Loaves of Cousins

Since we’ve always lived far from all of our family, LI and I often list the people we love and put them in the proper categories, like “cousin,” “aunt,” “Papa’s brother,” etc. Well, one time, LI needed some clarification on which of her cousins belonged to which aunt and uncle on which side of the family (maternal or paternal). Once she got it down, she summarized very decisively by saying, “So there’s two loaves of cousins.” (I was baking a lot of bread at home at the time.)

Well, we had the huge pleasure of seeing one loaf two weeks for spring break!  Jim’s brother and sister and their awesome families met up in VA for a mini reunion, lots of museum exploration, some pretend platypus play, card games, the transfer of a zaftig kitty, and general boisterous family time…

Big H and Pretty Aunt Shannon

The Siblings

That was before Flag Day.  I’ve begun thinking of time in terms of Before Flag Day and After Flag Day.  The day After Flag Day, an honorary loaf of cousins came for a visit.  Some of our dearest friends and their beautiful, feisty daughters, whom LI refers to as her cousins consistently.  (I’ve stopped clarifying because I love it.)  We were still processing The News and decompressing, and it was great to have them around for this moment in our journey (even though we weren’t the most relaxed folks around.)  Their presence–always solid and reassuring–was perfect.

Noodle Fan Pho Sure

Picnic at the National Arboretum

Kyiv, Ukraine!

Flag Day was exciting — and quick!

They ceremoniously carried in the flags, some presenters made very brief remarks, and off they went, matching the nervous FSOs with their first post/country. The flag of a country was projected on a large screen and the audience was invited to call out the country.  The announcer named the city, the position, and then the person. The Ukraine flag was displayed roughly in the middle of the whole thing. They called Jim’s name and the girls and I cheered.  They went so fast that by the time we cheered and I tried to take a picture, they had already projected the next flag. So it looks like Jim is going to Brazil.  Maybe next post…

AJ was thrilled–mostly to know and to be able to tell her friends–finally–where she was going to be living.  She has since learned more about Ukraine and we’re all looking forward to exploring Kyiv and other regions of the country. LI was also very excited, even though she doesn’t fully grasp it all and was a perfect little barometer of the stress and anticipation building up.

General consensus is that Kyiv is a darn good first post for a family. We are pleased.

Flag Day is today!

I want to make a quick post to acknowledge this important and nerve-wracking day.  I actually feel pretty certain that we’ll be happy with whichever country we’re sent to.  There are lots of quite amazing choices on the list of possibilities.

Mostly, I’m anticipating the ceremony in which they announce our post in front of a large group of people. I’m just not sure how I’m going to manage my own emotions and those of our daughters’.  I’m thinking lollipops for LI might be a good way to go.

Next blog post will be the big news!

At Home-In-Between

We left VT and arrived in VA 3 weeks ago today and it pretty much still feels like we’re on vacation (even though we didn’t actually go on vacation and I’m sure Jim, who is in the thick of A-100 training, would not claim having had any vacation-related feelings whatsoever–though he’s loving what he’s doing so far.)

I haven’t posted anything since before we left our home state, so here’s the rundown of what’s happened since:

The Car Trip

At the last minute, we realized we didn’t have nearly enough space in the car for our cats and our luggage. (I will spare the sad tale of assuming our new car would be able to haul a trailer with our excess baggage only to read the manual AFTER our air shipment was packed and gone…)  So we mailed a bunch of boxes of stuff to ourselves.  No biggie in the end. But our car was still completely full so I rode the whole 12 hours with Masha, the little cat, in her soft-sided carrier on my lap.

We had our kids pretty well covered for the trip with special snacks, the DVD player, and activity books and games.  The cats were the main source of worry.  Bina, the big cat, gets almost comically carsick.  She meyowls the whole time and gets a foamy, frothy beard around her chin.  And she vomits (not so comical).  We had to stop a lot to clean her cage with baby wipes.  Awesome.

We arrived at our apartment complex around 8:00 pm.  We were relieved to be “home” and started settling in right away.

Home

My girls can make themselves at home just about anywhere, and at The Oakwood is no exception. I mentioned in a previous post a bit about the Oakwood. It’s the place where many, many Foreign Service families live while the Foreign Service Officer of the family is in training, either in the beginning of their service or in-between posts for job or language training. It has a playground where we can find at least six other kids and parents to play with at just about any time of day.  And everyone has great tales to tell about the places they’ve lived, the jobs they’ve had, the places they’ve parented and the languages their kids can speak. As a family just getting started, it’s the perfect place to get info, and inspiration, about what our future holds.  So as far as temporary housing goes, we feel like we’re in a really good spot.  I’m also loving living in a two-bedroom apartment.  The girls are finding a way to co-exist in one bedroom again, and having less stuff and a steady flow of visitors is forcing me to keep things simple and tidy.

AJ

AJ’s school is great. She’s thrilled to be learning cursive and Spanish and she has (yet another–we’ve been so lucky) amazing teacher that she loves.  She’s also enjoying some new freedom that our apartment complex provides. She’s able to run around with her friends and hang out in their apartments after school, and is learning to follow a dinnertime curfew and take responsibility for herself.  We’re still figuring this all out as a family, and it’s not perfect yet, but we’re getting there.  One adjustment she’s had to make is that her curfew is quite a bit earlier than some of her friends’ because we’re early dinner-eaters, and they’re still on a Euro eating schedule from their previous post.

She had a great birthday. We celebrated by going to the National Zoo where we were reunited, by chance, with some friends from our Peace Corps days, and their lovely kids.  Then, by AJ’s request, we got steamed crab legs and fried fish for late lunch. Some highlights of her birthday celebrations:

Jim had to wait for 45 minutes for the fried fish portion of the meal, while the girls and I enjoyed. . .

Steamed grab legs in a brown paper bag. Best we've ever had standing up at an open-air eating counter-thing.

 

LI

LI has made some fast friends, too. She misses her school and her buddies, but I think she’s doing well living in the moment and running around, adding significant decibels to any gathering she joins. She has some sister-buddies that she is quite fond of. They’re quite a team of colorful, strong, adventurous girls.

Don't try to stop these girls from dancing!

She would like to show you our apartment living/dining room:

Enjoying ice cream at Eden Center, a Vietnamese shopping/dining center next to our apartment. LI aptly calls it the Eating Center.

Another new thing for LI…

 

Naps!

 

 

Thick of it

Logistics Update:  So much going on right now as we enter our second-to-last week in Shelburne, VT, and our last week in the house.

Our “pack-out” date is a week from today, but we don’t leave VT until the following Friday. We were wondering how we’d live in a bare house with not enough beds or basic necessities for four days. Then we got notice that Jim’s future employer will put us up for those in-between days, at a hotel right here in town. That will help for sure.

Then we got a call from our future apartment complex saying they have too many large families booked longer than they planned and we may have to live in a one-bedroom apartment at first.  And we won’t know until we arrive.  This is a perfect example of how flexibility will serve us well in this lifestyle.  And how the less you schlep with you, the better (too bad I can never seem to figure this part out. We love our stuff.)

We’ve accepted an offer on our Montpelier house!* And the inspection seems to have gone pretty well. Things are moving forward. We love this house where we started our family and where LI was born on a cozy, sunny January morning, next to the wood stove.  But it feels very good to see the house go to a couple who will love it as much as we do, and maybe start a family of their own. Here it is, looking so glowy and warm:

Saying Good-Bye:  We’ve had a lot of good-bye celebrations, dinners, outings, hugs.  Besides being particularly difficult for me, I’m also learning that saying good-bye = gaining a few pounds.  Also, I’ve always thought that everyone deserves to have one funeral while they’re still alive so they can hear all the ways they were important to others.  Well, leaving your community is kind of like that. A chance to share with your friends and for them to share with you appreciation and admiration. My family feels so supported and cherished.  I hope to use this space to express my gratitude in the near future.

Handy Tip for Moving with Kids:  We just ordered a great book for AJ (8 years old) to help her process and prepare for this move. It’s called  The Moving Book: A Kid’s Survival Guide. It’s a spiral-bound workbook with simple pages that cover topics such as getting the news that you’re moving, saying good-bye, making new friends, etc.  There’s a space for friends’ addresses, photo/drawing pages, and some tear-out change of address post cards.  It is perfect for AJ right now. She dug right in before bed. Here is how she responded to this prompt:

Things I’m excited about: Well ill be like the worlds best seven year old cartographer.  

I love that kid.

Oh, we ordered a book for LI, too. It’s called The Mission of Detective Mike: Moving Abroad – a story to help expat children understand the relocation process.  She has no interest in even taking a look at it so far. She said it has too many words.

A Bit of Winter Break Fun:  And finally, a photo from today’s trip to The Pump House, the new indoor water park at Jay Peak.  It was huge, noisy, and lots of fun.

On the twilight drive home, our beloved Vermont gifted us with the sight of a lady-moose on a snowy, woodsy hillside.  AJ saw her first. Our first moose sighting with only 11 days left. Have I mentioned enough just how much I love Vermont?

 

* Last summer we rented out our Montpelier house to a wonderful family and moved into Jim’s co-workers’ house in Shelburne (way closer to Jim’s work) while they worked in Africa.  We decided to sell our house before going overseas to simplify things.

Getting Ready

I make a promise to my readers (Hi, Mom.) to keep to a minimum writing about

1. Our to-do lists, which are extensive and overwhelming but probably not too surprising or interesting, and

2. The Logistics of Stuff involved in Foreign Service life, which are also extensive and potentially (OK, currently) overwhelming, and most certainly not interesting. (Plus, Mom, you get an earful every time we talk.)

These are the main things I am focused on most of the day: getting things done on the to-do list and figuring out what to get rid of, what to store, what to bring with us, what to ship…

I’ll post one photo related to Stuff. Inside the boxes are some empty or half-empty photo albums, loose photos (snapshots, the girsl and my school and team photos, newspaper clippings, greeting cards), the girls’ baby books (not even close to complete), and all my best intentions.

I am thinking of our time in the DC area as my time to get this business in order. Seems like a good use of that time. Experienced FS spouses may or may not be laughing at my notion that our time during Jim’s training will be like a relaxing expanse of leisure time. I’ll report on that soon enough.

*****

We’re also starting to say good bye.  Oh, this is the heavy stuff.  It hurts to see the slightest glimmer in the corner of my friend’s eye when discussing our fast-approaching departure date. I ache when it hits home that our little daughter’s buddy won’t be around for spontaneous, easy-going play dates where we’re headed. And I have no idea what I’ll do without my community of women who have witnessed the beginning and the growth of my family, and have been my constant support for 8 years.

Right now, I’m hoping to create a pattern for my family. A way of saying good-bye that gives everyone as much closure as possible given that I have a very large aversion to saying good-bye. I’m trying to come up with rituals we’ll be able to use every time we leave a place. Honestly, I’ve had help with this from some dear,thoughtful friends who have reached out and are making sure AJ and LI and I get plenty of love, ritual, and serious girl-time. How loved and fortified we’ll feel as we leave our home and our roots.

Here’s another way we’re dealing:  We’re having a big open-to-the-community good-bye fiesta for families next Sunday.  There will be Zumba (because I’m the one planning it, that’s why), an international pot luck,  and “multicultural” games and activities for the kids. By “multicultural” I mean that I’ve ordered some decorations from Oriental Trading Co. that popped up when I did searches on “travel” and “multicultural”.  It’s Vermont, so it doesn’t take much to be multicultural. It will be wonderful to have Jim and other dads be a part of this–a real send-off for our family as whole. And hopefully a rare moment for Jim to be the center of attention for his accomplishment.

Another way I’m dealing with good-bye:  It turns out that most of my friends have family and/or friends around DC. Several of them already have plans to travel there this summer and will be able to spend a day or more with us.  So I don’t have to say good-bye to them.  I just have to say, “See you in June! Love you, mwah!”  If you would like to learn the art of avoidance, just stick with me.

Amidst all the transition, we managed to get the girls on skis for the first time last weekend.  It just seemed important to make sure that, being born in Vermont and all, the girls gave skiing a try this year. It was a success, and I think AJ is rooting for a post in the Alps.

Yes.

Finally! This week, on Monday, Jim got official word that the March A-100 (Junior Foreign Service Officer training in Arlington, VA) was approved and that offers would be going out soon.

On Tuesday, he got his offer via email!

On Wednesday, he accepted.

On Thursday we firmed up our housing sitch at the Oakwood, a corporate housing complex where lots of Foreign Service (FS) families stay during training.  We arrive on March 9. That gives us about 6 weekends. We can do it.

AND, we concluded that we must sell the house we still own in our previous sweet, lovely town. Figured it’s best to take care of that business while we’re still in the States rather than wait a year or two and have to deal from afar.  This revelation may have elevated my relative stress quotient a tad. Possibly. I’ll post more about the sweet house later so you can tell your friends to buy it. Hey, interest rates are low.

We finally got the news we’ve been waiting and hoping for and working towards for a year. Are we excited? Hell yes! But mostly I want to go to sleep. So many emotions all at the same time. My heart and head pulled in many directions. Trying to maintain normal everyday life for the girls while thoroughly and mindfully preparing them for the change of their lifetime. Looking forward to cherry blossom season in the DC area (while mud season is just getting underway in VT), while dreading saying good-bye to my people. It just makes me sleepy for now.

Lots of people have asked me where we’re going to be posted. We will find out several weeks into A-100. At this moment, as far as we know, the whole world is open. It’s probably best to deal with one huge transition at a time.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Holidays Indeed

Boy did we have a fun and happy holiday season. Here are some highlights. They’re in reverse order (most recent on top).

We visited dear friends in New Jersey at their new house for New Year’s and the middle girls had some serious play time. AJ and A2 were inseparable, too. Perfect age harmony all around.

Apres lunch sleigh ride Jan. 1, 2012 with the A sisters

A1 and LI hauling a big stick at a sunny park on New Year's Day

LI and A1 Monkeys

 

We had the great pleasure of celebrating NYE with more friends from way back. It’s so cool when you reunite with college friends and they have a great kid who is a joy to be around and they prepare a scrumptious meal in a beautiful home.

Juice box cheers on NYE in NYC

 

The subway was one of the many highlights of our NYC day.

Girls on subway or Red stiletto man-boots

Sister-friends in Central Park

 

We saw Big Apple Circus on New Year’s Eve day. It was such a delight! The human feats were amazing, but the highlight for AJ was part of the animal segment: a capybara singing Dynamite. Like her mama, she’s a sucker for certain rodents. LI was a little exhausted and overwhelmed by the time we found our circus seats. But she came around and seemed to enjoy the show.

Lincoln Center

Pre-circus apprehension

 

Christmas morning…

New outfits from Aunt Lisa!

Santa's bounty

 

Caroling with friends in Shelburne

Christmas caroling!

 

AJ wanted to celebrate Hanukkah this year (candles and latkes, not 8 nights of gifts–that’s what Xmas is for in our house) so we got a festive menorah and lit it along with our Germany candle thingy on Winter Solstice, thus lighting all the lights.

 

We give our pre-schoolers a lot, so in return they delight us with their shiny cute innocence and sweet voices during the holiday sing-along at school. It’s an even exchange.

Nursery school holiday sing-along!

Here’s to a more adventures in 2012!

It’s happening (we think)

The answer to the Russian Question (see last post) is, apparently, Da.

It’s the week after Christmas so let me take a deep breath here. A little update about our general life:

The girls had a wonderful Christmas. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, they were on surprisingly agreeable “Santa behavior”. They seem to be getting along very well and are developing a deep friendship. A. is really shining as a helper and a teacher to younger kids. She loves setting a good example and is often admired by younger ones. Even her sassy little sister will do whatever  A. does or tells her to do. And L. will perform a full-out rendition of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” at your request (and probably even if you don’t request it.)

We got to spend a lovely Christmas Eve with friends, old and new. And it appears that Santa treated the girls well. He’s such a good guy.

I wrapped up teaching a Human Sexuality course at a local college and will miss it terribly. I hope I get to teach that course again, somewhere, in the future. I agreed to teach this thinking the college students would have a lot to teach me about certain aspects of that particular topic, but it turns out (and I think I can generalize to the greater college population) many students hadn’t given their sexuality and related responsibilities much thought. I think it was a pretty useful course for most. And I introduced ten students to the wonderful realities of home birth and the beautiful normality of breast feeding. Sneaky, sneaky.  Also, I did the Zumba Basic trainer certification this fall. I love it that much. I figured if we end up traveling to a country that doesn’t have Zumba, I could teach it, or at least have access to all the new routines and do them with my girls at home. So, technically, I’m a certified Zumba instructor. Still working on memorizing routines well enough to teach.

Now that I’ve typed this, I see that it reads like a Christmas card newsletter. There you have it.

Back to the the Question:  Jim took the Russian test for the Foreign Service a couple weeks ago. Remember, if he passed it would add some big pointage to his overall score and boost his position on the list? Well, he passed! (Yay Jim!) And he did get a big boost. So we’re just waiting to hear if a Mid-March training in DC is happening for sure, and to receive an official invitation. We’ve begun preparing the girls for this possibility.

This will be both girls’ second NEW school within the same school year. Stash that in my sack of parental guilt.

That’s the latest, and we’re hoping for more to share soon.

Now to ring in the New Year with dear friends and a circus. May 2012 be a year of fulfillment, good health and joy!

The Russian Question

Not much of significance to report on the Foreign Service front. The girls and I are nearly medically cleared, which I guess feels like some progress, but it really doesn’t impact when Jim will get The Call/Email.  As far as we know, no one has been invited to a mid-January training. Something about the federal budget something something…

Jim’s place on The List seemed OK at first, but we’re both feeling like it would be a good idea to boost his spot, if possible.  So this brings up the Russian question. We’ve known all along that he could test for and possibly gain more points for his Russian proficiency (and get higher on The List). The tradeoff is that we would be committing to completing 2 posts in Russian-language countries. We’ve loved our time in Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan (we’ve spent time in Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan) and there are several other FSU posts we’d feel fortunate to get. But we were hoping to go into this adventure with few limitations–I would love to be able to use my Spanish, and there are so many parts of the world to explore.

But here we are, asking the Russian question. And the answer is, Yes! Why not?  So Jim is brushing up and will take the phone test soonish. Wish him удача!