Our New Adventure

The past few months have been an interesting journey to authenticity for me.  After announcing that we're moving to Tajikistan (the countdown is on...a little over 3 days left till we get on the plane), I have had all kind of reactions from extreme support and encouragement to questioning why in the world would we do such a thing.  My favourite was when someone said "isn't that nice of you to do this for your husband?" in a negative condescencing manner.  In all this time, I've come to the realization that one needs to have strong convictions and belief in the reason for making a big move like this and really stick to them in spite of what people say (and here I mean those on the negative end of the spectrum).  Each time I hear negative comments about this move, I look within my heart and remember the main reason....my son.  Kimran has been the inspiration for this move and this has, by far, been the biggest lesson he has taught me in his short life so far (I'm sure there will be many more to come).

This move is an effort to teach my son some really important lessons, but in order to do this I need to actually show him that I'm practicing what I preach.  I want Kimran to follow his heart, be comfortable with the unknown, have strong convictions and passion, learn about the world and to make changes in his life even in the midst of fear and insecurity.  In the months since making this decision, I feel like I am doing all of these things that I want to teach Kimran and the best thing is we're doing this as a family.  After reflecting on this decision, there are so many things that come to mind but the most compelling is that each one of us has good and some different reasons for going, so how can it be wrong?  For Kimran, this is a chance to get to know part of his culture, get to know the other half of his family (he's been  blessed to have spent the first 3 years of his life with my family and I see how wonderful this has been for him), be immersed in the language (he speaks Russian really well), learn how to travel, eat new foods and live in a different life - I'm so excited for all the things he's going to learn during this time.  For Manucher, this is a great time to be back with his family and friends after being away for 6 years and use his education and experience gained in Canada for the benefit of his home country.  For me, this is a great opportunity to take care of my family, teach Kimran some of the values I want to teach him in life (and have a hard time doing so in the consumer based, fast paced Canadian society), challenge myself in my work and continue working towards improving the quality of life of people I'm so connected to.  As I write this, I get more excited for what is to come for our family.
Now I know there will be challenges.  And I know that each one of us is going to have different feelings during this time.  And I also know that we might doubt ourselves and our decision sometimes.  But isn't this what life is about?  Are we suppose to stay in one place just because we're comfortable?  I don't think so.  This is the time for us to challenge ourselves and really take control of our lives.

So here's the first post of many to come on our new adventure.