I was talking to Josh this past month about how much this lifestyle of perpetually moving takes out of me/us. At least 6 months before we go we begin to feel unsettled and wonder where we’ll be sent next, then we experience the financial and emotional costs associated with moving, and finally it takes a solid 18 months before a place feels like “home,” and guess what? Now we’re back in the 6 months pre-move and preoccupied with our next set of orders . . .
We’re no closer to finding out where we’ll be sent next — in fact, we’re further away than before because what was looking like Tampa is now probably/possibly not Tampa and includes any number of locations that are NotGermany. And NotEurope.
So we started kicking around the idea of staying here. We’re feeling more at home here, I don’t get turned around when I go to the store anymore, it would save us money (it’s a huge expense every time we move), even though it’s not Europe, we can travel to Europe easily from here, desert life creates great community, and sometimes the enemy you know is more appealing than the one you don’t.
It’s not up to us, of course, but after conferencing with the kids we decided to put Bahrain at the top of the list of places we’d like to go (along with CA, FL and Okinawa Japan) and see what pans out. If we don’t stay here it will be very clear that our orders were written by God himself since volunteers to come here are few and far between and since we already live here it would save the government a bunch of money. Though as we’ve experienced firsthand, the logical choice is often not the military way . . .
We’re hoping that in two years we will be far enough removed from all these cutbacks that some of the more interesting jobs that would take advantage of Josh’s Arabic skills will pop back up and we’ll be in the perfect place to jump on one. For now I hope you’re enjoying this roller coaster ride with us!