Where in the World Are We?

The place we now call home is Singapore, a small island in southeast Asia. If you want to come for a visit we live immediately north of the Equator, and are located off the southern edge of the Malay Peninsula between Malaysia and Indonesia. Moving from a small town in central Illinois, we are now learning how to live in a city with approximately 4.99 million other people, which include Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Caucasians, and Asians of different origins.

Within Singapore, we moved from the Great World Serviced Apartment in downtown Singapore to a home near the city. We live in a home called a semi-D, so our house shares a wall with another house. Thankfully, our home is located in a convenient part of Singapore, close to the city, shopping, markets, parks, and the highways. In a city with 4 million + people I still manage to get most places in 15 minutes. It’s a good thing, because if you know me well, you know I am always running LATE!

For the first month of life in Singapore our home was furnished with the bare essentials of rental furniture and what we could pack in a small air shipment or carry in our 18, 50-pound suitcases. Please come and visit, but you might want to wait until our home "essentials" arrive. Our sea container filled with everything we call home will arrive in March. Until then we are learning how to live and get along in a new country-city-state where some customs and ways of life are similar and others are very different.

Life is similar in many ways to the US and of course there are differences, many we are still discovering. We have the basics like indoor plumbing, electricity and air conditioning (thank goodness)! Most people speak a form of English. We have a small yard and an area for the family to play basketball. We live on a quiet street so the children still enjoy riding their bikes and scooters. Some of the differences we have encountered at our house are, our trash is picked up everyday. Most cooking is done in an outdoor kitchen. We have an American sized dishwasher and washer and dryer, but they are all located outside of the house. When I say I am doing my laundry outside, I am really not “roughing it” but I am doing it outside. Because of the extreme hot weather most floors are marble or wood, rarely do you see wall-to-wall carpet. Our garage is a car port with a gate. The differences both at our house and in the culture are a learning experience for us. The good part is we are making these new discoveries and braving this adventure as a family. I still have to readjust my thinking when I hear the radio announcer say, "It’s another beautiful 32 degree day in Singapore."

Great World City

“Great World City” was carefully chosen as our family blog title for many reasons. Great World City Serviced Apartment was our first home in Singapore. It was our first glimpse of Singapore. It was our “Welcome Home” to our tired family of 6 who arrived at 3:00 a.m. after 26 + hours of travel. Great World City SA also served as a "great world" to our jet lagged, dazed family for the first week of life in Singapore.

Great World City was a perfect first step for us as it was a self contained “city” equipped with a front desk to help with every need like calling a taxi, finding the proper plug adapter or directing us to a good spot for food. Within Great World City there was a beautiful pool, work out center and play park. There was also a mall connected that provided familiar “needs” like McDonald cravings and a Starbucks and Coffee Bean Company for my much needed coffee fixes.

Now one month in Singapore, great world city has an even deeper meaning as we slowly settle in to a great NEW world…a city full of new things to learn, interesting people, and places to see.

The Beginning...

This week I brave Singapore alone with my four precious children. My husband left for a week long business trip to Australia. I don’t mind that he is gone. I miss him of course…we all miss him and the routine of life with him. I especially miss the way he starts our day. We have yet to get an alarm clock in our room so I rely on him to set his phone. Each morning he sets his alarm and gets us all up at 6:00 sharp to start breakfast and get the two oldest on the bus by 6:50. Monday and Tuesday morning went along without too much to report, but this morning I turned off my alarm…

I awoke to two big eyes staring me in the face and a little precious voice of my youngest saying, “Mommy it looks like a tornado in our room." I sprang out of bed to see that we still had twenty minutes to spare before the bus arrived. I got the two oldest up and ready with time to spare before the huge tour bus arrived to pick up M and A. We waved good-bye and watched the bus move away down the narrow street, but the words from my son didn’t leave me. My room looks like a tornado…

As a wife and mom, I have been busy attempting to clear and sort out our new life in Singapore and waiting for the perfect moment to share our stories. Today at 6:20 a.m., my 4 year old made it very clear to me that there is not going to be the perfect moment when the tornado will clear. So, I decided today I needed to begin. Today, I needed to begin clearing the tornado in my 4 year olds room and begin clearing the tornado in my head of the stories I need to share.

Because I am getting a late start sharing our adventure, the stories are a bit delayed in real time much like tv shows here in Singapore. I also realize more clearly everyday that everything has a season and purpose under heaven…so I am okay with the slow start!

We hope you enjoy our stories as much as we love learning and living through them.