Timeline for life in Saudi

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A good friend of mine Sadie’s Nestsadiesnest.com asks me questions about times and places after I post a story. We moved around allot in Saudi so I realized it might be confusing. I am posting a timeline for anyone who follows my story and finds it helpful.This timeline was compiled with the best intentions so if there are any errors I apologize in advance. Here it is and I tried to add pictures if I had them for each time period. Thanks for reading and supporting me!

October 1993

Moved from Seattle to Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Boys attend first school in Riyadh a few blocks from the villa

Lived in Villa with no furniture

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June 1994 moved to apartment with no electricity downtown Riyadh

Boys attend second grade at a different school next door to apartment

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June 1995 Moved to Al-Khobar and into first compound

Boys attend a nice, Westernized school

Picture below is the pool at the compound

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June 1996 moved back to Riyadh to large new compound

The two older boys started at a large school in Riyadh.

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 June 2002 Moved out of the compound and to a little compound in Riyadh

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June 2005 Took the two oldest boys to America to University.

When we came back we moved to a different small compound in Riyadh.

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June 2008 moved back to Al-Khobar to Villa

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2009 moved back to the United States

114 thoughts on “Timeline for life in Saudi”

  13. Thanks for the time line, I have just started following your amazing journey of survival it seems, so this was very helpful. Like so many others on here you are truly a pillar of strength.

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  19. Ah thank you – yes I am fully recovered, but VERY VERY busy, problems way beyond my control that I don’t want to go public on, but could e mail you to fill you in – all quite stressful.
    The plus side is my Christmas cake is in the oven – YES, you must make them at least two months in advance and feed them brandy every week and the fruit just matures. I am going to tie a post in with the Christmas markets…..
    Just catching up on posts that I have not had a chance to read as I have been like a headless chicken all week!

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  22. I thought I had an interesting life… but its nothing compared to your life. I have so many questions running around my head. For the most part, were the children able to attend schools with a western curriculum? I’m so happy the first two were able to enter college in the states after spending a few years being schooled in Saudi. Lord knows its hard enough apply for colleges when the family/child lives here in the States.++ I saw in one of your photos that you and one of your daughters were still ‘covered’ even though you had returned ‘home’. How did it take you to get used to the idea about leaving the house in regular Western clothing? It must’ve been such a culture shock for all of you. ++ I remember when we were living in Malta and the grocery stores were nothing like our huge stores here in the States. I would wander around the grocery stores (while home on vacation) and remember being amazed at the quality and quantity of all the foodstuffs. And I had probably only been in Malta for about two years at that time & we came home sometimes twice a year!! ++ The schools in Malta have a British system of education – from the time the British were in Malta. I found the education system so different from what I was used to… there was so much stress on ‘do it this way’ and not enough creative problem solving and generating your own opinions and ideas. The tests are so stressful that I knew parents that wouldn’t attend a party etc. because their (often very young) children were facing exams and they had to help them study. Sooo much stress. I volunteered at an excellent private school and loved the children and teachers… but did NOT like the system.

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    • Wow I didn’t know any of this about you! Ok my first beginning stories talk more about this but here is the brief idea, the boys went to Saudi school from 1-12 grades! the last picture in our last year in Saudi, dont have a picture of the last place in Khobar where we lived the last year so I put my daughter and I instead at the beach there. The school system is not good!!! I had the girls and all the kids in the system until my boys went to college. They had helped me because they spoke arabic and could talk to the school teachers. We came home 3 times in 15 years. The little kids didnt go to school we home schooled. ha ha there is all is!

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      • Wow Oh Wow Oh Wow – what a story!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write to me. I know how busy you are. I so enjoyed reading your reply!! And I thought I had it hard when we moved to Quebec (Montreal) and I couldn’t understand any French. The only thing I understood during the birth of my twin sons was,”Encore” when they discovered there was another baby!! LOL (My French is much better now after owning our farm near Quebec City!)

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  24. Goodness! I think my phone went crazy before I could finish writing the rest of my comment. I was going to say I love all your stories and I can tell you’re an amazing mother. You love your family so much. I’m so glad you’re here in in the US! Yay!! US!! I admire you so much!!! ❤️

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  29. Your story… no… really? No furniture? No electricity? I guess I was lucky enough to have electricity, but there was no furniture. Managed to get some money to buy a bed, washer and dryer, but I had to transfer money from the UK to buy a sofa and table, as I was pregnant and eating off the floor. (It was rare that I was allowed to eat. I was starved during and after my pregnancy).
    Thank you for sharing your story.
    Thank you for you for being so inspiring and so strong.
    I shall keep up with your posts.

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