Deciding To Leave

I don't feel like "deciding" to leave was ever really a decision; it was just going to happen eventually.  I met "the one" at a bar one night.  I sat down next to him, and we started to talk.  I asked him what he did; and when he told me, I asked him what the hell a "business analyst" does (which I still don't understand).  He told me that he had no idea but that he had bigger plans for the future.  He told me about the Foreign Service.

 I'll explain what a diplomat does for those of you who have no idea.  The Foreign Service is the part of the U.S. State Department that works overseas.  These people are specially vetted to promote U.S. policies abroad.  They're taught every language you can think of (usually 2-3 per person over a career) and specially trained in specific areas of diplomacy.  These people pick up their lives and move every two to three years to a different country--sometimes across the world--to serve our country.  Our U.S. diplomats go in to prevent the wars.  It's a pretty amazing job and an incredible opportunity.  But it comes at a price a lot of the time.

Say you're in Brazil on vacation and your passport gets stolen.  What do you do?  You're stuck in Brazil without that little bitty book with the pretty visas and stamps in it.  Well, when you go to the local U.S. Embassy or Consulate, the people that help you there are Foreign Service officers.  Or another example would be--for those of you who know international students--those students had to apply for a U.S. visa at a consulate or embassy somewhere in the world.  And the people who interviewed them?  Yep! They were FS officers too.  There are lots of different types of Foreign Service officers: some work in Consular (visas), economics, political section, public affairs, etc.

So when my (future) hubby explained to me what the Foreign Service was and what he wanted to do, my response was--and still is--"That is my dream life."  So, not to gloat, but I am living my dreams.  I found the guy who was perfect for me and luckily that came with the life I have always wanted to lead.  We got married just five months later.  I was having contractions with our first son during our pack out for Washington, D.C.  He left for Washington just ten days after the baby was born, and we followed two weeks after that.  Our life has been a non-stop whirlwind since we met, and there are times that we can barely hang on.  We still look at each other and say, "Can you believe we get to do this for a living?"

But, like I said, it comes with a price.  We rarely see our families anymore.   There aren't many friends left. It's just us and the kids, taking on the world.  We've seen hungry children on the street, true poverty that those depressing, late-night commercials can't compete with.  But, in contrast, we've seen the look in children's eyes when they got an actual gift from "Santa" that they wouldn't have received otherwise.  Life, so far, is just a trade off: good and bad.