Our new home

We moved in to our new apartment three days ago and we are getting settled in nicely, with one big exception - the internet connection is very poor.  We have hardly been able to contact family back home because our plan of using facetime has been sabotaged by very, very poor internet service.  We are supposed to have a solid, high-speed connection as part of our housing package but they are apparently still working out some bugs.  We basically had no service at all until yesterday and now we have a slower than dial-up connection about 20% of the time.  Writing this blog will take about an hour, instead of the 15 minutes or so it should. 

That being said, we really like our new crib!  We are on the tenth floor and have a view of the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf to Americans) from our bedroom, dining room, and living room balcony.  The apartment itself is much larger than we expected and very nice.  The furnishings are 100% Ikea, which is fine with us, and rather basic, but we appreciate the open-plan kitchen and the fact that Lindsay's school provided us with a welcome kit filled with a few days' worth of groceries and basic necessities.  We have already gone on a couple of shopping outings that Lindsay's school has set up and we have began to make our place our home. 

Lindsay's school has gone above and beyond to help us feel comfortable and get adjusted.  They have regular shopping trips scheduled to various supermarkets, shopping malls, and department/furniture stores.  They also provided us with a generous settling in allowance to allow us to have plenty of $$$ to buy the things we need to make our house comfortable - small appliances, such as a hair dryer and flat iron for Lindsay, some DVDs, groceries, snacks, toileteries, etc.. 

Our building is located in a new and up-and-coming suburb about 20 miles south of downtown Kuwait City.  There are about 15-20 restaurants within a 15 minute walk and we have already tried (and fallen in love with) a few of them!  The highlight is a place called Rowdy Taco (Texans can imagine a poor man's Freebirds) that has chips & queso along with a solid selection of various tacos made to order.  A close second is an Asian place we discovered yesterday called Panda House.  They serve Chinese, Japanase, Thai, and sushi and a group of seven of us had lunch there and we all loved it.  This place would be successful in West Houston or Flower Mound, it is that good!

Today is Lindsay's first day at school, where she is being given a tour and basic orientation.  This afternoon her school will pick up the family members, like Joe, who are chilling in our building and they get to accompany the faculty and staff on a field trip to the national aquarium and science museum.  The school is doing this to show all the teachers potential field trip options.  They have another such option planned for later on in the week.  Remember, the work week is Sunday-Thursday in the Arab world, with weekends being Friday/Saturday.  Joe has his first day of in-service on Wednesday, the 21st, and he is excited to get started. 

One awesome thing to mention, Lindsay and her fellow teachers were told by the director of the school that this would be her/their best year of teaching ever.  The school is brand new and they are opening with, at last count, 54 total students in pre-K through 5th grade.  This low number means that each teacher will basically have a small group of students to educate for this next year as they design and map the curriculum and build out the school.  Lindsay's school is starting the way a new school should, keeping the admissions standards high (a majority of their students are members of the ruling famly!) and sparing no expense.  We can't wait to show pictures of the building, because it is one of the most amazing educational facilities in the world!  That says a lot, because Joe taught at Houston Christian for three years and their campus is nicer than most small universities. 

Finally, Lindsay is elated because she is one of four graduates of Indiana University at Bloomington!  She has three Hoosier buddies and fellow Colts fans, as well as a couple other teachers from Michigan who root for her beloved Tigers.  Add to this the nearly dozen Texans and her little educational family couldn't be much more awesome!  They are a diverse and wonderful group and we both look forward to living beside, working with, and getting to know them all!

Here are some pictures...

Downtown Kuwait City behind us

Behind/Above Joe is the national landmark of Kuwait

Kuwait's Grand Mosque

Another view of the Grand Mosque

Kuwaiti National Assembly

Kuwait Stock Exchange

Library of Arabic Poetry

History of Kuwait, Mural Style!

An open-air souk (market), the biggest one in Kuwait

Beautiful Kuwaiti Glassware

3/4 of the Hoosier crew! Lins, Kyle, and Jessica

The view of the gulf from our balcony

Tex Mex, a half mile from our home - a sign of God's grace on our lives!

Chips and queso!!!

One of the taco options, crispy chicken with coleslaw and lime

One of the murals on the walls of Rowdy Taco

Yep

Yessir

Oh, we ready!

We were pumped to find out one of our favorite burger places has a location less than a mile from our building!

These giant water towers are another famous Kuwaiti landmark!

The Long Journey...

We made it. We are now here in Kuwait, our new home.  We live in Kuwait.  Crazy, awesome, insane, wonderful, exciting, inspiring, challenging, inexplicable... choose your descriptor, because those are just a few of the ways our friends and family have described our big move over here.  The journey from Houston, Texas to Kuwait City has been a long one, but we are happy to finally be here.

Lindsay was nervous throughout various stages of the journey.  The first stage was getting all of our bags to the airport, unloaded, paid for, and under weight.  We brought 9 checked bags, folks...9. We also each had a rolling carry-on and backpack.  We are being reimbursed for shipping costs and figured that we would rather bring the bags with us and have them here from the start rather than ship them and get them who knows when.  So, because of all of the excess bags (Qatar Airways allows 2 free checked bags each), Lindsay actually feared that we would get to the airport and they would say, "You can't bring all of those."  So, we arrived at the airport, took shifts getting the bags inside, said our final goodbyes to our chauffeur (Lindsay's brother, Kevin), got our bags checked, and received our boarding passes.  No problems at all!  We then boarded our first plane from Dayton, OH to Chicago and had an uneventful "short" flight. 

Stage 2 of nerves was the long flight that awaited us.  We had a layover of about 5 hours in Chicago so we enjoyed some delicious, world famous popcorn from Garrett's and our last meal in America at Chili's.  During this time, nerves involved thoughts about our luggage getting loaded onto the giant plane that we would be boarding, whether or not to sleep much on the plane and for how long, and the overall idea that these were our last few hours in the States for many months.  There were also sporadic tears in thinking about the family and friends that we had said goodbye to.  Anyway, the long boarding process began and so did the long flight.  We were in the air for about 13 1/2 hours en route to Doha, Qatar.  We did sleep some, a few hours here and there, and watched many movies and TV shows to pass the time.  Lindsay frequently looked at the "Moving Map" to find out where we were in the world though we flew through the night for the most part and were unable to see anything from the window.  We flew northeast out of Chicago through Michigan and Canada, over Greenland and Iceland, the U.K., Turkey, Kuwait (yes, that was frustrating), and the Persian Gulf before landing in Doha.  The Doha Airport was the most interesting one that either of us has been to in that there was almost a "parking lot" for the planes that was a long distance from the terminals.  We exited into the night and loaded onto shuttles that took us to the proper place in the airport.  The shuttle itself took a good 20 minutes!  Crazy.

Stage 3 was more of a realization that we were in the Middle East and would have to board one more flight to take us to our new home in Kuwait.  We met some of Lindsay's coworkers who were waiting on the same flight and even sat next to one on the plane... a HOOSIER!!  Actually, since we've been here, we have found out that there are 4 IU grads that will be teaching at Lindsay's school.  I mean, is it a sign from the Lord or what?!?  There are great people here!  Anyway, the last flight was definitely the hardest.  First of all, we had already been traveling for close to 20 hours at this point and we were ready to be still i.e. clean and "flat" as Lindsay kept saying!  Also, Lindsay had been struggling with a little congestion (head cold? too much crying in the last week?) that had given no trouble to this point.  On our last leg, a simple 1-hour flight to Kuwait City, Lindsay was in misery.  She tried desperately to be friendly and get to know her new Hoosier friend for the first half of the journey, but the pounding head and aching ears that felt as thought they would burst did not allow for socializing much.  The pain got so bad that during the descent, which was literally longer and stranger than usual, that an airsick bag had to be opened (though not used, praise God - how about that for a first impression?!).

We made it.  All 9 of our bags made it.  We emailed and/or called family to let them know that we had arrived safely.  We showered and slept like rocks.  Here are some pictures from the journey here and our first moments in Kuwait.

Our boarding passes.  Three flights and one long trip!

One last delicious taste of America!

If you haven't had Garrett's Chicago Mix, you are missing out!

Our temporary home, for over 13 hours!

Welcome to Kuwait!

Lindsay and Sheika, one of the Arabic teachers from her school.  Sheika is from Tucson, Arizona and is super-friendly!

This was our luggage haul!

The English side of a 20 Kuwaiti Dinar bill.  Lindsay received a "settling in" bonus, which Joe describes as a signing bonus, of nearly $1,800!

The Arabic side of the 20 Dinar bill.  The Kuwait Dinar is the strongest currency in the world, valued at over $3.5 each!

Yes, they do have fresh and hot Krispy Kreme in Kuwait!

Lindsay was elated to find out Starbucks are just as plentiful here as back home!

Joe is excited to be back on this side of the world and Lindsay is pleasantly surprised at how well she is doing, so far.  The other teachers that are here seem like a wonderful, fun, and diverse group and it is awesome to see so many fun people, since they will make up our Kuwaiti family!  We are excited to move in to our new home tomorrow.  More to come soon...

Playing Solitaire, and other things while we wait...

We moved everything out of our home at the end of June, so since then we have been nomads and have felt a bit out of sorts knowing we don't have a home.  It helps us understand what Jesus meant when he talked about foxes having holes, birds having nests, and the Son of Man having nowhere to lay his head.  (Luke 9:58)  Life just feels a bit different when you don't have a home to go to.  So we have been blessed the past six weeks as we have been hosted by some very dear friends and family members.  Our July was a bit crazy, looking like this:

July 1-4 we stayed with friends, Jeff, Whitney, and Leighton, in Houston.

July 4-16 Lindsay flew home to spend time with her family.

July 5-16 Joe was in Nicaragua with three other teachers and 24 of his favorite students.

July 16-30 we stayed with Jeff, Whitney, and Leighton again as we said goodbye and see you later to Houston.

July 30-31 we stayed with Joe's sister Becky in DFW and hung out with his family for the last time until we return at Christmas break.

August 1-12 we are here in Richmond, Indiana staying with Lindsay's parents and enjoying some fun times with her family and the few good friends we still have in the area.

Throughout our journeying we have shared lots of great meals, milkshakes, stories, smiles, and laughs with many loved ones.  We have also done a lot of packing, shopping for last minute items to take with us, and found ourselves beginning to get very anxious/excited/nervous about the big move to take place in a couple of days!  Joe is super excited and ready for launch, while Lindsay is starting to feel a bit nervous about the overwhelming hugeness of what is about to actually go down.  Moving to Kuwait is not the same as moving to Michigan or even Texas and it is just now beginning to set in...

Here are some random and fun pictures from the past few weeks of Rodden roaming!!!

Joe with our good friend Austin at Babe's Chicken, one of our favorite restaurants!

Lindsay's classroom after we cleaned everything out.  So many memories, she teared up as we walked out!

Our empty living room in the best home we have ever had.

Goodbye to our favorite address ever!

Our storage unit, packed all the way to the door!

The door to our unit, closed, with all our earthly possessions inside!

Lindsay's brother Kevin and niece Hadley

Lindsay's mom and niece Addison

Family fun!

Goodbye to Houston Christian High, the favorite job Joe has ever had.  He is really gonna miss his students!

Saying goodbye to Antonio and Moriah Chavez

Joe and Marshall Embry, one of our dearest friends!

Joe's mother bought an iPad so we can facetime daily from Kuwait.  Here he is teaching her to use it,but she is a fast learner and already has a facebook account!

One of the best things about Indiana - Pizza King!

One of the only great things in Ohio, Brennan Wellman! (Along with his parents, our sweet friends Jared and Erin)

This was the temperature as we left Texas on our drive to Indiana.

Joe as he said goodbye to his mother.

One last Rodden family meal

Saying goodbye to 2/3 of our awesome Houston hosts, Jeff and Leighton Breslin!  We really love this family!

One last (for now) fajita dinner at Pappasitos

Bible time with the Chavez family.  We are gonna miss being random/semi-regular members of their nightly family devotions.

How we decided to move to Kuwait

We will do our best to explain the process of how we came to this huge, life-altering decision in the next few paragraphs...

Since we moved to Houston we have believed that it wouldn't be our permanent home, but we made some very good friends in the city and it became home for us over our four and a half years there.  When Joe felt it was time to resign as the head coach at Houston Christian, we figured that a move would be in the not too distant future.  It was very clear to us that God wanted Joe to coach a certain group of young men at HC and when that job was done he began to prepare us for the next step in life.  Joe says regularly that his job at HC, both coaching and teaching, was the best job of his life.  He loves his HC students like his own family and will most assuredly keep in touch with many of them for the rest of his life.  That being said, we both began asking the Lord to let us know His will for our lives once the 2012 summer began. 

We knew when this school year ended that it would be Lindsay's last year of commuting to Baytown to teach at Walker Elementary, we just didn't know if she would be working on the west side of Houston or elsewhere.  Around Christmas break we began to put out some feelers in areas that appealed to us and, shortly after, Lindsay began being contacted by recruiters for international teaching gigs.  One company began to stand out and Lindsay made her way through a long interview process as the spring began.  For awhile we thought we might be offered work in Abu Dhabi, but just before Lindsay was to have an in-person interview she got a call about a job teaching at a brand new school in Kuwait.  She got the phone call on a Thursday evening, telling her that the director of the school, which would open its doors for the first time this coming fall, was in Houston for another day and that she would like to interview Lindsay on Friday morning!  Lindsay went to the interview and felt it went well, but wasn't sure if she would get the offer. 

The offer came about a week later, but not officially for several weeks.  We decided to pursue this path while fervently asking God to close the door if it wasn't His will.  Around the end of the school year Joe was contacted by another school in Kuwait, interviewed, and offered a job all over the span of a couple of weeks.  He also received an offer to take over another baseball program at a independent school in Houston that was willing to let him coach baseball there while still teaching at Houston Christian.  We prayed hard and often for a week while trying to figure out what the right move was.  We asked God for a sign, which was given in pretty clear fashion.

So, we finally committed ourselves to the idea that we would be moving to Kuwait to teach for, at least, the next two years.  Then we began the long and hard process of packing up two classrooms and our entire home and moving everything into the largest climate-controlled storage unit that we could lease!  This was a great challenge because throughout this process Joe was coaching baseball all over Texas and even for a week in Orlando, Florida.  We spent the month of July staying with friends in Houston, with a two week stint in the middle while Lindsay was back home in Indiana and Joe was leading a team of 24 students and 3 other teachers on a trip to Nicaragua. 

We are confident that God has called us to Kuwait, as He has prepared our hearts through the past few years.  We are excited to love students in an entirely new school, country, and culture and we are excited to see what we can contribute to the Lord's work in Kuwait and the Middle East.  It is such a vibrant, growing, and lively region and, while still having lots of issues that need to work themselves out, it is very obvious that God is doing major things in the Arab world.  We are excited to play our part!

We are moving to Kuwait August 12!

Yes, you read that correctly.  We will be boarding a plane August 12 with as much of our lives as we can fit into the bags the airline will allow us to check.  We will be teaching at American International Schools in Kuwait City and we are excited about this new adventure.  This may seem out of the blue, but it is something that we believe the Lord has been pointing us toward for over a year.  That being said, we didn't really know it was gonna happen until about a month ago.  This summer has flown by due to Joe's 18U baseball team schedule and his HC trip to Nicaragua, so we have had to resign from our respective schools, pack up our house and move most of our belongings into long term storage, clean out both of our classrooms, and begin saying goodbye/see you down the road to many very dear friends here in and around Houston. 

In the coming days we will be blogging to explain, in detail, how we came to this seemingly huge decision, what it was like to pack our entire lives into a storage unit, our crazy busy summer, and our final days stateside.  For now, please check out the links below to learn a bit about our schools where we will be teaching for, at least, the next two years.

Lindsay will be teaching 3rd grade at American University School of Kuwait, www.auskuwait.com

Joe will be teaching MS/HS P.E. at American Baccalaureate School of Kuwait www.abs.edu.kw

We will write more about each of our schools in the next few days.

Big news coming soon!

Most of you may read that and think that Lindsay is pregnant, but that isn't the news we are talking about.  When the day comes to share that news, we will shout it from the rooftops!  Alas, we can only offer the enticement of major news to come regarding some big life changes for us.  Grand adventures, great journeys, and glorious moments await us and we can't wait to share this news with all seven of you who read this blog!

So be on the lookout and add our blog URL back to your RSS feed, there is about to be a whole lot more activity here soon.  Our major announcement is coming at you very soon...