The Wait

I have to admit that when my 17 year old daughter was growing up, I had quite a bit of patience; however, it dwindled over the years.  I'm not proud of this, of course.  That said, I think this past year has helped me regain my patience - good thing since there's another little one on the way!

I've been waiting for my visitor pass to be approved - and today it was!  Yahoo!  I've taken several steps to get here, and I've had help from wonderful people (including Terry and the hospital staff).  During my wait, I learned my daughter's student pass would also expire - the same day I'm scheduled to be in the hospital having a baby!  I drew on my patience again and took the necessary steps to straighten it out... and it looks like her remaining stay will be approved as well.  Surely, this is the universe's way of helping me relearn patience so I'll have in when I need it with a growing child.... not to mention giving me a true expat experience.

Waiting when you get responses to calls and emails quickly is not so bad, though.  I've been in communication with schools, governments, hospitals, etc. and even if I have to wait for things to happen, I get a response to tell me I have to wait.  This is not always the case at home.  As an expat with a child who is changing schools, I have plenty of scanning, copying, emailing, and paperwork to complete in order to depart one school and arrive at another.  People respond in Singapore... even if it is to say I will receive a proper response within 24 hours.  Some people at home need several emails and calls and I'm still not getting responses.  The school closes next week and if things aren't in order, we have to wait until September to straighten everything out.  Oh well, there's my challenge to work on my patience some more.

After living here for nearly a year now, I can say that when an expat arrives in a completely foreign environment, he or she has to wait for several months to feel settled.  As we settled here, we also starting finding things/places much easier.  Now, we're finding all the things we couldn't find last Fall - and we're leaving.  We're also seeing/experiencing new things and not getting overwhelmed by it all - in fact, we're trying to lap it all up before we leave.

Speaking of new things... I've mentioned before that Singapore constructs new buildings fast and frequently.  There's a new condo close to ours that is full of windows.  It's high end.  It's modern.  And you can see right through the windows into the showers and bathrooms!  I've noticed that privacy in the medical system is quite different than home.  It's not uncommon for your ailment to be shouted out into the waiting room in a doctor's office.  But surely there will be something done with these windows??  Stores also close and new ones open within a day - not much waiting.  A fruit drink stand that my daughter likes at the MRT station closed one day and the next day a bakery was there in its place.

One of our lessons taken from our struggle through culture shock is to just wait.  Be patient with ourselves as we adjust to new surroundings.  Know that in time we'll make friends, know how to get around, figure out where we can find the things we need, and feel at home in our new environment.  We do feel at home now.  (When I say 'we', I mean my daughter and I... Terry's lived so many places he doesn't recall culture shock:)  My daughter is even having her friends visit our 'home' for a BBQ and swim tonight.  Our move back to Canada will be a little bittersweet.  But we're getting excited about that now too.

Oh, and yes, we're patiently awaiting our new arrival as well.  Not much longer... I have one more pre-natal yoga class, one more free weekend, and one more week before our wait will be rewarded.