I am still alive.

Despite a complete disappearance from the blogosphere, I am still very much alive and kicking. I let the summer get the best of me-- lakes, beaches, single-parenthood (largely), and family drama all made me feel like I couldn't get my head far enough above water to get to my laptop for 10 minutes. I have also been thinking a lot about my new (and forthcoming) blog, which I intend to be a much more professional and less personal type of blog covering what I hope will be my overseas career as a culinary observer. Details on that to follow later.

In the meantime, I have been thinking a lot about our journey to Belgium. The tickets are reserved, the dogs have their place as very special luggage on our plane, we have a good idea of what we'd like to bring as our HHE. It's all coming together and yet, here we are, in purgatory, waiting and waiting and waiting. Personally, I am ready to get there and get the next two years of our lives underway. While it's true that we have an abundance of great activities lined up here in Falls Church-- music, art and yoga, I am anxious to get Adela into La Farandoline, the french-speaking, co-op style preschool we're hoping will be her first formal place of education. I'm chomping at the bit to explore our new city and hopefully, find some form of daycare for Flora, so that I can begin looking for work as a cook. There's a lot to do that can't be done until we get there, so let's get there already! Here's to hoping that Stef's gift for languages proves itself and he passes his test with flying colors.

The waiting might not be so bad if we knew what type of house/apartment is waiting for us (because truthfully, that's the thing I'm most anxious about). But, despite all reports that the housing people in Brussels are the most attentive, we've heard nothing for weeks from them. I guess this is par for the course, but it's our first time, so we have no idea what to expect. There is so much variety, it seems, in the pool in Brussels, that we could end up in an apartment downtown (please, please, please) just blocks away from the embassy or all the way out in the 'burbs with no metro station for miles and miles. I just want to KNOW so I can both get emotionally prepared and practically prepared by locating the appropriate schools and figuring out of our new minivan will fit anywhere near our home.

Alas, these cycles of anticipation are just another aspect of our life in the Foreign Service, but as a sometimes blogger, I feel like I need big, momentous changes to write about to keep things interesting and for now, it's just a lot of waiting and preparing.