It's a Threesome Alright!

Lots of people believe things happen in threes - I'm one of them. I'm not sure why they actually DO happen in that numerical order, but when it's a string of GOOD luck or good fortune, then I love it dearly.

We were lucky to have it the good way. Firstly, D was granted his 4yr sponsorship through the recruitment agency he's currently with. At first we thought we were going to have to pay out a lump sum which included the sponsorship fees (and even then the sponsorship wasn't guarranteed from Australian Immigration), as well as the necessary physical and overall health checkup. Now it seems we don't have to pay ALL of it; all we are up for is the medical bills, which should not be anywhere near as expensive as the whole sponsorship thing. So, that's the first piece of good news.

The second piece came about a few days ago when my brother was offered a full time position in the company he currently works for. He was originally only doing casual time (less than 25 hours a week) so when they bumped him to full, he now gets anywhere between 30-40 hours a week.

The third fantastic thing that happened, came about today. My sister, who is now on the FULL road to recovery with her illness, landed a waitressing job at a little cafe in town that my family almost always eats at. I could not be more thrilled for her!!! This is so awesome, and I know she must be feeling on top of the world about it.

Now add to that a fourth snippet of interest, which I'm not sure I will consider good news, so therefore I won't include it in my three-good-things-that-have-happened. Well, that and the fact that it would make number four, even if I did.

Anyway. D was offered a job in Texas. I'm torn about this. This was a company he's been trying to land a contract with for a few months now, but they always had this way of brushing him off, or not contacting him when they said they would, and making up excuses. He may argue that point, but this is how I see it to be. The contract he was trying to land, would have netted him quite a profit in the year to come, because of the nature of it (I'm sorry I can't be more specific) and would have seen that income double or triple in subsequent years. Now it appears that the owner of said contract/project doesn't want him to partner up, as was the original plan. I can only guess because he's realized what a moneymaker this project potentially is, and has decided to remain completely greedy and rather than ask D to be a partner, now wants him working for the company full time, with a set wage. In short: MUCH LESS MONEY.

I'm torn because on one hand I can see that D really would like the opportunity I think, and on the other hand, I have little to no interest in moving to Texas. I don't know much about the state, granted, but I still don't want to move there. And I especially don't want to move back to the States in the coming year anyway, because that means my family misses out on my daughters first year or so of life. They've missed on the last TEN YEARS of mine, and I don't want to go through all of that again anytime soon. See my conundrum?

So. I'm not really sure what to do or how to react. As we talked about it last night, it's entirely possible I didn't react the way he would have liked me to, but I can't hide how I'm feeling about it. I know he's more secure in the States and/or Canada because he's familiar with it and it's more like home than Australia is - nevermind that we've only been here for five and a half months, and it took me about a year to a year and a half before I got fully comfortable living in America.

I said to him last night to make sure that when he makes his decision, it's not based on the US being more familiar to him, and thus running away from all the hardships and unfamiliarity here. He said the same thing back to me, asking me if the reason I wanted to stay here was because I was familiar with it. I then told him that that wasn't the reason at all; I had been away from my family for 10 years, and I didn't want to go through it again. The conversation pretty well died at that point and I was left feeling confused and upset.

I'm still not entirely sure what's going to be done, or which way he's leaning, but I know the pressure from his mother can't be helping matters. And I know he misses his friends; that never goes away. When you're living in a different country, you always miss your friends and family. But it's also a learning curve, isn't it? An adventure? Somewhere along the way you find out you have the strength to do it (essentially) on your own, and you ARE capable of making new friends (which he's done already) and starting your life over again. Or maybe this is just me being selfish, I don't know.