After a few (okay, many) weeks of uncertainty, we are able to officially announce that...
As my dad quickly pointed out, "That's not in the US." No, we are not moving back to the United States as we thought that we would. It seems fitting that the first move to China was a complete surprise to us and so when Jamie was approached about a position in Xi'An we were equally surprised.
Xi'An is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors. So, if you've been waiting for one more excuse to come visit us, I think you've just found it. From what we have learned, it seems that Xi'An is a larger city than Suzhou, but the expatriate population is 1/2-2/3 smaller. I think I will be saying goodbye to some of my favorite creature comforts in Suzhou!
Over the next month we hope to visit Xi'An and find our next apartment/home, decide on a school, pack up our Suzhou apartment, finish the school year at Dulwich, say goodbye to our Suzhou friends and then unpack a few boxes in Xi'An. The tentative plan is for me to be in the US with our girls for the month of July. We'll see how that pans out!
Emotionally, everyone seems to be doing pretty well. It was a shock to us all because we honestly believed that there was a strong chance we would end up back in the US. However, at one point Jamie was looking at positions in 3 continents, so we knew that nothing was a given.
The morning we revealed our next city to our girls, we toasted daddy and his next job with sparkling juice.
We put out our miniature Terracotta soldiers as a clue to where we were headed next.
I guess that means the overseas adventure continues and maybe this blog too.
