Why go?

Here's all the info that I have right now to share with you about where I will be when I go to Abu Dhabi. I began this journey in November 2011 when I was searching for jobs for English teachers on the internet. I found a site called www.Teachaway.com and I filled out the application and sent it off into cyberspace. That was on a Wednesday. On Thursday, I had an e-mail from Teachaway and they wanted me to complete more paperwork and send that back to them. By Friday morning, I had another e-mail that they wanted to interview me over the phone on Tuesday. I was impressed with how quickly this company responded to their job seekers. I also felt pretty good about the upcoming interview. On Tuesday, I was subbing in the high school in Keene, NH and left at the end of the day to wait in my car for the call. I spoke with a pleasant woman from Teachaway who told me about the job offer in Abu Dhabi. This seemed very exciting. At the end of the phone call, she told me that if I passed through the first interview process, I could expect an e-mail asking me to begin preparing my information.

My mind was whirling with the possibilities. I began reading everything I could find about Abu Dhabi. Shortly thereafter, an e-mail arrived from Teach Away instructing me to begin putting my material together. This was an exciting prospect. I was scheduled to be interviewed in February, in New York City. I also began to devour all the information on the Teach Away Facebook site. This site was populated by others like me who were hoping to get a job and also by those who were already in the United Arab Emirates working in the school system.

I was so excited the day I got my passport in the mail. This was my first passport and it now felt like I had the keys to the kingdom. In a way, I did, because travel outside the US was restricted to those having a passport. No longer could we slip over the border into Canada on our driver's license. I continued to collect my paperwork and finally was done by mid-January. I counted off the days until my February interview. On that weekend, I took the train out of Brattleboro, Vt into Hartford, to stay with my younger sister, and then the next morning, I took the train into New York City.

The interview was quite normal, but when all was said and done, I was not hired by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. My disappointment was tremendous, but I am a firm believer that one only receives blessings that are meant to be. At this time, it wasn't meant to be. As I continued filling out application after application, I truly had to think about whether the Middle East was the right place for me. Was this God's way of telling me that I should stay stateside? There were lots of reasons that could be the right path to take. My daughter was newly pregnant, my leaving would mean I would not be here for the baby's birth.

Now what?