New Passports, Finding a house and dropping documents in the river…

As we prepare to move to Kuwait this Summer, we have had a whole host of things “to do” (and still yet to do)- for visas, to prepare for life there, and also to plan for life when we return. Aside from the obvious of obtaining visas, the biggest priorities for us were to find a house here to return to (and also stay in when we visit), and also to get new passports.

New Passports – 

To live in another country, you usually need a minimum number of years on your passport – this varies depending on the country, but for Kuwait it is 2 years. And, guess what? It turned out that none of us (except Nathan) had this (so typical). And so therefore an unexpected and rather pricey task occurred of us needing to renew 4 passports and apply to get a new one for Oscar. Thankfully we have them all back now (the last was delivered a few days ago) and it took no where near as long as we thought it might – phew!

The bonus is that we all now have several years on our passports (hello more travels), and mine is quite possibly the best picture I’ve ever had!

Finding a House – 

Finding a new house (whether we were staying here or not) was a big need for us, and has also been such a chore too. The market is nuts at the moment and every house we have loved, we seemed to just get outbid or miss out on it. We contemplated whether or not to just find a little place we could keep our money in and rent out, but we couldn’t help feeling that we really just wanted to find a family home that we could look forward to living life in, and that also met our needs with a growing family, and that should anything go wrong with our Middle Eastern adventure, we would have the peace of mind of a house to live in here in the UK (that was suitable for us) – this has given us so much peace of mind.

Well, this last week (almost a whole month since we completed on the sale of our house) it all seems to have finally fallen into place (Hallelujah). I don’t want to jinx it, and I hope it continues to roll forward in a positive way, but I am pleased to say that we found a house we absolutely love! We saw it last week and all felt that it is perfect for our needs (it ticks all the boxes and is so beautiful), and is in the area we love here in East Yorkshire – we are absolutely delighted.

Last weekend they accepted our offer, and this week we have been sorting out solicitors etc to seal the deal!

While finding a house has been such hard work, time consuming (we have been looking for MONTHS!), and such a struggle, I am delighted we held out for this one. And, we of course look forward to living in it over the coming years and sharing/making memories in it together.

Wet documents!

Life as a mum of 4 kids is nuts at the best of times without throwing in all of these extra jobs. I know it will be worth it, and I suppose there isn’t a huge amount to do really, but nevertheless, there is still quite a bit to sort when you decide to move the family to another part of the world for a few months/couple of years!

Last weeks job was for me to go to our Doctors surgery to obtain copies of the kids medical records to present when we arrive in Kuwait. For this I needed to take their birth certificates as evidence. Initially it was all go wonderfully, and I was grateful for that. However it all suddenly took a dramatic turn, when after picking everything up, I took little Oscar to the river to look for ducks. Alice was with us, as she had an appointment shortly after, and the next thing you know, hes making a dash to paddle and she couldn’t stop him. I let go of the pram to grab him, and SPLASH! The pram goes flying into the river, the medical docs and birth certificates float to the top of the river!

Flipping eck – how on earth do I get myself in these situations?

I managed to quickly grab the pram, while screaming in a mad panic – scoop the paper work out with the basket of the pram and leg it to the car (with the littlest Smiths) where I laid them all out across the seats and dashboard to dry!

Thankfully everything was fine! What a miracle!

I couldn’t stop laughing – Nathan didn’t find it so funny!

Life is all go at the moment, but I am glad that we now have all the passports sorted, a house sorted (so so excited and thankful), and that the documents didn’t sustain too much water damage! Here’s hoping as we continue to move down our list of legal stuff to do, and as we proceed with the purchase of the house here, that it’s less dramatic than the last week turned out to be! Especially when we head to London for medicals and an Embassy visit (coming soon!).

1 Comment

  1. June 24, 2022 / 8:53 pm

    Such a great post sweetie!

    Danielle | thereluctantblogger.co.uk

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