One year as a former ex-pat

I'm posting this photo of me snowboarding to show you just what a change my life is now from a year ago. Dramatically different life.

Now that I'm 'home' (whatever that means at this point), I find that I seriously miss international travel. I miss the excitement of it. I miss meeting so many different people. I miss the cultural encounters. Life here at 'home' seems so quiet and well, boring.

Unlike while we were living as ex-pats, money for travel is harder to come by. We are hoping to go visit family who live across the country this Spring, but the plane tickets are over $400 per person. That gets pricey when we have to buy four of them.

I still find that I am drawn to the news coming out of the 'Middle East'. I am so deeply saddened by the level of conflict. I think of my Lebanese girlfriends, fellow coffee drinking moms, and how we would sit around the lobby of the private school our children attended talking about everything and anything. When I see the news coming out of Lebanon about bombings and death, for me these news stories are not about random foreign countries. These are stories that bring up memories of listening to moms chat happily about family births, holiday breaks, paying for university, and great places to drink coffee of course. I don't read these news stories and just go, "Sad." I picture how these stories are affecting my friends. It can be a deeply painful experience. I can't imagine what my friends' families are going through.

It is the same seeing news coming out of Syria. Just before we re-patriated, I had a conversation with the mom of one of Munchkin #2's classmates. This particular mom was Syrian by birth but held a US passport. She was crying because she was unable to get her parents out of Syria.

Now....I am back 'home'.  Today Munchkin #1 is at a school activity, Munchkin #2 is cleaning out her desk and her hamster cages, and the Husband finished organizing our music room. I wanted the music room 'finished' before his side of family comes in a few weeks for a visit. We are planning our spring vacation (we finished the budget for the year) to visit family on the Pacific coast. Life is 'normal'.

There are days that I can't read anything, happy or sad, out of Dubai or anywhere in the vicinity. It's too bitter sweet. I miss our friends there so much, I miss the adventure, and of course I deeply miss our place of prayer there. But, we've built a 'new' life here, and I'm even working again.

I am deeply thankful for our experiences in Dubai. They have changed all of us forever and, I think, for the better.

Peace.