

In Jeddah we went to an amusement park, the Aquarium, the beach, and a few malls.

Delicious

One night with the Inlaws

The other thing I did was take a huge leap. I got a job, inshallah, with a very well known english school. I'm supposed to start after Ramadan which means my husband, daughter, and I will have to move to Jeddah asap. I'm really excited, though I'm extremely nervous about leaving my daughter because I never have. My husband says he can work it out where one of us is at home while the other works, and that makes me feel a lot better since I really don't want a 'nanny' for Elly. I already feel like 'more' of a person, more 'me'. It will also be really nice to have some of my own spending money, and the first thing I'm saving for is a trip to Canada when I can!

The inlaws don't come over every day now, and I've liked them A LOT more because of it. I knew I needed my distance! We do break our fasts together, which is nice, and a lot less cooking for me to do! lol.

Anyway, I know moving and a new job is going to make me busy but I'm going to try to stay positive since it seems Allah swt has lightened everything that was dark in my life. Alhamdulilah.

Saudi update

So things are going well insh'allah.

We went all the way to Ottawa to the Saudi embassy to get papers, hubby had them stamped, we sent them by mail annnnd..
They were lost by Canada post. Isn't that lovely? It defeated the purpose of our trip aside from seeing my brother. Oh well, c'est la vie. Now, nearly 20ish days later, the mail is on it's way to hubby's brother who is kindly settling our affairs for us in Riyadh. Alhamdulilah.

Once the papers get there, from what we've been told, everything gets into full gear and it's all really, really going to happen insh'allah.

My fear? The mail gets lost again, we are used to the ups and downs, failures, defeats of being a long distance type of family. Torn between two countries, two governments, two families. It get's to you! Especially when you're so desperate to have a normal, settled life.
The mail was a familiar defeat, but it worked itself out. I remember when my husband and I wanted to get married, we tried and tried and tried and we even sought a lawyer's help because we wanted to know the best route. After a year and a bit of worrying over what the lawyer told us, we were told by the CDN Gov that we were mislead and it was a common misinterpretation but being married for us was legal. Ugh.

Anyone familiar with Saudi's previous and new laws on foreign marriage knows how confusing that is, as well.

Things are looking good from the inside, though. We received good news from both government and family, so things are better than we thought. It's been so many years of worrying and wondering that now it's in progress we're taking something too seriously? (I hate to say too serious, because it's important, but the way we've always seen it was that it would be extremely difficult and impossible, I'm not so sure why, though laws and situations have changed).

Our apartment in Makkah is finished, I can't wait to have a place to call my own. I'm extremely excited to get in there and start decorating, that's obviously my favorite part. I'm going to take tons of pictures from beginning to end. The only thing that sucks is that my family cannot enter Makkah and they;ll never see it. I guess nothing can ever be perfect though. I'm still going to make it nice, I'm going to be there for a long time insh'allah, so I might as well enjoy my space!

I'm also excited to meet my husband's family face to face after almost 6 years on webcam, do Hajj, eat Saudi food, explore, learn... so much to learn!

Pray for us, hopefully my husband will no longer be so homesick and my daughter will get to meet the rest of her enormous family soon.