Egypt

Introductory note: my husband "K" has three younger brothers, and I've named them "K2, K3 & K4" here in the blog. I have only one brother. 

Back in 2006 I blogged about the pretty incredible family internationalization that took place that year: first, my father- and mother-in-law moved to the U.S., then my brother & his wife moved to China. Later in the year, K's uncle moved to South Africa. The second "wave" happened in 2007 when "K3" moved to Turkey with his wife.

Things shifted slightly in the next few years: first, "K3," K's brother who had spent two years in Turkey moved to Brazil in the summer of 2008 and my brother moved from China to New Zealand. In June 2009, K4 (my husband's youngest brother) and his wife moved to Montreal, Canada and in November 2009 my in-laws moved back to Brazil.

It was quiet for a while, but this year (and last) things started shaking up again! K's uncle came back from Africa (where he'd moved from South Africa to Mozambique 3 years before) last year and my brother moved back to Brazil this past August, but the biggest change is yet to come.

"K2," K's brother who has lived close to us for the past NINE years is most probably moving to Egypt (Cairo) with his family very soon. :( The only thing that would prevent them from going would be a visa denial, but that is highly unlikely.

They are very excited about the move and professionally it will be excellent and challenging for brother-in-law, but we'll miss them a lot! My youngest son will miss them the most because he had the great privilege of growing up for 9 years close to his cousin (they are only 4 months apart). I hope they can interact well online, but it won't be the same at all (playing for hours and hours together many times a year). Sigh...

I hope they have a good experience in Egypt and, most importantly, that the political turmoil there can calm down.

P.S. I also hope that we can't visit them since of all the family members above who moved to different countries we have only visited K4 in Canada (OK, and K3 in Brazil, but that doesn't count because we always go to Brazil!).