There's nothing like announcing you're moving back to the States to initiate important discussions at work. Discussions that would have best been done before said announcement because now I look like an idiot or someone who has no clue what they're doing. Um, well, probably true on both counts, but that's not worth writing about.
The summary of the work discussions was essentially, "Would you consider staying a bit longer for reason blah, blah, and blah?" and then "Okay, I'll think about it." The next thing I know I'm staring at this fork in the road. I'd already decided which fork I was taking (agonizingly, I might add) so why was I even rethinking it? Suddenly the no clue what I'm doing thing comes to mind, but I did just say I wasn't going to write about that.
After much prayer, debate, and a few accommodations from work to make it doable, we came to a new conclusion. Eric will still be repatriating in late May, but I'll be staying at least another year or so to continue working here. Trying to explain the rationale behind all this both spiritually and logically would be about as interesting to you as watching paint dry, I'm sure. I'll skip it for your mental health, but it has been quite a journey for us.
We have no idea how this living apart thing is going to work, but we're going to give it a shot by more visits in both directions and for me, increasing my visit time in Seattle by adding a couple weeks of work to the vacation time. It will always be too short, but Skype, FaceTime, etc. will just have to fill in the gaps.
For now, we'll enjoy this last month together. Ethan will be visiting for a few weeks of that time and we're so looking forward to seeing him and having some good times together. Can't wait to go critter hunting; maybe we'll find something I haven't seen yet. Oh boy, good times a' coming! That's awesome, because I don't want to think about what's after that yet.
