By Alex: 022

Hello, hello! Your absent blogger here, checking in with that semi-annual post I know everyone is desperately waiting for!

Ok, I’ve been rubbish. My son is now 2 and a half years old and my second child is due on the 1stJanuary….so yeah, it’s been a while…again.

Sorry.

But also, not that sorry. It’s life, you know? Living away from family and any sort of real support network means parenting/working/marriage is a relentless juggle that leaves little room for much else. That’s just how it is right now, and I’m sure it’s how it will be for a while to come.

I am now on a wind-down of sorts, in preparation for welcoming a second child. I say ‘of sorts’ because actually I’ve taken on more work than ever in these last few months to try and maximise my time/earnings before I take maternity leave. As a freelancer I find it so tough to not say yes to every bit of work that comes my way, and this seems to have been sharply intensified with the impending yet unavoidable break (yeah right!) that will come with having a baby soon.

Must cram in as much work as is humanly possible, whilst growing an actual person, parenting a needy toddler, keeping my marriage happy, and running a household.

Even with the most equal husband-wife partnership, and all the support in the world, this is no easy feat…so yeah, bear with me.

So here I am, still living in Qatar, still dreaming of leaving soon. The thought of having two children on our own over here, far from family, suddenly seems a little overwhelming. And perhaps a little unfair. I would love my parents to be close to their grandchildren, to be able to see them more than a few times a year, to be really involved in their lives – just like I remember my grandparents being when I was young.

But it’s a balance for us. We need to make sure we are financially sorted before we leave here and head back to Europe, and we need to make sure we are properly positioned to get decent jobs in a decent place. We also need to make sure that we aren’t taking on too much all at once without the benefits truly outweighing the hard work – I mean a newborn, moving house, moving country, a toddler, new jobs…these are all big things to handle and doing them all at once, wow, the payoff needs to be totally worth it.

But the dream is certainly edging closer, it could even happen next year.