…and it’s here

The bid list, that is. We finally got it on Tuesday afternoon of this week. Which means there have been many deep conversations and a general lack of sleep in our house for the past two nights. It’s going to be a long two months until bids are due.

The big question right now is: Washington or Overseas? That’s right, for the first time (realistically) we could be posted back in the U.S. While coming back to Washington does have a certain appeal (Target! Whole Foods! Walking around the neighborhood without fear of being mauled by a street dog!), there are other big things to take into consideration. Like where would we live – being overseas has the major bonus of not only not having to find your own place to live, but also not having to pay for it. Pretty tough to beat that. Also, even if we find a place to live that we can afford, we don’t own any furniture. Yeah, that’s going to be quite an expense. A big part of the reason I took a job here is so that we could start a savings account exclusively for house or rental payments back in the U.S., if we were posted there. In theory, we should be prepared for this expense. In reality, how is anyone ever prepared for such a large expense when you haven’t been dealing with it for several years?

Setting aside the first question, here comes the next big one: If overseas, where? Right now we’re focusing on Europe (eastern for the most part) and Africa. But Europe versus Africa is a pretty difficult decision as well. How can you possibly compare the two?

I spent all day yesterday researching our Europe options. Unfortunately, by the end of the day they had all kind of blurred together. We have lots of friends who have served in a lot of these places, so we’re putting out requests for personal input at this point. And Shawn’s working on his resume — I don’t envy him for that. Of course, if we end up in Washington, I’m going to be working on mine soon enough.