The Family Years (Thailand Tuesday Installment #3)
So when I left off I was up to 2005 and the winds of change were ready to blow into my life.
The past couple years I had been developing the idea of expatriating, leaving America to live in another country. What country though? I had been traveling quite a bit over the past 5 years and the list had been narrowed down to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Costa Rica. Russia was a contender, but as you can see from the short list I didn’t want to endure any cold weather. Mexico was also a possibility, but I had never been there yet, so couldn’t really assess whether or not I would like it.
So in October of 2005 I booked a 3 week trip to Cozumel. The plan was to get some diving in as well as investigating the rest of the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Cancun down to the border with Belize. My flight was booked and the initial week in Cozumel was booked as well as the diving being all set. The trip was planned for November, so all that was left was the waiting.
As they say though “The best laid plans of mice and men may often go awry”. So it was with my planned Mexico excursion when on October 20th, 2005 hurricane Wilma, the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin made landfall on Cozumel.
The small island was completely devastated and my plans were completely disrupted. I held out for a couple weeks, hoping the devastation wasn’t complete, but no luck there. That’s why in mid-November I changed tack and re-booked everything for my favorite destination – Thailand – for April of 2006 to coincide with the Thai New Year celebration of Songkran. As a side note, I have since made it to Cozumel and my wife and I agree it would be a wonderful place to spend an extended period of time. Chances are you’ll find me blogging from there or nearby sometime in the future.
Here’s where fate steps in. Literally the day after booking my trip to Thailand I was on a dating site and up pops my (future) wife. She says little more than hello and that she works as a nurse in Bangkok and then has to log off with promises of chatting the next day. I was confused as to why she would pop up just to leave, but quickly forgot about the short contact.
As this was over the Thanksgiving holiday I was working 16 hour days to provide on site support for my companies data center. No one else wanted to work holidays and for me it was a great chance to make a nice chunk of cash for very little work. As long as nothing went down over the 4 days I was getting double pay for 48 hours of very easy work.
That weekend I spent the majority of my time online chatting with my wife and getting to know each other. Despite incredibly different cultural backgrounds we both had very similar goals, motivations and ideals and by the end of that 4 day weekend I was beginning to be hooked. As it turns out so was she.
Over the following 4 months not a single day went by that we weren’t chatting online, talking on the phone or using our webcams to talk “face-to-face”. By the time April rolled around we were both in love (still hard to believe) and when I arrived in Thailand it was only 9 days until we decided to get married. And such was the unbelievable beginning to our wonderful relationship.
Naturally this turn of events pretty much cemented my choice for an expatriation destination. Thailand it would be, but not until Mrs. Infant came to the U.S. for some American cultural experience and to be with me while I continued to pay down the rest of my debt and save for our eventual return to Thailand.
She arrived in November 2006 (almost 1 year to the day after our first chat) and even though I was over $40,000 in debt at that point I promised her that we would return to Thailand within 5 years.
The debt took 33 months to get rid of and the savings took an additional 19 months, 6 months shy of my promised 5 years even though we added a 3rd member to our family in June 2010. That almost derailed things, but you will find that many times where there’s a will there’s a way and we made adjustments to keep our savings on track even with the expense of a new baby.
And that’s how I found myself moving to Thailand in June 2011 with my lovely wife and our adorable 1 year old daughter. And if you are wondering how we finance everything since then it is a combination of my earnings from sites online and my wife’s salary here in Thailand. No we aren’t wealthy, not in the monetary sense. We are however very wealthy in terms of our relationship, family and experiences.
And what about all of you…are there any readers out there with dreams of life overseas? Do you have a story of a time where fate intervened and sent your life off in a new direction? Are you working towards your dreams and what are those dreams? You can post anonymously if you are too shy to publicly share your dreams; I know it can be a very vulnerable position to place yourself in.
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Best pop-up ever! Mine are usually just Netflix…
It does really sound like fate that you met your wife. If it wasn’t for that cyclone you probably would’ve never met. It’s weird how life works like that. Maybe instead you’d be living down in Mexico married to a Mexican woman. Keep up the interesting stories Steve!
It’s a strange world we live in.
That is a great story! I’d like to do much more travel than I do now, but my wife is a bit nervous when it comes to international travel. However you and your wife seem like you’d be ready for a trip almost anywhere. Nicely done, I’m sure that nice young-looking picture you have up in the corner didn’t hurt things either.
Yeah we would except for our daughter. She doesn’t travel all that well yet so we are staying put until she does.
Is it the flying that bothers your wife or just the idea of being in another country?
Wow, that’s crazy man. I’m glad it turned out really well for you guys. I’m sure you heard many bad stories with those kind of long distance relationship. Mexico is ok, but there are too much violence right now. I like Belize.
We probably will go live in Thailand for a few years at some point.
I’ve had heard countless stories about both the good and bad of those types of long distance relationships.
I have a friend who keeps saying that about Mexico too, but the violence is mostly along the border. There is little to no violence in the Yucatan Peninsula. I think I would like Belize too, although I’ve heard stories of increasing crime there as well.
What a beautiful story! I have thought heavily of moving over seas in this past year looking at Thailand, Costa Rico and Belize but it would be at least 4 years before me and hubby can do that. It is either that or buy an RV and just put around in our “home” on wheels
4 years isn’t that long at all. I can vouch for Thailand and I have a friend who lives in Costa Rica and loves it. Of the two I think Costa Rica is less expensive and probably easier to acclimate to. You know, with an RV you could likely drive all the way down to Belize
You didn’t move to Russia because it is too cold? But it is beautiful. And in constant political turmoil.
Great story! I believe in fate. You and your wife were destined to be together.
Actually I was there in August and the weather was beautiful. And yes the country is also beautiful and in my experience so were the people. I get plenty of political turmoil here in Thailand thanks!
That’s such a beautiful story of how you and your wife met. I’m sure your kids will love hearing it one day!
Gasp! Please say kid. I’m 45 with a 16 and 15 year old and a 21 month old, I don’t know if my sanity and stamina can take any more.
Thanks though, it is a nice story, makes me smile whenever I think about it.
Ha Ha Ha I am 43 with a 25, 24 , 13 and 10 year old and my 25 year old moved back home with us! of course then there is our 6 and 5 year old grand kids!
Makes life interesting does it not? hehe
Very interesting indeed. My daughter is just getting into the terrible two’s and I’m remembering how much I disliked them the first time around. Having small children around does help to keep you feeling young though!
ps, you will REALLY question it after a 15 year break and then have to go through all the PUBERTY hormones again! LOL
Probably even more so since the older 2 are boys and my youngest is a girl. I understand they are much more difficult in puberty.