Part 6: Saudi Arabia

For Part 1 click here
For Part 2 click here
For Part 3 click here
For Part 4 click here
For Part 5 click here
After Jason went back to work at the Cardiac Cath Lab at the hospital and I went back to work at the SNF, I think Jason started to worry about money.  I mean, we had enough.  We were making it OK, but it wasn't like when he was in sales.

He met a guy at work who had worked overseas and had made a lot of money that way.  So Jason looked online and applied for a job with ARAMCO (that's the Arabian-American Oil Co).  A month later they called and he went to Houston, TX to interview for the job and long story short, he got it.

That was in the summer, but with all the paperwork, the passport, the work visa... Jason finally left for Saudi in
October.  At first we were all going to go, but we learned that the schools on the ARAMCO compound only go to the 9th grade.  Paul was a sophomore and Stephi was a junior.  We looked at boarding schools and we found a nice Christian one in Oregon.  The kids were excited about it.  It was only 3 hours from my dad in Northern California and 1 hour from my friend Michelle in Oregon.  So we went to visit it.  It was great!  The kids applied and they were accepted.

The months went by and our visas were not approved... because I was taking Zoloft.  Of all things!

Jason said that the first few months over there were the hardest for him.  We talked on the phone every few days and after the New Year he was able to come home for a few weeks.  It was so hard to put him back on the plane, but he told me that if I stopped taking the Zoloft that he knew he could get me cleared to join him finally.  So I weaned myself off (painful, and really deserves another post altogether) and I filled out the visa forms again.

In April, Jason told me that he finally got me approved to join him.  Only now Steph and Paul didn't want to go to boarding school.  Argh!  Steph was starring in the spring musical - she was popular here.  She had a boyfriend and would be starting her senior year in August.  And Paul didn't want to go without her.

So I made plans for Steph and Paul to stay.  My family and most of my friends didn't understand why I thought that I needed to go to Saudi to be with Jason.  Before I became a Christian I probably wouldn't have, but I knew that God wanted me to be with my husband.

The kids were supportive of my choice amazingly. I found a nice, young, Christian woman who was in college and working at the church nearby to stay at the house with Stephanie (who would be 18 in a few months).  My brother who lives in town said that Paul could stay with him, but he would have to change schools.  

On July 11th, 2005  Henry and I got on a plane and flew to Saudi Arabia.