Abu Dhabi Home

We finally have an Abu Dhabi home and are now living in it. These are two very different events. In previous apartment rentals, we signed a lease and fully moved in two days later. But like everything here, moving apartments is a process. Pay a full year lease (or, thankfully, four quarterly cheques) upfront! And you must have a letter from your employer saying they have no problem with you renting a place. Then you start to move in. We have adopted the motto "Second time's the charm" because our first attempt to do a thing is usually thwarted by the office being closed or we didn't know about a vital piece of paper required or sometimes people just don't show up! So we have to attempt everything at least twice before we succeed.

We signed the lease on May 22 but then we needed to have the electricity turned on and the gas turned on and tested and the chiller turned on and an inspection and internet hooked up before they would issue a second set of keys that we needed to get from an entirely different location. Each of these took place on a separate day and necessitated a drive over from Dubai. It worked out better when we figured out Jason didn't actually need to do this stuff, I only had to take his Emirates ID with for every department and organization to scan and validate. It's like the magic entry card for life in the UAE; everything requires one and nothing happens without one.

So here we are, finally in Abu Dhabi. It feels like we are really starting this adventure.

6 a.m. selfie in the bright sunshiney apartment

Our shipment arrived from the US and I don't know why we packed half the stuff we brought over. Way too many kitchen storage containers. Sleeping bags for all...but no tent? Two extra suitcases of long pants and long sleeves? Plus it turns out any electronics we shipped require an adapter and a transformer. I did not understand the meaning of those words until the printer gave a big pop and started spewing smoke. Also mattress sizes here are European and so sheets don't exactly fit. But the kids are super excited to have their toys again and especially their guitars/piano and legos. I'm sure our new neighbors are loving us! They each got a budget and had fun shopping for lamps and bedding and stuff. It turns out that if you're a kid, people give you a really good deal on things. I kid you not, Henry has gotten a desk chair and a set of rugs for free or practically for free because "Oh it's your pocket money? You can just have it." And "It's so cute when you're bartering. You can have two." Greta got a set of teacups she admired just for a hug. It's hilarious. We're going to send them to buy our cars next time.

Henry's "Boss Chair" that he won't give to Jason

We have an apartment on the fifth floor in a building in a community development called Al Zeina. Three bedrooms and a maid's room (that's basically a storage room which Greta claimed). We have a balcony that overlooks the pool and there is a beach within walking distance (but it's too hot to swim!).We got a lot of used furniture (and some free art!) from expats here that are moving out of the country. Super cheap, but much more of a hassle to scour facebook groups and Dubizzle (the Craigslist of UAE) and barter and coordinate a guy with a truck to haul the stuff. Everyone we talk with has a different accent. Of the movers, only one guy spoke any English. We are wanting to learn Arabic, but that's only one of 20 different languages we hear every day. We tried to buy a used volvo from a French couple and ended up using Google Translate to communicate. It's an amazing time we live in. I really don't know how we would get around without navigation apps. But now we have a feeling of success. We have an apartment. We are cleaning and unpacking and getting ready to start school again and some semblance of routine again. Enough with the lazing around the pool!

There is still so much to do. We still need to hunt down major appliances and some furniture and buy those vitally important electrical transformers. We got one car, a two-door Mitsubishi (from a South African lady who is moving to Thailand) that we are looking forward to taking up and down the sand dunes. We successfully exported it from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and got it registered.

Jason driving "Fred"

But it only seats 5 so now we are trying to buy a used Ford Explorer from a Bulgarian family. But to register a vehicle here, first it must pass an inspection. And this one has a tire pressure sensor warning light on so we have to get that fixed before we can test it, before we can pay the seller for it, before the seller can de-register it, before we can register it in Jason's name (because he's the only one with an Emirates ID and Emirate driver's licence), before we can hopefully fit all of us in it to go anywhere together. Also we have to return the rental Toyota and buy a sticker for the toll roads and buy pre-loaded cards for the parking ramps. And of course these things are all done/sold in different locations and we know where none of these places are or what the actual process is once we get there. So still we are living in the unknown. The feeling is compounded because we just have so much to do. Before (in our previous life), if we were going to buy a car we would research, go test drive models and talk to people, and that's what we would do for a few weeks. Or if we were going to move into a new place we would focus on that for weeks. Or if school was starting up that's where our focus and energy would be going. But here we are doing all of those things all at the same time and simultaneously learning how to do them.  And it's Ramadan so many of these places we need to go to only open at 8 or 9 at night and then stay open until 12 or 2 a.m. We are pretty tired. It's mostly mental exhaustion. Although we also we don't have curtains up in our apartment yet and the sun rises at like 5 a.m. So there's that.

Speaking of Ramadan, it's been going on for a week now. Super interesting to see how the whole culture organizes around the fasting and prayers. It's also a kind of cultural celebration of Arabic food and crafts and music. We have gone to a couple of Iftar buffets for dinner. But there are all sorts of events going on that hopefully we will get to experience. I will write more about this holiday after we attend an Iftar the kids and I have been invited to by a homeschool family we met here. Super excited for that. This month-long focus on prayer and religion has me thinking a lot of prayers people have told us they are lifting up for us:

Remember that He will be strong for you, when you are weak. He will love you, when you feel unlovable. He will give you vision, where you only see darkness. He will go before you! You are just meeting Him there. 

May the Lord encourage you and your kids that all the days ordained for you were written in his book before one of them came to be. (Ps. 139) He is Lord of today and He is with you!

This is so encouraging to all of us. These are truths we need to hear. I recognize with this public blog and the newness of all this adventure that it is easy to think about us and pray for the very tangible requests we mention. But I also know the feeling of living a life of serving without people rallying to the cause of changing diapers and teaching phonics and asking how we are doing. So I am extra thankful these days for this body of believers we are a part of. What a blessing to have truth spoken for us and to us and to help us remember who we are and Whose we are as we settle into this place full of unknowns.