Adventures with John and Nina – Stepping Stone

by Nina Sabin - Travel

Welcome back to our adventures!

Before I start from where we left off with our next adventure in MA. I wanted to take you through my journey with how God used each experience to prepare me for my next endeavor. After college, I became a special education teacher and taught for 5 years until my first daughter was born. My husband and I decided that when we had children I would be a stay at home mom. Growing up I always played house and couldn’t wait to have a family of my own. Little did I know that playing house and real house experiences were very different. If you are a type A personality like I am, being ‘just’ a mom, wasn’t enough for me. God lead me to another teaching opportunity through Gymboree play program. I was blessed to be able to bring my daughter to the classes I taught. I was able to teach and be a mom at the same time. The experience at Gymboree laid the foundation for when we moved to Tennessee and I was hired by the YMCA to help with their children’s nursery program. Nothing happens by chance, God has orchestrated each step; we just have to be willing to follow.

…Now back to our time in Massachusetts. Since our home had not sold yet in Tennessee, we had to live in temporary housing, which was a small apartment in Worcester, MA. We moved from a big home to a 950 square foot apartment. It was a huge adjustment. John also had to commute a 1.5 hours to work. It took us seven months to sell our house, since it was a buyer’s market. However, we did not need to stay in the apartment that whole time. God opened a door for us to rent a brand new beautiful two story four bedroom home. We were able to make friends through a local preschool, an Assembly of God church (very charismatic, which helped grow our relationship with God). Remember the stepping stones I mentioned? I was able to work at the YMCA again, this time as a Gymnastics instructor and preschool music teacher. God seems to always find a way to use the gifts He gives you in different ways.

We lived in MA for about fifteen months when John’s assignment was coming to an end. He was very good at his job of making companies efficient and ends up restructuring himself out of a job. As many of you know job hunting can take some time. However, when God is in charge things happen in His timing and for His purpose. John had several opportunities from working with the largest food processor in the world, a job in the Twin Tower in NYC and a position in Saudi Arabia.

We all know how the Twin Tower turned out – great we didn’t take that job! The food company just didn’t feel right for a number of reasons. Travel bug time – let go to Saudi!! John accepted the position to work overseas and within two weeks we were packed and moving across the world. God truly has a sense of humor - instead of working for a company who, among other things, slaughtered pigs - we ended up moving to a country where pork is forbidden. God knows how to keep us entertained.

We realized through our many experiences in Massachusetts that it was definitely a stepping stone to moving to Saudi from being from a warm climate, hearing different dialects, and that Boston driving.

My next blog will include the details involved with moving overseas, living the expat life and an overview of living in Saudi; then onto visiting those eighty-five countries.