Realizing a childhood dream

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had an obsession with Egypt…and everything about Egypt.

I’ve always wanted to go there. I don’t even know when this obsession started, I’ve just always had it in my heart to visit Egypt.

But I want to tell you the story of how this dream came to be...

I read everything I could about the country, the people and their ancient beliefs.  I started collecting Egyptian items I happen to find.

When our kids were little, my husband traveled to Canada for business. He happened to walk into a store and met a lady who was from Alexandria, Egypt. She and her husband spent 6 months in Canada and 6 months in Egypt. They had an apartment in Alexandria and she offered to let us stay there if we ever wanted to go. At the time we neither had the money nor the ability to leave our young children…but I kept believing I would get there.

The years went by, our kids grew and life with three kids took over our lives as they got involved in sports, programs and events. We were busy with them and I loved it. So, the thoughts of Egypt were a little hazy. But the thought of going stayed in the back of my mind.

Fast forward to 2019. Some friends of ours had just returned from a tour of Egypt, Petra and Israel and the tour group they used were going again. By now our kids were all out of college so we were determined we could make the money to go within a year! It was time. We booked the trip a year in advance…to go in October 2020.

Well… you know what happened then. They cancelled and pushed it into the next year, spring of 2021. The pandemic will be over by then and we could go. As we all saw the world shut down, the company moved it again to the fall of 2021, but then decided they were NOT going to take a chance on going to Egypt…just Petra and Israel. I HAD to go to Egypt!

This put us into a mad scramble to find a company we trusted and that would still go to Egypt. It took some researching, but we found one and scheduled our trip for the end of March 2022.

In November 2021 they told us as of now Israel’s borders were closed to the US and we wouldn’t be going. We had paid for the trip by now over a period of a year. Disappointment set in as well as feelings of frustration that I couldn’t bring this dream to fruition that I had had for so many years.

In January of this year, 2022, I accepted the fact that we weren’t going this year. The company only goes in March and October and we would have to push it into the next year.

We already had our vaccinations and our passports. But it looked like we weren't going. 

Then on January 19^th Israel opened it’s borders to the US and once again we were “on to go”. We scrambled to have everything ready by mid-March. Then at the end of February we found out that Jordan (where Petra is located) had closed their borders into Israel. Governments were discussing opening them but couldn’t assure our tour company that they would be open by mid-march when we were scheduled go.

I was bummed, I really wanted to go to Petra too. But at least we were still going to Egypt! But here’s the blessing that came out of a huge disappointment. Because we couldn’t go to Petra the tour company added in another area of Egypt… Abu Simbel. It is the home of the temple of Ramses 3^rd and Nefertiti. (google them if you don’t know who they are) 

As much as I wanted to see Petra, Abu Simbel turned out to be even MORE amazing! It was so much better than I had expected. Other than the Valley of the Kings, it ended up being my favorite place. We saw all of Egypt and Israel and it was an amazing and life-changing trip.

I tell you all of this (I know, it was a LONG story) because I want you to know that no matter what obstacles appear on the pathway to YOUR dream, or what kind of dissapointments you have along the way, you have to keep believing in that dream.

Going to Egypt was always in the back of my mind, even when I didn’t know HOW or WHEN I would get there. Don’t get me wrong, I did have my doubts at times. Especially when they closed the borders!

But somehow you’ve got to always have a way of keeping the belief that you will “make it.”

And sometimes the obstacles can turn into something even better than you expected as did mine at Abu Simbel.

Keep beleiving in your dreams, keep believing in your ability to achieve them...no matter how long it takes!