Not part of "the plan"

This is not part of my 5 year plan. This was not supposed to happen, it's something that only happens to other people. I feel like I only blog about the good times with us, so I might as well blog about the bad, or to stay optimistic- the unexpected. Last week Ty's work announced that it was eliminating 190 attorney positions and Ty's was one of those affected. Different from lay-offs in the US, the UK has redundancy consultations which require UK companies to try to find another position for the employee within the business before letting them go. Initially we didn't understand that there is a difference between lay-offs and redundancy consultations so we assumed that Ty had lost his job. We have now learned that Ty may still have a job but the only catch is that it is in Doha, Qatar.

Next week, we are going to visit Doha and Dubai to see if we would want to make the move. It feels like a huge decision because we are either going to end up in the states much closer to home (unemployed) or in the Middle East, much farther from home. However, given the state of the economy and the massive amount of lawyers that have recently been laid off, the opportunity to keep Ty's job is pretty tempting.

The last few days have been quite a rollercoaster. But it seems that our time in London is definitely over and this brings tears to my eyes. We will always treasure our time here. As for Doha, we are both excited and apprehensive and our minds change from one hour to the next.

I can only assume that we would have as many visitors in Qatar that we have had in London, so make your reservations now because they're filling up quick. Maybe Otie's first word will be in Arabic.