Destination: Sydney

(Photo credit: Flickr)

My last blog post for 2012, and I figured this would be good chance to share. I haven't been blogging a lot over the month of December. Sure, I have some legitimate reasons - too much second trimester gagging and fatigue, busy with work, Christmas shopping...

But really, the REAL reason is because we received some news in the first week of December, and the past few weeks have been pretty tied up with me trying to wrap my head around the enormity of it all.

Not many people are aware, but the hubs had applied for and been accepted for a PhD program back at his alma matar, UNSW in Sydney. This was already done two years back, on account of his phenomenal results for his degree program (therefore allowing him to skip the Masters route, and gain a PhD directly). So yeah, it is a piece of good news, but due to the financial reality of actualizing his PHD dream, we (okay or maybe it was just me) tucked this away in a lil corner of our heart, especially with two young kids to bring up. In the middle of this year, the hubs decided to apply for the Endeavour Award, a postgraduate scholarship offered by the Australian Government.

God is a good, good God. Who does above and BEYOND our wildest dreams, and fulfilled the secret desire of the hubs' heart. Did he get the Endeavour Award (which has a few thousand applicants a year)? Not really. Cos he was offered the more prestigious Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award (Incoming). Nothing short of a miracle! All glory to Him!

After Chinese New Year, the hubs will be making his way to Sydney, Australia to start on his PhD journey, which will take him a total of 4 years to complete. As for me and the kids, we will follow shortly... Once my little one pops.

So, as a family, we will be relocating for the next 18-24 months, and coming back at the end of 2014, just in time for my boy Jayvon to start his Primary 1 education in 2015, and the hubs will continue his PhD research in Singapore.

An enormous joy and honour, and I am reeling between happiness, expectancy, worry and mini heart palpitations. I love a good holiday, and I’ve always enjoyed my trips to Sydney… but to live there, away from home and church and family and friends? *gulp* 

I am not a very systematic person. My thoughts are often erratic, and in the last month, I have had many jumbled, unrelated questions, thoughts, ponderings about the upcoming shift. I know I look like I have it altogether. Thanks, thanks. But I guess it is because after I have thought that thought or question or after I have pondered about the issue, and if I can't find the answer right away, I have the amazing ability to chuck that thought or question right back at the back of my mind.

How am I going to cope with the hubs being away for almost two months before I am due, with two hyperactive boys? Don’t know.

Will we have enough finances for the Sydney trip? Well, the scholarship will be enough to cover the rental of the apartment in Sydney. Living expenses will have to be settled separately, so we will probably need some part-time or freelance work.

Will I be working in Sydney? With three kids, and a high cost of childcare in Sydney, this doesn’t look like much of a possibility now!

And of course other random thoughts like having to pack the house (groan), what to bring over (double groan), how to prepare the kids for winter season in Australia (heh heh… shopping!), having to buy new laptops for the hubs and I (cos our current ones are work-related, so I am *dreaming* of my MacBook Air!), insurance matters (both locally and over in Sydney), having to now be the cook of the house (triple sigh) and loads others.

The hub's story was also featured in our church newspaper over the Christmas weekend, so if you’d want to read more, you can check out the article here.

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