On our first date during Spring semester I told him how I was going going to be leaving to go to Australia to pursue my dreams in Theatre. My husband told me later he knew on that date that he was going to marry me. Long story short I fell head over heels for the American boy and my first real love. We dated for one semester before getting engaged for just a year. We got married the summer before his Senior year, nine months later we were pregnant with our first son, and had a newborn nine months after that. Any plans to go to Australia or be a starving actress in Los Angeles shifted as my life took a new focus and direction.
During our engagement we came up with new plans that would involved the two of us together. My only need was to be living overseas. Since we were going to a private Christian university this developed into embarking on a life of mission work. There was a current team at my small church in Naples, Italy where I had lived before we moved to the US. I figured we could put together a team from students on campus and return to help with the on going work. It seemed perfect because my husband could see the place where I had lived twice in my life, being the closest thing to a home that I had. After we were married a situation arose back in Italy closing down that path to us. As one door closes another one opens. We were invited to join a team going to southern Thailand with a summer camp friend of my husband. I had not yet been to Asia and my husband had not yet left North America, so the excitement of a new world captivated us. We formed a small team to live in Thailand that Summer working with a church to teach English. I was pregnant with Ronan when we lived in Bangkok and so our family was top priority on our minds. We learned from the locals how dangerous it had become recently where we wanted to move with the other missionary team. Between the issue of safety and other circumstances the group never went forth to that area of the Thailand. My husband and I felt lost at that point because we knew we wanted to go abroad but we did not know what to do with our lives. We needed to decide fast because Ryan was finishing his degree and I was getting closer to having our baby.
The Military Life on Oahu, Hawaii |
The actual story of how we got from that point in our life to where we are today is not really a pretty one. Nor is it flattering. Since it does not pertain to life of an Expat, I’ll leave that story for another day. I had my English passport and I was more than ready to leave. I came to the US in 2000 with my parents and in 2011 my husband took me back to Europe. Though he was enrolled in school for his masters degree, we came with no jobs and no place to live. We essentially lived in a hostel until we were able to figure things out. It included an expensive trip back for Ryan when we were told incorrect information about his application for a marriage visa. We have also learned a lot of other mistakes along the way as rookie expats. To be fair I knew what an expat was in definition but did not fully know what it meant to be an expat until we became expats. I also did not know how vast and huge the expat world is today. Honestly had I known and had I been able to connect years back maybe I would have saved myself from some of the heartache of being a Third Culture Kid living in a foreign land of America.
If you liked this you can also check out: Expat: Finding Love Abroad and Travel: Moving Abroad