From Divorce To Kuwait: A Midlife Move That Rebuilt One Woman’s Life // 185

A sleepless night. A divorce after 32 years. A job listing that makes zero sense on paper. Then Kuwait shows up on the screen and Danielle Hebert takes the leap. What starts as a desperate need for space turns into two years of solo living abroad that reshapes her confidence, her faith, and the way she sees the world.

We talk through the practical realities of moving to a Muslim-majority country as a midlife woman: what Danielle asked in her interview about culture and dress, what surprised her when she landed, and how she learned to navigate daily life, safety, and boundaries. She shares the warmth she receives from strangers, neighbors, and coworkers in an international school community filled with people from across the Middle East, Asia, and beyond. The conversation also holds space for the complicated parts, including moments that feel unsettling and the inequality she witnesses among migrant workers.

Most of all, Danielle explains why this wasn’t “running away.” It was healing travel with intention: rebuilding self-esteem through meaningful work, creating deeper connections with family back home, and finding spiritual rhythm in an unexpected place. If you’re searching for solo travel inspiration, a midlife reset, or hope after divorce, this story will challenge your assumptions and widen your imagination. Subscribe for more Solo Travel Adventures, share this with a friend who needs a fresh start, and leave a review telling us: where would you go to heal?

Coaching Invitation
If you’re feeling drawn toward solo travel but unsure where to begin, this is something I support women with through 1:1 coaching. Together we can explore what kind of travel experience fits your season of life and create a thoughtful plan that reflects the woman you are becoming.

https://cherylbeckesch.com/workwithme/

Transcript

Why This Story Returns

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, sister travelers. Welcome back to Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Cheryl Esch, your host. Well, today's episode is actually a uh a recording from a year ago, and I'm reposting it since I will be in Hawaii at the time of releasing that episode. And so I wanted to bring back one of my favorites from last year in full, my dear friend Danielle Hebert, and how uh God sent her to Kuwait to heal. And she shares her story of um how that happened and the uh turmoil and that she went through and really how it turned out um to be such a positive experience. So I hope you enjoy the episode and listen into our conversation. Have you ever experienced so much heartache, pain, grief, or even just the stress of everyday life is just so mounting and overwhelming. You have anxiety just and need to get away. You saying, Kelgon, take me away. So if you're from my you know era, we know what that means. But you want to go beyond the Calgon take me away feel. You want to escape these problems, possibly on a beach would be a better place. Well, I think we've all been there, and especially at our age, in midlife and beyond, we have had tragedies. We've we've come across what I like to call these messy middle seasons in our life. And often, you know, we just we sit in them like we're sitting in mud and we just don't know how to get out. And often we overlook this whole idea of stepping away from the situation and getting a clearer picture. Well, my guest today, Danielle, did just that pretty pretty big step that she took in um uh leaving a messy situation uh and finding herself in the Middle East uh to heal. So join our conversation. Well, hello, sister travelers. I have an incredible guest today, Danielle Hebert. I've gotten to know her over the last few months, and she has an incredible story of how she just kind of picked up her life and moved to the Middle East. And I wanted her to share her story with you and that whole process and uh what happened. So let's dive in, Danielle. Tell us what was happening in your life that prompted such a drastic geographic change for you.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Well, um, first of all, I'm really excited to be on this podcast with you all because I um am excited to to be a part of what Cheryl's doing here. Um I I was going through a really uh crazy divorce after 32 years and um COVID, you know, everybody had that as well. And so um I just one night was not sleeping very well, and I had that earlier that day. I had told my uh soon-to-be ex-husband, I was like, you can go anywhere in this world. I said, your job allows you to work from home, and mine did not. And so I did not sleep well that night, and I just felt moved that why couldn't I? Why couldn't I go anywhere else? And so I got up in the middle of the night. I did like most of us do, and just start scrolling through and um was looking for jobs. Um, I'm an educator by trade, so I was thinking, okay, let's go to Europe, let's go somewhere. And Kuwait popped up, and I was like, okay, let's see what this is. And it was a uh curriculum coordinator for Kuwait, an international school. And I was like, okay, and I was just looking at it and I thought, oh, I can do this. This sounds fun. And I honestly, it was amazing because I must have just clicked with the LinkedIn, which is pretty cool when you can do that, but I didn't um hadn't really updated my LinkedIn because I really wasn't thinking about that. So um, but all worked out. I got a call, and within two weeks, I had a job offer, and then it took about two months to get all the paperwork ready to go. Um, and then just a sidebar, my son was in the National Guard and he uh is working on um becoming an officer in the National Guard, and they said, Oh, you should you need to do some overseas um experience. And so um during that two-month process where I was getting my paperwork, he found out that he was going to be um in Kuwait um the same time that I was gonna be in Kuwait. So God works things in bizarre ways. I mean, I didn't get to see him a lot, but you know, he was just 40 minutes away for one of those years that I was over there, and I was over there for two years.

Leaving To Heal Not Escape

SPEAKER_01 5:08

So that's how it happened. Oh, so you said that comment to your soon-to-be ex at the time, and thought, well, why can't I? I love that response. Um, but was there some other deeper intention for you to even consider moving away from your home country? I know you said you were going through a pretty um difficult divorce.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Well, I think it had gotten to the point where when anybody's been in a relationship of any kind and there's been um abuse and just a loss of trust, I think is is a huge thing to say. I think that um there's a lot of healing that needs to take place. And I was at the point where I just, and of course, as an educator, we had all taken beatings um for the last for several years because of the COVID situation. And so um I was just probably emotionally, socially, physically, um, spiritually, uh just drained. And I really just wanted a complete change. Um, and and I just felt like I needed that for healing. I needed to be able to um to just get away from the situation. And I think that's really, I know Cheryl and I've talked about this before. It's very different from just, hey, I want to run away from the situation. And sometimes you might feel that, but in the process, I think you need to really be introspective and go, what am I going to do to actually take care of me? Right. It was the first time in 30 some years that I was able to just kind of focus on me and not in this not to try to be selfish, but I think that our generation as a whole, those of us that are in our 50s and 60s, are just we we were we were trained to be um be all, right? Um work, take care of kids, take care of the husband, and that is what women were to do. And um, and in at the expense of ourselves sometimes, right? And so I think that um that is why um I was just like, you know what? And at the same time, I also had a beautiful grandson um who I was taking care of a a lot of the time, um was my wonderful, wonderful blessing. And um and I was just like, you know, I need to get healthy so that I can be healthy for my grandkids too, and that I can be healthy for myself, and then I can be what God intended me to be. And at that point, I truly did not feel at that point uh that way. So I was like, fine, you know, let's uh Lord do it. And the thing that I I'm probably underselling this, but to not fill out a large application to go in an international job, to not um to be hired within a two-week time period with a huge nine-hour time change, um, for all the paperwork to fall into place when that does not always happen, um, while I was still going through the divorce process, still cleaning out a house, still trying to get everything else ready. Um, God had all of that fall fall into place. And uh when those things happen, you just you have a lot, it builds on your trust, right? And you your trust is low at that point. And I think that that is the such a blessing to be able to have that piece. Okay, God, you've got me. You've got me this far. You're gonna keep you're gonna keep leading the way. And so uh, did I set out to go, oh, I'm gonna go to the Middle East? Um you know, uh, the only thing I knew about Kuwait was desert storm. So uh I was like, great. Um, so um, and and then and then it's a Muslim uh country. So those were my two things. And I'm thinking, all right, well, see, Lord, maybe maybe it's and and I did I shared this with Cheryl. I said, that is how you know that God has a wonderful sense of humor because He sent He sent me to a Muslim country to spiritually heal and just to meet some amazing people in the process. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Well, I think that's amazing. You had intention behind uh and you shared how God really orchestrated it because you know, often people might ask, like, why Kuwait? You know, like you could have probably gone to teach in another country anywhere, but it's but like you said, everything just seamlessly fell into place for a reason. And I love that that story and how that came to be. But you know, knowing you were going to Kuwait, you said you had a lot you were getting ready to do, you were going through the divorce, clearing out your house, you know, packing things up. I mean, that's a lot to you know just carry. But did you have any concerns about living in Kuwait based on, you know, you said you've only known Kuwait through Desert Storm? Same thing with me. That's really all I know about Kuwait. But I also know that, you know, culturally they do regard women differently. So was that a concern of yours, you know, in going to that type of country?

First Arrival And Unexpected Kindness

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Well, in the interview, I actually asked some of those questions because I was like, what are we? Is there a dress code? Is there, you know, things that are I I wanted to go into the country being a little bit more prepared. So in the interview, I I did ask um some of those things. You have to understand, I'm being interviewed by people that are in hijabs and different things like this. So I'm also trying to be understanding of how I word my questions because I don't know, I think either it's a personality thing or it's a culture thing, or we're all Americans and we just speak what we think. Um, so we we um we need to uh just kind of think about what our words are that we say sometimes. And um, so basically I was just asking, you know, about that right away because I saw them in the interview, because we did Zoom interviews, obviously, and um they're like, no, you but it was interesting because I had one lady, two ladies that were in there without hijabs and two ladies that did have hijabs on. And so I was like, um, and for you all that don't really know what a hijab is, I didn't until they told me. Um it's the head covering that the women wear over there. Um, but basically, um this is the deal, is they were just, I was like, well, they're they're not using one. And they're like, no, we don't expect you to have any other religion. We do have a Muslim religion. This is um uh the international school, and we want your expertise on American um education and training our teachers and things like that in our curriculum. And so that is how that all came to be. And so I did look it up, and you had to have your arms and legs covered. So I was like, okay, so I'll just take my light long sleeve shirts and and and that was kind of the gist. That's all I really worried about. But it was very different when I arrived in the airport. I wasn't expecting to see men in guns and you know, things like that at the airport. This is not in their military garb and stuff, right? So, um, but I was like, okay, you know what? Just keep going. We're here. And I'd met so many sweet people on the airplane um that were going to Kuwait and working in the in different schools as well, um, that I was like, okay, I mean, I thought that was even cool. Is that on the airplane? I had I met a family, a lady with her two kids that was working in another uh school in Kuwait, and she was returning and just talking. And then I ended up sitting on a second flight next to a lady who um worked for a business in Kuwait. And she gave me her number and she said, Oh, would you have to come look me up and all this stuff? And and I was just like, this is so inviting. And when you are ever at a point when you're trying to heal and you have been just your tank is empty, right? For lack of a better word, your tank is empty. Um, you need to be loved on, right? You need um some people to to fill that up, and God used complete strangers um to do that, and it it's such a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

So it sounds like you know, it you were there two years. So remember it was 2021 is when you went 2021 to 2023. Yeah, so you were there about two years, and yeah, so in two years, I I know you made some friends. How were you uh treated by the locals? Because you actually kind of became one of them. Um so how was that?

Daily Life Expat Community And Safety

Staying Connected Without Feeling Homesick

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Well, the nice thing is is that I got to live um in the military, we call that on the economy instead of in uh I was married to someone that had been in the military, so I was used to traveling a little bit. Um but um I think that it was great because I had everybody in my building um were were maybe not Kuwaiti because Kuwaitis have the bigger homes on the outer. Uh I was in town, I was like downtown. Um and so I was in a big building and um God took care of that too because it's desert. And you know, I mean, I I get it. Some people love the desert landscape. That is not me. I have always been somebody that loved green, loved water, put me by a lake, an ocean, any day, right? And so I got to have an apartment where I had a view when there weren't when there weren't sandstorms, I had a view of the Gulf. So I could see water. So I was like, okay, there is water. So um that to me, that was another God's got this, right? I mean, totally of all the places, a lot of buildings. I mean, a lot of the building, and this was a tall building in order to do that, right? Most of the buildings were not that tall. I could see the roofs of most of the buildings around me. And that meant I could have been in one of those buildings where I was just looking at other buildings, right? Um, so to me, those things are huge, huge God plays, right? And um so then I got there and I I learned the lingo, right? I learned how to use the dinar. I most of the people that I probably worked at were worked with were um were not necessarily Kuwaitis. I mean, I I met a few Kuwaitis, but a lot of them were Indians, a lot of them were Egyptians, um, a lot of them were um Iranians, Pakistanians, um, because they're the taxi drivers. Uh Sri Lankans, all my all the Sri Lankans were my drivers. Um my um a little Egyptian man was my um little, they call him um bacalas, uh little bacala. Um, and uh those are basically like a little mini 7-Eleven that's the size of a closet, right? Um that they have little things and you call them and they will bring them to you. And oh wow, he he came and brought me all my waters, whatever I needed, I would call and he would bring whatever. And um he was he saw he saw me one day, and I don't know what it was, I don't know something. He all of a sudden said, You Christian. And I was like, Well, yes, which is not something you usually hear. Yeah, um, and he's in his um normal garb and he he raises his arm up and he has a cross. He said, Me too. And he said it like really quietly. Yeah, and he was a little Egyptian man. And I was like, you know, what a blessing. What a blessing, right? And um, so you know, there was a lot of that. A lot of uh Filipino women were what they called nannies, um, when they are called over to watch the children um for them and clean their house and fix their meals. Um and this is tells you they always have them wear these really these uh these uniforms, but I didn't know that when I first saw them. And one was with this really pretty pink little pantsuit, and I was just like, oh, you are wearing such a cute outfit. And all of a sudden she looked at me funny, and she didn't the thing that you have to learn about a lot of these other people that aren't quays, they live to not be seen. They live to not be seen because they do not want to lose their job. Um, they live on nothing, so they send everything back to their homes for their families to live, uh, because there just aren't jobs in their countries, and we can't really fathom how this all works. I mean, I knew a taxi driver, he lived on ten dollars a month, like nothing. Um, so he could send everything back to his family. And um, because some of them do not get paid very well, but it's something. And so um she looked at me strange and then just kind of put her head down and went on. And I would see this lady every she was dropping off children every day when I was walking to work, and I would always say, uh, good morning, or something, and she would just kind of look down, or whatever. And then one day I was on my phone, I'd gotten a message, and uh, and I'm walking. And um, this was like probably year two, by the way. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I hear good morning, and I was like, and I looked up and she actually spoke to me. Oh, and I was like, Oh, good morning. And I I think it had just become a routine, and she she felt safe enough to respond to me. And that was just another blessing too, right? And it was also another one of those aha moments. Again, you have your head somewhere you're not supposed to be. Look up, look around, you know. Um, but um such a blessing. Uh now I would say there are some times that I didn't always feel super safe. Um not perfectly, but I would be, I would go to the grocery store to get bigger things that the Bacala wouldn't have. And there would be one cashier who would always be, come to me, come to me. Uh, your husband not here, you can come stay with me. And you know, all those things. And I I I kind of, and that's what I'm saying. Uh I was able to go, nope, I'm good, thank you, you know, and just play it off. And and I would say hi to him every time we came in. Um, but they some of them feel very empowered to kind of be a little more than flirty, you know what I mean? Just kind of, and one day the other, the the scariest thing to me was when I was walking home one day, it was in the summer, everybody else had left. I didn't know that people could leave early the last day. And so all of a sudden I'm going, where is everybody? And the whole building's empty except for a few of the the safe, safe uh, what do they call those security guards um that were around the compound? And I'm I'm walking out, and all of a sudden this car is right there next to me, just driving really slow, right behind me as I'm walking. And he's like, um, I take you home, I take you home. And I'm like, no, I'm good. And it just kept taught, I mean, just kept going. And I was like, this is kind of freaking me out, right? So I was like, no, I'm fine. And I ran across the street into the grocery store parking lot, and then he drove off. But that was the weirdest time for me because there was nobody around. Everybody had left early. They forgot I left in my left me in my little office. And um so um, but um, but other than that, it was it was um a lot more blessings than not. And I had this wonderful Lebanese family that lived in the apartment building next to me. They just took me in, they brought me meals. Um, I worked with their son and helped tutor him some. He was the sweetest little boy. He tried to teach me how to speak Arabic, bless his heart. He would take my mouth and go, no, you have to make a sound. And I was just like, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm not doing very well at this. And um, and it just goes to show you that you know, it's very hard to learn some like especially guttural songs, you know. And I'm I'll be honest, I I don't even think I'm I'm meant for a whole bunch of languages, but I know bits and pieces. And um, I think it's so important to teach our little ones to speak different languages when they're young. Their mouths are forming, they can do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah, so my my kids often uh get mad at me because I didn't do that for them. So I guess the next we'll do it for the next generation, right? Daniel. Yes, we'll yes, that's that's the grandchildren, right? Um well, you were there for two years, and I'm sure while you were there, I know you had an opportunity. Said a little bit to see one of your sons, but you've two other sons and you have other family and friends that you know were back in the states. You know, I'm sure you missed your family. How did you combat any kind of homesickness that you might have been experiencing while there?

Prayer Calls Faith And Finding Believers

SPEAKER_00 23:30

You know, I I really I had met so many new people and so many awesome people that I hate saying this because I love my family and they know that. Um, but I have to let me back up for a minute. I I told you way back, and this is gonna date me, but when my husband and I first got married, we moved to Germany because he was in the military in 1989. And we were in Germany when the wall came down. So we drove into East Germany. Um, there really was an East Germany. Um, we drove into that the day the wall came down, and so I mean, we were just kids, just kids, probably weren't supposed to do that, who knows? Um, took a back road. I mean, you know, so historic event though. So yes, and so I had always been, I had oh that was always my thing, right? And I even in in high school when we graduated, um, most to see the world, you know. I mean, you know, those little things that they have seniors vote on and all that stuff. Mine, one of mine was the the first to see the world. And that's because I always had this desire to just travel everywhere. And I traveled every summer. My parents were educators, so we traveled everywhere every summer. That was just kind of something that I have a passion for is travel in the first place, right? And so to me, I was not ever really homesick um because I I knew what I was doing. And the thing that's so great, oh my gosh, in 1989, they didn't have something called WhatsApp, they have WhatsApp now. So I was able to call, text my family whenever. Of course, they didn't like it because the time, you know, nine hour time change. They're like, Mother, it is six in the morning. I'm like, I know I'm trying to catch you. So, um, you know, so I really I got to talk to my family and I got to um and when and I think the thing that's so valuable about that is because when you do, it's not how's the weather, right? It's it's deeper conversations, catch me up, what's going on in real life, right? And um, and I I feel like sometimes in some ways I had better conversations with um a lot of my, you know, and and my daughter-in-law, well, she's my son's fiance at the time. Well, not quite, she was his girlfriend. She flew over to Kuwait, stayed at my house. He came over, I had helped him pick out a ring, and so they got engaged in my little apartment in Kuwait. Sweet. I didn't I didn't know that. Yes, very cool. And then we um then uh Jessica, my my daughter-in-law now, we um it we we kind of coordinated at the end of the year or so that she went with me and we took a whole tour of Italy, and then we came back to Kuwait, got our stuff and went home. So it was it was um just I mean, to me, I think it was a lot more meaningful experiences. I think that's what you get out of travel in general when you have your heart open um and your eyes out of your phone, you know. But um, I think that that is um what what life is about is those meaningful moments and and being able to to listen to God's leading. And I think that that I was able to be able to heal that way. I was able to listen to a lot of great um sermons, dive into so those those quote unquote lonely moments that you were talking about where I could get homesick, I was I was able to just, hey, this is my this is my prayer time, this is my Bibles Bible time. And I'll tell you, my I wasn't used to the bells going off. And you know, if you've ever been in the Middle East, you'll understand that they have bells going off every time they're supposed to pray in their churches that are just and then they have somebody coming over the loudspeaker and speaking in Arabic, but to an American, it sounds like you know, and I'm just like, what is happening? And uh my uh apartment was really close, so at like 11 at night, the first night I got there, it's going off. And I'm thinking, what does that mean? Is that like a tornado drill? I don't know what this is, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:36

And we're from Texas, so it's a tornado drill for us.

Confidence Returns Through Work And Travel

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I'm just like, what is happening? And then I'm looking at all the windows trying to figure out, oh, it's coming from that mosque. Okay, obviously this must be a prayer thing, right? So um, but it woke me up, scared me, and I and then I got to the point where I just sleep through it. So I but when you have stuff like that in your head, if you will, or just like because I mean that was several times throughout the day, you would hear this. Um, it's a good reminder of just praying for you for uh to your to your Heavenly Father, right? And go, you know what? This I can do that, I can pray. I don't have to get down and face a certain way, but I can pray. And um, and I think that that was uh it was just a really wonderful thing. And and I'll tell you, I was walking into work one day, and one of the nannies, one of the cleaners, um, she was in the bathroom and she was singing a hymn, a Filipino lady, and she was singing a hymn, and I walked in, I was like, I know that hymn. And um, they have large little uh pockets of like Filipino churches and uh Greek Orthodox churches and Indian churches that are that are Christian churches that they have that they meet in either homes or different things like that. And and that is it was such so sweet, right? So sweet to hear that. I have grown up in the Bible, I mean, I've grown up in the United States, and then I've raised my children in the Bible belt. Can't tell you that I've ever heard anybody singing um a hymn at work, you know, and and it was very just it just touched me in a really sweet way. So, I mean, those are the moments that I said God gives you in the midst of this um world. And when we want to think what we think about other places in the world, I'm just here to say sometimes we need to rethink those places because God has people that love him in lots of pockets of this world.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yes, yeah. And and I think, like you said, we we often have misconceptions about places um that are not true. You know, they're just based on what little media information we've gathered or past experiences that we've heard about. And like you said, there are you know, there's a saying, you know, there's there's just kindness everywhere, you just have to look for it. And I I believe that as well. And I I think you also expressed, you know, being open, having this open heart and mind too is important to see that, but also to receive that, you know, without judgment. So I I would imagine, you know, you you've given little hints that over these two years while you were in Kuwait, that it sounds like you began your healing process. You know, when you went to leave after those two years, how different did you feel? You know, from a emotional, physical, you know, all that stuff that you were dealing with beforehand to now you're two years in. Uh what were well, I guess what you know, what changes did you see in yourself? And then um, you know, when you came back, I guess the re-entry they call it, right?

Travel Advice And Middle East Highlights

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Right. I I think it was really interesting. I um and it's really important to know that there are so many other because I was in an international school, I had so many different people I had um that were that became great friends with me, you know, from Buddhist to Mormon to, you know, that were just different teachers. And and we actually, you know, had some great opportunities from Hindu. Yeah, I I just I got to learn about so many different religions um just from being there and loving on people. And I think that that is that is our goal. And so for me, it was not only did I feel loved on for just being a newcomer, and I was it fed first of all, I'm gonna back up for a minute, it fed my um professional need because I had been drained um from our school system um and just the different things that were going on here. And I was able to go and build up teachers. And in the process of me training teachers how to do things, the appreciation and the love and the kindness that came back to me that was like, oh my gosh, Danielle, please show me more, please teach me more, right? Um, because we don't, I don't always have that situation in the United States, right? We sometimes uh don't have that eagerness to learn, and and that's that's sad on it's a sad commentary on on our part. But um it was very exciting to me because I was going to try to learn from them and they wanted to learn from me. And because of that, that really helped my um emotional well-being, but it also helped my um, I didn't realize how low I had gotten in my own self-esteem, in my own abilities to do my job, right? And I think when we get to those points, we don't realize that we're just beat up across the board. You know, when we when we get to those low points, it I would probably have said in my 20s, oh yeah, I'm even in high school, oh, I'm a pretty confident person. But I I think at that point I wasn't. And so I was just like, hey, let's just dive in, let's see what we got, let's see what we can do. And just bonding with people and learning from them and being willing to learn from them and then wanting to learn from you was such a beautiful thing that that was a very major healing part for me. But also just building beautiful relationships of with people from all over the world. And I, you know, and just listening to each other. And I think I think that that's what's funny is I don't think that sometimes we take the time. It was really awesome because we did have a lot of Muslim holidays. So on those Muslim holidays, I got to go and travel all over the world with different people, right? And um you just get to learn so much when you when you do that. And and I think you have to go in with that is going, what can I learn, Lord? What is it you're trying to show me? And I think if you don't, if you close yourself off, you're not gonna get that. And so, like I already told you, I got to learn just devour marvelous, you know, messages and my journaling and just all these things and my prayers and everything that I got to go through, and and and the people I wanted to reconcile, you know, my ex-husband, right? I went through all these things. Okay, um, started praying for him. Um, just total um spiritual healing, right? And uh emotional healing. And um, so it was just that was what was going on behind the scenes, right? Right in my little apartment up in the sky. Um and overlooking the overlooking everything, which was so cool to me because I love heights, I love this stuff. Um, and it was just uh just amazing. And then I would get my venture filled, which hadn't been filled in quite a long time by going um Birch Khalifa when I'm talking about being up high, right? We went to Dubai and had a fabulous trip. And um a lot of that got paid for because I was working with a textbook company who wanted me to come to a conference in Dubai and you know, wined and dined me, and they did so wonderful, and it was it was amazing. And um, you know, so like I said, I can go on and on. There's so many things that God just orchestrated in my life. And when you are able to just, and in the moment, sometimes you don't see it, but when you sit back and either journaling or you're reading God's word or you're singing or whatever, that is what you you're seeing that God is filling your soul, right? And so that was all great. I did, to be honest, I did come back with some health issues, but a lot of that had to do with my age and my hormones. Yeah, um and I I I gotta say, I really miss my um socialized medicine because everything was paid for over there back here, so but you know, um, but that that was that's how it played out.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

So well, and often distance, you know, or getting out of our normal, our comfort zones propels us forward in you know, new experiences, healing, whatever is you know needed, we see things differently. And uh yeah, so I love that you did that now. I don't what advice would you give to um a woman traveling?

SPEAKER_00 36:31

I think you need to go in with an open mind and an open heart, and um there's things you're gonna see like when you go to a third world country that just break your heart, and you just have to just pray because you can't fix that for them. Um but there's also things that you're gonna see, they're just gonna be the sweetest people in the world. And I I met this wonderful Jordanian family, um, such a blessing. He was our tour guide, he showed us all over Jordan. Um, by the way, Jordan is beautiful. You you cannot, I cannot express the Dead Sea, Petra, those are must must-do's. Um, of course, everybody says Dubai, you gotta do Dubai, just to do Dubai, right? I mean, if you're gonna be in the Middle East, go to Dubai. It's got so many amazing things. And Bahrain and Qatar are now trying to compete with Dubai a little bit, and they're getting a lot of cool things. Oman has a world all of its own. Um, it's like a little sea village down in the ocean, and I mean on the Gulf and Indian Ocean, and it's it's um it's very sweet people. So um they all have different, I think kind of if you go to different states in the United States, you you get a different feel, right? And yes, um, just like if you go to different countries, and even though they're all part of the Middle East, they all have a different um feel to them. And it's funny because if you would have asked me three, four years ago if I would ever want to travel to the Middle East, I'd be like, no, not interested. Thank you. Um, and um, but you know, God God works things in mysterious ways, right? And um so my advice is just definitely if you have those opportunities and it opens up, go because you never know what you're going to um and but like I said, go with an open heart, go with an open mind because you never know how it's gonna play out for you.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yes. Well, Danielle, this has been an amazing time, and I I just so appreciate all your honesty and and opening up about your experience, and just uh I'm thankful for your healing that happened. So thank you so much for being here and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

I'm so excited to share with your people.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

So much fun. Yes. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

All right, bye-bye, bye.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

What an incredible story of unlikely place to find healing with Danielle. I love it, and I know for a fact, and I've experienced it myself, that healing can come in the strangest places. And travel can play a part in that.