Adventures with John and Nina - The Beginning

by Nina Sabin - Travel

Welcome to my first blog. I am excited to be sharing my life story of what it was like to live overseas and the adventures of being an expat wife. Starting at the beginning, I’ll share how each opportunity in our life was a stepping stone to the next adventure and the freedoms we felt. I will take you on a journey to the countries we visited by sharing each “once in a life time experience”. We visited about 85 countries. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the adventure.

The life changing experience began on August 13, 2001. At the time, my husband and I had been married for 10 years and our daughters were 3 1/2 and 5 living in Worcester, MA. Before I continue, let me share some background. We met in Florida and were high school sweethearts. We had our first daughter five years into marriage.

Our journey of traveling began. My husband's job brought us on an assignment to New York. So we packed up, closed our home in FL, and moved our three month old plus our dog (a mixture of an Australian Shepherd and German Pointer) up the coast to Nanuet, NY. As a new mom, I had no idea what to bring and how fast my daughter would grow. It was the first time, we lived anywhere besides Florida. As many of you whose jobs or other circumstances have taken you away from family you can relate to the uncertainty and newness. With the Lord's guidance he helped us settle in, make new friends, find a church and adapted to new surroundings.

After returning to Florida, life went on as before, but then once again my husband's job took us on another move; this time it is was a permanent move to Brentwood, Tennessee. If you have never had the opportunity to visit TN, I would highly recommend seeing the "Rolling Hills." I was 8 months pregnant with our second child. I believe God has a sense of humor, as well as, He teaches you He is there and gives you the strength you need in all situations. A couple months after we moved to TN our second daughter was born. As many of you think, when you move, that this is going to be our home for a long time. Once again, God brought us wonderful friends, we found a church that had a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) program, and also a club called MOMS Club (an encouraging social group for moms). Little did we know, God had another plan for us to move, and the excitement began when we thought we would be moving to Malaysia for nine months. My husband has always wanted to work and live overseas, so he was excited about the opportunity and that is when the “bug” to live overseas began. Unfortunately, it wasn’t God’s timing for us to move overseas. Two situations came up that kept us from moving there; my husband’s identity was stolen and the uncertainty of Y2K. However, that left us with need a place to move since my husband’s project was finishing.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, each opportunity has been a stepping stone to the next. My next blog will bring you back to the beginning of this blog in Worcester, MA and how I became an expat wife.