You think you know...but you have no idea....

Some of you might recognize this saying from the MTV show Diary from back in the day.  Ever since then I have often quoted and been reminded of this saying throughout my life. It seem I am the one who thinks  I  knows....but I have no Idea.  Story of my life!  

As most of you know we have been trying to get our visas to teach English in Saudi Arabia.  We first told you about this back in December after signing our contracts and were expecting to leave by January. Some of you might even think we have already been gone, but no, we are still in good ole' Lubbock Texas.

After spending 5 months on our visa process it has been decided that we are NOT going to teach in Saudi.  We tried very hard to meet all the requirements put in place by the Saudi government, but when they change the requirements every 3 weeks it makes it very frustrating.  Their last requirement change stated that we have to have a college degree in Education or English to teach there.  No exceptions.  So, after 5 months of thinking we were going to leave we are now back at square one.

So now what?  Start the process all over again for another country?  Get real jobs and start our life here in America?

Well as many of you know we don't think we are quite ready to start our life here in America, that would be too normal for us.  So we have decided to apply to South Korea to teach English in either Universities or Academy's.  We are in the very beginnings of this process and are expecting for it to take around 3-4 months.  The process for visas in South Korea is more straight forward than Saudi Arabia so we are hoping this will be a good thing.
Until then we are finishing up the year subbing, (we are so glad there are only 2 weeks of school left.)  hanging out with family and friends and enjoying the luxuries of America!  Ha ha.  We appreciate all of your love, support and prayers throughout all this and ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts.   
Blessings from the Hanes'!!

Hurry Up and Wait!

This seems to be our motto right now...."Hurry up and wait!"  We have spent the better part of a month gathering together all of the seemingly endless documents needed for our employment visa. (check out the photo below)  We have finally acquired all of our transcripts, passport photo's, release forms, and medical records and sent them off to the visa agency in Washington DC.  All we have to do left.....is wait!  We have already been waiting for two weeks and now they have informed us that it can take an additional 2-3 weeks to complete the process and actually get our visa's!    

We have been able to take the time to visit friends and family and say our goodbyes while we are still here.  It's just a little awkward saying "goodbye" to someone and then seeing them a month later. Our bad.  At some point we really will be gone. We just wish we knew when!  Until that time comes we will continue to stuff our faces with American food, "allow" Tiffany to wear what she wants and drive a car, and spend time with those we love.  Again, thanks for taking this new journey with us......I promise, it will begin soon....hopefully....

Did Someone Say Shawarma?

Well I’m sure many of you are wondering what is next for the Hanes’?  It has been a while since we updated y’all and I’m sorry for that.  Don’t worry, we are still alive and doing our thing, even though we don’t really know what “our thing” is. 

2012 flew by as every year seems to do.  It was full of unknowns, questions and uncertainty.  We had just spent a year travelling around the world serving others so a natural question arose…now what?  How do you top that?  Well, slowly by slowly, as our Kenyan friends like to say, we just fell into life.  We traveled around the states visiting friends and family that had supported us the year before.  We spoke at a few churches who had sponsored us.  We just kind of floated around not really knowing our place. No matter where we went we would always get the same question.  What is next for the Hanes? 

Wow, what a question to be asked, especially when we're not sure of the answer!  Do any of us really know what will happen tomorrow?  Most of us have a pretty good guess at what the next day, month and even year may look like.  But for us it's been a little different.  We haven’t found a "career", we don’t own a home or have any debt, and although it would be nice to have some structure and stability in our life,  it looks like now is just not the time. And we are okay with that.

  

2012 was a transitional year I guess you could say.   We worked off and on as substitute teachers. (a bit of a reminder of how not ready we are to start a family and have kids!)  We lived in Central America for 3½ months over the summer serving, vacationing and just living.  We tried to live life as "normal" as we knew how. You know...normal...taking bucket baths when there's no hot water, lighting candles when the electricity goes out, walking everywhere, sweating endlessly and trying to communicate via charades. That is normal, right??  

  

Anyway, with 2013 in front of us we have decided to do something a little different, yet again.  Justin and I will be teaching English at a University in....wait for it.....SAUDI ARABIA!!  Yep that's right, Saudi Arabia. Home of falafels and shawarmas, deserts and sandstorms, Islam and Arabic, and much much more as I'm sure we will see.  We know that it sounds a little crazy.  It will be totally different than anything we have experienced thus far, but then again, I guess that is why it appeals to us.  

There are still a lot of unknowns; we have been working on the application for visas for about a month.  We do know that we have been hired and that we will be leaving in January, but we don’t know exactly when or where in Saudi we will be.

       

So what will you be doing in 2013?  Whatever it is that you are doing, we hope that it is something that you love, something that challenges you, something that helps you prioritize your life the way you feel you should be, and something that allows you to be surrounded by people you love.