Moving and Murphy’s Law

Sunday, 29 September 2019

Wow has it been a crazy couple of weeks since I lasted posted.  Really wanted to do a minimum of one weekly post but all hell broke loose around here.  What can happen will, right?

So an update on what has happened so far.  We sold everything we wanted to sell, which was mostly furniture, I was supposed to have already listed my car for sale but that has not happened yet.  Last weekend which was the 21st of September, Ayden and I went out for a boat dive with our favorite local dive shop, MDA.  The dive was great until the end when Ayden deployed his safety sausage, formal name, Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB). It was all my fault, he was holding the reel, I inflated it using my alternate regulator, I over inflated it.  This caused the buoy to rocket to the surface and the reel was spinning in Aydens’s hand way to fast.  Being only 11 his smaller hands are much closer to the reel than an adult.  The reel ended up cutting his hand in 5 different locations, thankfully as soon as it cut him he let go.  Our friend Matt recovered the reel while we finished our safety stop and surfaced.  Once on the boat the Dive Master cleaned up Ayden’s hand and bandaged it.  The cuts were all superficial, he’s had much worse falling off his skate board and bicycle.  Ayden being the tough guy he is still wanted to do the second dive which we did without incident.

Ok, Ayden received a few superficial cuts, whats the big deal?  Well Sunday evening his hand was a little swollen.  We decided to call first thing on Monday for a Doctors Appointment.  Fast forward to Monday afternoon at the pediatricians office the hand is really swollen and red.  Pediatrician sent us to the emergency room.  1030 pm Ayden is in the operating room under anesthesia for almost 2 hours while they flushed the infection out of his hand.  He stayed in the hospital 4 days receiving different IV antibiotics.  He is home now and doing great but the movers are coming on Tuesday and we are so not ready for them to come.  I don’t know how we are going to get everything sorted through and prepped but it has to happen.  What is making this move difficult is that we are going to Thailand with only luggage, all of our household goods are going into storage in California. Different piles all over the house, we have a Thailand pile, Storage pile, Donate Pile, and of course the trash pile.

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

The movers came today, everything went well.  They will finish up tomorrow.  Somehow Christina and I sorted through everything we wanted to get to.  We have tomorrow to finish packing and the movers should only be here for half a day to load the rest of our stuff.  On Sunday I travel to San Diego to out process from the U.S. Navy and start my terminal leave. The family will stay until the end of the month in Guam, I will return to Guam and then together we will fly to Thailand on 2 November if all goes well.  We have a plan and are prepared to deviate as necessary.  Hopefully when I post again I am in San Diego.

World Schooling

This evening Ayden is off to his first and possibly only school dance and it has me thinking about our choice to homeschool and travel.  We started homeschooling the children a few weeks ago and so far it's going great.  The DoD School he attended allows homeschooled children to still use the school resources and he is allowed to take extra curricular classes.  This semester he chose Spanish and a Civics course.  Additionally, he can participate in school events such as the dance tonight.

One of our biggest concerns with moving to a foreign country is the children being isolated from other children their age and not developing the appropriate social skills.  I keep focusing on what they will be missing by not attending a traditional school and I forget to focus on all the advantages.  As parents, Christina and I are extremely concerned about screwing up our kids education.  It's such a huge responsibility and we only get one shot at it.  A quick break down of what I see the advantages and disadvantages are to  what we are calling "world schooling."  Chime in and let me know if I am overlooking anything.

Advantages:
Broadened world views
Experiencing other cultures
Learning foreign languages
Making new friends
Learning through experiences

Disadvantages:
Difficult developing long term relationships
Not participating in school sports
Limited social interactions with peers

We of course are going to do our best to try and mitigate the disadvantages.  First by trying to become more social ourselves.  The more expat families we meet and interact with the more opportunities for our children to make friends.  Second, by getting them involved with some kind of sports or activities.  We have encouraged our children to participate in sports as early as they could.  They have played soccer (futbal), American Football, Baseball, Track, and Basketball.  Ayden really likes playing baseball, so far I haven't found anything in Pattaya but I will keep looking.  I did mention to him martial arts, and the other day he mentioned he would like to learn how to play golf as we were passing the driving range on base.  I showed some Muay Thai videos to him and Christina, of course, Mom is not a fan of him getting in the ring, I am not to sure Ayden is either.  There are lots of golf courses in Pattaya we should be able to get him into some kind of golf club.  Ayden recently became a PADI Junior Open Water Diver and we dive together weekly.  Zachary has never been much into sports but he did like playing baseball and loves swimming.  I have researched at length and found international dance and gymnastics classes for Sofia.  We will continue to try and find new activities and support any they want to explore.

Looking at the above advantages I think they definitely outweigh the negatives. Luckily for our children, with the advent of social media they will be able to keep in touch with kids they meet along the way.

We are having to train ourselves to think differently about how to educate and not be so concerned with how it was for us. It's great that Ayden gets to attend a school dance tonight.  The rest of the children might never get that experience, but they will get hundreds of other experiences majority of children will never get.  In the end I think we are doing the right thing, only time will tell.

Moving Internationally With Four Kids

How does a large family move overseas?  I'm not going to try and say its all peachy because its not, its horrible!!  Since Christina and I are not Thai and are going to be on tourists visas all we are taking is what will fit in our suitcases.  We will have to travel in and out of the country every 60 to 90 days.  We are taking clothing, a few toys, educational material, and dive gear!!!  All in all not much, just 14 suitcases and 7 carry ons.😀

I am about to start my terminal leave from the United States Navy.  We are currently stationed in Guam and have been for over 2 years.  All of our household goods will be shipped to storage in California.  Our van is being sent to Texas where I am from and where my most of my family members live.

In the meantime we still have to sell some furniture and pack out in a few weeks. I have to travel to San Diego to out process from the Navy.  Once I start my terminal leave I will return to Guam, pickup the family and we should be in Thailand by the start of November.

There are literally dozens of different things to discuss and write about in relation to this move.  Packing, Education, Health Care, Visas, Finance, Housing, Logistics, Family Dynamics, Travel, and the list goes on.  And then there are things unique to our family, ADHD, ODD, Bronchiectasis, Diving, Camping, and I am pretty sure some other things I cannot think about right now.

With everything going on I probably won't be able to post as much as I want until we are finally settled in Thailand but I will try and keep updates coming as quickly as feasible.