Life Update

Hello blog readers, it’s good to be back in contact with you. I wish I could say that my lack of postings is simply due to how overwhelmed, busy, stressed, sought after, etc. that I’ve been. That would be a lie. It’s really just a case of laziness and forgetfulness.

Many of you have asked what the next year holds for our family so I thought I’d post an abbreviated summary of what happened this summer and what the next few months hold for us.

I graduated in May right about the time that Kim went back to work with Jack. We basically spent the next three months in following format: I would occasionally go to work (depending on what the temp agency had found me), Kim would take Aydan to Jack’s house and return to our place mid-morning. It was a blessing that the Shins allowed Kim to spend so much time at our house with Jack. If I wasn’t working I took care of household chores and then would hang out with them the rest of the day. As the summer moved on each day was muggier and less bearable than the day before it. Aydan keeps getting stronger and loves exploring. She’s almost crawling now so the exploration figures to kick into high gear here soon. We had some great family time: a weekend with my parents in Savannah and two weeks with Kim’s mom here. Kim’s brother David moved in with us and will be staying until we leave at some point in the next year.

As I write this, Kim and Aydan are still in Walla Walla and won’t be home until Labor Day while I'm here in DC. Once Kim gets home things really speed up for us. A week from Monday (September 13) I start my career as a Foreign Service Officer. I have five weeks of general training followed by an unknown amount of destination specific training. The first week of class I’ll be given a list of available posts. Kim and I will do our homework on life and work in those places and rate each post as low, medium, or high. The powers that be will incorporate our input into their decisions but can send us anywhere, no matter how we rank the available posts. On October 8^th, everyone will find out where we’re going in a public ceremony called ‘Flag Day’. As each person’s name and destination post is called, said person crosses some kind of stage and shakes hands with someone. ‘But wait’, you may be asking. What happens if you ranked Afghanistan as ‘Don’t send me there or I swear I will retire right now’ and they send you there? You find out in front of everyone? What if you break down crying? Great question. And I really don’t have a good answer for you. Once we learn where we’re heading we’ll also know what our next year looks like. Some posts require extensive language and other training. We could stay in DC for close to a year. Other posts require very little additional training and we could be in our new country before Christmas.

So that’s what we’re looking at. Right now we have no idea what the next few months will bring but that’s what’s so exciting- we really could be headed anywhere.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all can come visit us wherever we end up!