Western Hemisphere, Here We Come (Back)!

After two successful, adventure filled years in Viet Nam, Steven and I are planning to pack our bags and head back west this summer. We've both been offered positions at an international school in San Pedro Sula, Honduras for the 2010 - 2011 school year. I say "we," because in order to make the move, we will both need to work to support our family; not that the cost of living in Honduras is high - quite the opposite - but because as Americans educated in America, we both have student loan debt that needs to be paid off every month and adds quite a bit to our living expenses.


Given the daily reminder that my ever growing belly will soon be a new little member of our family who will need lots of constant love and attention, this wasn't a decision made lightly. Finally after much deliberation and assurance from the school that they would help us find a nanny and reassurance from family and friends that having a nanny wasn't going to scar our child for life, we decided that the intangibles - a 2 hour and 15 minute flight from Miami (and a short hop from there to see our family and friends), an hour and a half from the Caribbean Sea, the chance for new adventures, almost unlimited opportunities to experience nature practically in our backyards, the fact that one of the national dishes is beans and queso with tortilla chips, and the fact that my 10+ year goal of learning to speak Spanish fluently might actually be realized, as well as my dream for our children to grow up bi-lingual - not to mention that the jobs will help us to gain more experience and further our respective careers - made it worth the sacrifices.

So sometime in late June or early July of this year, we'll be packing up our household (and our new baby daughter) and flying back to the US for a much anticipated tour of families before reporting for work in Honduras on August 2. When I asked a close friend of mine if she thought I was insane for accepting a job that I'm not quite sure exactly what I'll be doing, in a country I've never been in, with a three month old baby, she said, "No, I think you're brave." There's nothing like supportive friends!