I have to say that my children--so far--are coping very well with yet another move to the far reaches of the Earth. In fact, they're excited. As it stands, we have less than sixty days until wheels up, and my boys are absolutely stoked about it. They knew our time here in Virginia was going to be short; so I think they've all but foregone making many long-lasting friendships (with a few exceptions of course) out of a sense of self-preservation. While I do realize that sounds a bit brutal, it is a natural reaction to a short-term situation such as ours.
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| A family hike at Harper's Ferry |
As parents, my husband and I deal with a lot of guilt when it comes to our children. We uproot them from their entire lives every two to three years. We leave behind friends, schools, homes, and jobs to serve our country. We left our families behind a decade ago; so I guess that, at least, has gotten a bit less difficult. And while it's easy, as adults, to reinvent ourselves every so often, it takes a toll on our sons. Well, actually, technically, it SHOULD take a toll on our children. But, honestly, so far, it has not been that bad for them. Our oldest son is like me in the sense that he doesn't truly connect with other people easily; however, when he finally does, he's loyal to the end. My youngest son is so enamored with his brother that his need for outside friendships is, at times, non-existent. That said, he recently told us that he's resisted making friends while living here in Virginia because he knew we were moving so soon. He's decided that he's going to put heart and soul into the search for his tribe once we arrive in Budapest in July. And, oh, how soon that's going to be!!!
Yes, we feel a lot of guilt when it comes to our children. We're not only taking them away from their (temporary) home, school, and friends. We're taking them away from our great nation. To be such a patriotic family, we haven't really lived in the United States much since we joined the Foreign Service. Now, don't get me wrong, that is the point of being in the FOREIGN Service. We aren't supposed to live here all the time.
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| Yoga poses on the National Mall |
You know, it's strange teaching our children about America and how great a nation we are, because they don't grow up in the same way normal American children do. For instance, they do not say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at their international school. That said, they also don't say their host nation's pledge either. And they don't hear the National Anthem before every game their school team plays. My boys don't get to experience yummy fast food, Target's weekly sales, and two-day Amazon Prime packages when they're overseas. Rather, we eat locally-sourced food, we shop in stores that don't even carry our sizes, and we wait months for our packages to finally arrive overseas. We have to order our Christmas gifts in October, our Halloween costumes when school starts, and our Easter candy in February if we have any hope of getting it in time for the actual holiday. And my boys have embraced all of that like the champions they are.
No, they don't have it easy. But they have so much more than so many people: they have life experiences that people five times their age haven't even dreamt of. So while we feel interminable guilt about the things our boys miss by not living in the United States, we feel immense pride at all we've been able to expose them to at such young ages.
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| Duck gazing at the Reflecting Pool |
The days we have left in the United States are winding down, and the guilt is gearing up. We've been trying to give our children "American kid" experiences on the regular. We eat at greasy restaurants, we go on hikes in the local parks, and we play in the grass on the National Mall. We talk politics and all that entails. We talk about the freedoms we have that some other countries don't and what that can mean for the citizens of those countries (for instance, the right to protest). We go to museums. We go to the movies. We talk about the ease of Internet shopping and same-day delivery. But those are only band-aids.
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| Contemplating Lichtenstein at the National Gallery |
The move will be a major upheaval for all
of us. And that's OK. That is what we do. We do this so we can serve our great nation and all of you. And we hope, every day, that it will be worth it. So far, it is.
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| The Washington Monument at sunset |
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