My Destiny as a World Traveler... Sunday Musings
We loved this last assignment in Korea- the crew was awesome, the customer was pretty good, and our living arrangements were perfect for us. House mother spoiled us rotten (more on that in another post) and I was so looking forward to going back to the United States after Austin finished this assignment. Most of all, I was looking forward to getting a little break from being full-time mommy/caregiver with trips to my parents' and in-laws' homes. Austin and I could actually go on a date! I could leave the kids with someone for a few minutes during the day to do something else! Yay! Although Korea was a great assignment for us, I was/am exhausted. Between trying to take care of the boys and not really having a break for months on end, coupled with a few weekends where Austin was working or getting eye surgery (more on that in a later post), and then less helpful because of eye surgery, I was completely spent. If we stayed too many days in Samgilpo without going on excursions, Landon was a little stir crazy, but Owen was at the stage that he loved tooling around our room and was learning to walk. My kids had different needs and I could not meet both at the same time. Austin knew our assignment was coming to an end. Since we had not heard anything about another assignment in the works, and the "road map" that usually gives us a good idea of what's coming up was clear, I let myself get really attached to going back to the United States for the holidays. We even booked our tickets through San Francisco so that we could go straight to my parents' house from Seoul without having to come back to Chicago.
Driving back from an exhausting outing a few weeks ago, both kids fell asleep. I was then left to my thoughts, and I was just thinking about how good it would be to see and spend time with family. I had just talked to my sister who was coming to CA for Thanksgiving, and getting super excited to see her and her husband. We planned to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium together. I was thinking about all the delicious food that I missed and was going to eat, including Chipotle, In N Out, and my mom's chicken enchiladas. I could almost taste that In N Out burger! Then, I started thinking about what we were going to do next with our lives. It was really up in the air. Was it time to stop traveling? We didn't feel like it was the right time, but some indications from work made it seem that maybe this was the best option for us. What about our next assignment? I thought about the available options: a short project in Spain or some longer projects in China coming up in January. I had no idea where we would go or what the living situation would be like. For us, this is a familiar feeling, and we always pray for guidance on what to do and that the places that we are assigned would be the best for us and for our family. Well, in that moment, thinking about our future, I said a simple prayer there in the car, "Here I am, send me where you need me. I'm willing to go wherever you want me to go, and do whatever you have in store for me. Guide me to people I can help!" When I said that prayer, I was totally intending for it to be in the context of send me wherever you need me... in January. Send me, but in my timetable, after I've had a nice relaxing visit with family for the rest of the year.
Unbeknownst to me, at almost the exact same time as I said my prayer, Austin received an email that he had been staffed to Nghi Son, Vietnam. He is replacing an injured crew member, so the staffing was sudden and there was no way to anticipate it. We were to head straight to Vietnam at the conclusion of our assignment in Korea. No trip back to the United States. To say I was devastated would be an understatement. The boys are at an age where they are growing up so fast. I really want them to have relationships with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, but with this traveling gig we never know when we will be back in the States. As it is, we left for Korea in late May, so it had been awhile since we had seen anyone. Austin's family came to visit in September, but it seemed the kids even changed since then! I felt like a deflated balloon. With this news, and the terrible turmoil of the election clogging my Facebook newsfeed, I was not in a good place. In all, we're super excited to visit Vietnam. Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Cambodia are on my travel bucket list. The idea of missing Thanksgiving and Christmas with family was just a giant punch in the gut. I know compared to the tragedies and problems of others this is not even comparable. Boo hoo, we get to live in Vietnam for free. But not seeing family is a big deal for me.
I think there are a few challenging things about accepting and going on this assignment that freaked me out more than others. One is that the time frame is very ambiguous. Technically, Austin will only be working in his assigned role for about a month, then they are thinking of switching him to another role which means we could be there far into 2017. Or we could go home in January. No one knows. Another thing that really concerned me at first is that I tend to over-prep to go to countries where medical care is not great and food and water are not clean. I bring tons of medications and some emergency supplies as well. I stock up on anything I think I will not be able to find in that country. Trying to find some of these things in Korea proved to be difficult. I had a mile-long list and after my first day of errands I crossed off just one or two things. I did not know if I could really do it. It is hard to shop for specific things in a foreign country where you don't speak the language or read very well! I THINK some of the sunscreen I found is waterproof sunscreen, and we're still on the hunt for 12" bicycle tubes (for my stroller). I stocked up on medication at a pharmacy, and found Owen some new shoes. Only after freaking out and really praying and asking specifically for help with this hard task was I blessed with peace, and calm children who willingly and smoothly made 5 stops to do different errands- all in the same day! That was a giant miracle! I was concerned about getting Owen his 12-month immunizations, especially after reading that a nearby village in Vietnam had a chicken pox outbreak! We drove to Seoul for his vaccinations. He needed four, but in Korea they usually only do two at a time because they are painful for the babies. I somehow managed to convince the doctor to do all four on the same day, and that was out of the way and done with. He has his immunity now! Hoorah!
The thing that I am most worried about in Nghi Son is grocery shopping/ getting food for my family. Nghi Son is a tiny place, and until the refinery and other industry came to town, was one of poorer, more remote areas of Vietnam. It is a five-hour car ride from Hanoi, and two hours from the nearest airport! This is just one of those things that we'll figure out. I have bags that I can hook onto the stroller to hold groceries, and I love literally "running" errands, so hopefully we'll have a store within running distance. There are so many unknowns with this place. Usually, the anxiety of the unknowns is outweighed by the excitement to see a new place, but as my heart has been much more reluctant to 1) leave Korea and 2) Skip holidays with family, the worries are winning.
Swirling around in my head before this was the idea that world travel was my destiny. My mom recently found a story I wrote in early elementary school about a girl that traveled the world. It is a cute, simple story and I plan to have it framed when we have a house again. I had completely forgotten that I wrote the story, but then having my mom read it to me over the phone, it brought back memories of how excited I was to travel and explore new places as a kid. We did not go on many vacations- mostly to Livengood family reunions- but I remember the excited feelings of going to a new place and learning and exploring. I lost touch with that to some degree when I got really into swimming, but I still loved travel meets and traveling around California with my team. Then in college, we flew all over the western U.S. for swim meets. I just never realized how much I enjoyed it, I guess.
That got me thinking about why I was destined to travel. I thought of my ancestors. I'm descended from immigrants from Scotland, Wales, England, Switzerland, Denmark, and Germany. My maternal grandmother's family moved often when she was a child, working in logging camps and other heavy machinery jobs in the West. Accordingly, when she grew up and had her own family, she moved them around often as well. She was an adventurer! Grammy passed away last September, but the past few years that we've been traveling, she would always tell me she loved to read my blog and that she felt like she got to explore right along with me. Her dream was to travel after retirement, but medical problems prevented her from doing so. She said that she saw the world through me and my blog. I'm so grateful for her example of perseverance, strength, and always being up for an adventure!
My dad's father has had a very adventurous life. He even wrote a book about it- Sailing a Dream- about his years sailing the waters around Mexico, Central America, and even across the Atlantic Ocean! It's amazing the friends he has met on his travels, and I admire the way he explores and tries to understand the people and their culture in each country he visits. My brother and I spent a few weeks with him on a river boat in southwestern France. This was my first international travel experience without my parents, and we had a fantastic time. I see now that some of that wandering explorer blood made it into my veins. These two individuals who I love and respect are just two examples of many of my family members who have traveled and shown a love of learning and appreciating the cultures of the world. Even though it is so hard to be away from family, this is our destiny right now. I'm so incredibly grateful for the amazing opportunity that Austin's job gives us to travel, experience new cultures by living among them for periods of time, and the insights I've gained these past few years. Although there are some differences, people all over the world share many commonalities- love for family being one that I appreciate the most.
So, where do we go from here? On! On to Vietnam! I know that this is where we are supposed to go right now. I don't know why yet, but I'm excited for the future to unfold and to find out what is SO important that we have to miss Christmas. And Thanksgiving. I hope I can use my skills as a physical therapist there. I hope I can help some people in need while I'm there. I hope I can keep my kids safe, happy, healthy, and learning while we are there. I have hope. I am happy to be going somewhere warm, where there is a nearby beach and a pool at the hotel. We can do this!
Driving back from an exhausting outing a few weeks ago, both kids fell asleep. I was then left to my thoughts, and I was just thinking about how good it would be to see and spend time with family. I had just talked to my sister who was coming to CA for Thanksgiving, and getting super excited to see her and her husband. We planned to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium together. I was thinking about all the delicious food that I missed and was going to eat, including Chipotle, In N Out, and my mom's chicken enchiladas. I could almost taste that In N Out burger! Then, I started thinking about what we were going to do next with our lives. It was really up in the air. Was it time to stop traveling? We didn't feel like it was the right time, but some indications from work made it seem that maybe this was the best option for us. What about our next assignment? I thought about the available options: a short project in Spain or some longer projects in China coming up in January. I had no idea where we would go or what the living situation would be like. For us, this is a familiar feeling, and we always pray for guidance on what to do and that the places that we are assigned would be the best for us and for our family. Well, in that moment, thinking about our future, I said a simple prayer there in the car, "Here I am, send me where you need me. I'm willing to go wherever you want me to go, and do whatever you have in store for me. Guide me to people I can help!" When I said that prayer, I was totally intending for it to be in the context of send me wherever you need me... in January. Send me, but in my timetable, after I've had a nice relaxing visit with family for the rest of the year.
 |
| Nghi Son, Vietnam |
I think there are a few challenging things about accepting and going on this assignment that freaked me out more than others. One is that the time frame is very ambiguous. Technically, Austin will only be working in his assigned role for about a month, then they are thinking of switching him to another role which means we could be there far into 2017. Or we could go home in January. No one knows. Another thing that really concerned me at first is that I tend to over-prep to go to countries where medical care is not great and food and water are not clean. I bring tons of medications and some emergency supplies as well. I stock up on anything I think I will not be able to find in that country. Trying to find some of these things in Korea proved to be difficult. I had a mile-long list and after my first day of errands I crossed off just one or two things. I did not know if I could really do it. It is hard to shop for specific things in a foreign country where you don't speak the language or read very well! I THINK some of the sunscreen I found is waterproof sunscreen, and we're still on the hunt for 12" bicycle tubes (for my stroller). I stocked up on medication at a pharmacy, and found Owen some new shoes. Only after freaking out and really praying and asking specifically for help with this hard task was I blessed with peace, and calm children who willingly and smoothly made 5 stops to do different errands- all in the same day! That was a giant miracle! I was concerned about getting Owen his 12-month immunizations, especially after reading that a nearby village in Vietnam had a chicken pox outbreak! We drove to Seoul for his vaccinations. He needed four, but in Korea they usually only do two at a time because they are painful for the babies. I somehow managed to convince the doctor to do all four on the same day, and that was out of the way and done with. He has his immunity now! Hoorah!
The thing that I am most worried about in Nghi Son is grocery shopping/ getting food for my family. Nghi Son is a tiny place, and until the refinery and other industry came to town, was one of poorer, more remote areas of Vietnam. It is a five-hour car ride from Hanoi, and two hours from the nearest airport! This is just one of those things that we'll figure out. I have bags that I can hook onto the stroller to hold groceries, and I love literally "running" errands, so hopefully we'll have a store within running distance. There are so many unknowns with this place. Usually, the anxiety of the unknowns is outweighed by the excitement to see a new place, but as my heart has been much more reluctant to 1) leave Korea and 2) Skip holidays with family, the worries are winning.
Swirling around in my head before this was the idea that world travel was my destiny. My mom recently found a story I wrote in early elementary school about a girl that traveled the world. It is a cute, simple story and I plan to have it framed when we have a house again. I had completely forgotten that I wrote the story, but then having my mom read it to me over the phone, it brought back memories of how excited I was to travel and explore new places as a kid. We did not go on many vacations- mostly to Livengood family reunions- but I remember the excited feelings of going to a new place and learning and exploring. I lost touch with that to some degree when I got really into swimming, but I still loved travel meets and traveling around California with my team. Then in college, we flew all over the western U.S. for swim meets. I just never realized how much I enjoyed it, I guess.
 |
| Grammy, with Landon! |
 |
| Grandpa Karl is on the far left, with his wife Betsy! |
So, where do we go from here? On! On to Vietnam! I know that this is where we are supposed to go right now. I don't know why yet, but I'm excited for the future to unfold and to find out what is SO important that we have to miss Christmas. And Thanksgiving. I hope I can use my skills as a physical therapist there. I hope I can help some people in need while I'm there. I hope I can keep my kids safe, happy, healthy, and learning while we are there. I have hope. I am happy to be going somewhere warm, where there is a nearby beach and a pool at the hotel. We can do this!
Hey, you are awesome. I loved this post. It's hard to be away from family and not being able to go back stateside first works be hard. It sounds like things are working out though. Remember in the long run this is just a small spot. You got this. I'm looking forward to Vietnam posts! As hard as China was, I hope we get back traveling someday. It's great, and so are you.
ReplyDelete