Every great adventure has a beginning and an end. Our Nebraska adventure began when we were living in England. Derek came home one afternoon and announced that we had orders to Omaha, Nebraska. I responded with "Where is Omaha? You know...in relation to the rest of the planet." The second question was, "Whomever you have offended, could you apologize to them and get us out of this? Because, if we are being sent to Nebraska, clearly, you have done something terribly wrong".
Derek was a little surprised that I had been quite willing to follow him half way across the world to the Philippines, but had reservations about Nebraska.
It was just that it sounded so...Midwestern. I envisioned a flat, dry, treeless dustbowl. I was not wrong about a good portion of the state, but Omaha and Bellevue were a pleasant surprise. Who knew that Omaha is the home of Arbor Day? I discovered a lush green city rampant with trees and even with culture. There are beautiful museums, jazz festivals, shakespeare festivals, A list plays...It's a good place to be.
Since arriving here, we have put three kids through high school, seen them go to college, seen them marry and then seen them have children of their own. We own a beautiful home where I can sit in the back garden and watch deer, turkeys, possum, raccoons, butterflies, hummingbirds, other beautiful birds and yes, more than a few mosquitos.
We have made amazing lifelong friends here and built a wonderful life for ourselves. In short we have loved Nebraska and it has been a grand adventure, but now it is time to go.
We have a new adventure beginning in just a few weeks. This one is called, "The Adventures of Derek and Leni". We have raised our kids. We adore them and we adore our grandchildren, but now we are ready to make new and exciting (hopefully not TOO exciting) memories. There are two truly exciting components to this new adventure. The first is that, while we know we are leaving Nebraska, we have no idea where we are going! The second is that it will be just the two of us and every adventure is better with Derek beside me.
So, what does all this mean? Well...drum roll please...
Derek has accepted a position with the State Department, Foreign Service. What this means for the near future is that in two weeks we will be leaving for Washington D.C. for orientation into State Department Life, policies and procedures. Orientation will last until the end of September at which time (yes, AFTER giving up his current position and all illusions of security), we will find out what country we will be posted to. Derek will stay on in D.C. until February for additional training and I will come back to Nebraska to get our house ready to sell and see our kids and grandkids as much as humanly possible.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Foreign Service, we could be posted to any Embassy or Consulate in the world. Unfortunately, there is a small chance that Derek could be assigned an unaccompanied posting for a year, in which case our Nebraska friends haven't seen the last of me yet, but we are making it quite clear to them that I really am willing to go just about anywhere, so hopefully we will be going together:-)
Rest assured, we will let everyone know when we find out where we are going.
To all of you who have made our lives amazing here in Nebraska, we love you and thank you. And welcome you to come visit us where ever we end up.
You all have made Nebraska a truly grand adventure indeed!
