Trading history part 4

In January 1992 I arrived back from my trip to Sweden to find the construction industry in a down turn and even slower than when I had left. I had thought that work had slowed way down due to the Christmas season. I was wrong, the construction business in California  had already been suffering from a recession  that officially started July 1990 and went into March 1991. 

I was keeping myself busy hiring myself out to other electrical companies as a way to make up for the dwindling amount of work that I was getting on my own. Even though it was getting to a point that I was having trouble making ends meet.

  My wife who was in Sweden (and still only my girlfriend) was working as an assistant to a mid wife at the hospital in her home town. She really loved her job and my feeling at that time was that she would probably not be back in California until at least the start of summer. So I was surprised when she informed me she was returning to California to continue working with the family that had employed her as an Au-Pair the year before

As you might imagine I was delighted. Not only was I glad to see her but by living together we were able to save a little money and travel. We spent two weeks on Maui in Hawaii which was fantastic and later that year we drove down The Baja Peninsula. Our plan was to drive all the way to Cabo San Lucas but we had to end our trip in La Paz because I had somehow gotten Chicken Pox. Something my Dad had assured me about a year earlier that I had gotten when very young. That trip ended up to be not so fun. 

Sometime during that year we started talking about future plans. My wife, though still very young at the time, wanted to have children. Marriage was and still is quite rare in Sweden. Many couples never get married but unlike the USA there are laws that protect both parties.  So living together is regulated in a law called “sambolagen”  the “the law of cohabited living by couples”. For my wife, getting married was not really that important. I agreed with her that for me I was quite ok with not getting married but if there were to be any children then I thought it would be best if we were married, especially since I wanted my child to become American citizens.  I myself had come to the USA as a 1 year old from England via Canada. Making things more complicated. So in late 1992 I became a naturalized American Citizen, something that I am proud of being to this day.

It was really no surprise when in February my wife told me she had missed her period and was pregnant. So I asked her to marry me and in April we were married. Unfortunately I had injured my back a few weeks before helping my wife's employers move a piano and I was all doped up on pain killers the whole time. 

Reality had also set in for us both. What were we going to do? Here I was with a bad back and my newly pregnant wife had no insurance. Not only that, work for me, even if my back were to suddenly heal, was still very slow. 
My wife explained to me that she was covered under the medical system in Sweden and not only that but she explained how great it would be if our child was delivered by the mid wife that she had been working with while in Sweden. She also explained that she had spent 2 1/2 years in the USA and that it was only fair if I spent some more time in Sweden. I was not to excited to leave the USA but what were my choices? I decided to give Sweden a try, but I had my wife promise me that after 2 years if I wanted to move for any reason that she would follow with our child.

In May 1993 I arrived in Sweden, In September our first child was born.