And so it begins!

Today is Monday, February 15, 2015.  After months of training, Derek is a diplomat. This Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 8:20 pm, we will be leaving Dulles International Airport to fly to Dhaka Bangladesh where we will begin a sure to be exciting new chapter in our lives. Can I just say that growing up in Bakersfield California, this is not an announcement I ever considered I would be making?

Our friends and family have been through this journey with us from the beginning and for that I thank you all. From the moment Derek received the first email inviting him to Washington D.C. for an interview until this moment, time has crept along at an agonizingly slow pace, each minute VERY slowly dissolving into the next, merging into hours, days, weeks and months as we have prepared for this move.

We have hit every possible obstacle from financial hardships ($8,000 for a new roof), to illness, to injuries. I should add a special thank you to my physical therapist, Cody, for keeping me in one piece for the past several months!

Derek’s preparation involved six months of intensive training with the State Department. Procedures, policies, programs, culminating in training for counter threat driving, hand to hand combat, weapons training, counter terrorism, hostage scenarios, operational first aid (good news, Derek can now mend your sucking chest wound and apply a special operations speed tourniquet) and he’s just in information management!

My contribution was to stay behind in Nebraska preparing our house for sale and getting our belongings ready for shipment. Climbing Mt. Everest would have been easier! I could go on…forever…it was a long arduous process and NOT exciting, so let’s skip through all that and move on to today.

Today we started the final sprint to the finish. What goes in our suitcases? What goes in our UAB (unaccompanied air baggage)? What gets left behind with our good friends the Spells. Did we forget the dog? How do you say “Where’s the bathroom” in Bangali? (I have not learned this phrase yet because apparently the word for bathroom is like 37 letters long and I can't pronounce it)!  Is Chumleigh’s health certificate in order? Sadly the answer to that one is NO! We have to get a new one tomorrow!

What can I tell you about where we’re going? It’s going to be amazing!!! I’ve already posted a lot of facts and figures. We will see and experience things we never have. I will take pictures! Lots of them! I can also tell you that political tension has escalated since we initially received our assignment. Hartal (“peaceful” strikes) are being held weekly. There have been some incidents; molotov cocktails and IED’s. The current situation is that we cannot travel through the city outside the diplomatic enclave, and within the enclave we can only travel in vehicles with the windows rolled up. No walking, bicycles, rickshaws (yes, really) or public transportation. When we arrive at the airport, we will be transported in an armored vehicle to the enclave. Will you be mad if I say I’m kind of excited?? Our hopes are that the current tensions will resolve soon.

And so it begins. From this point on, this blog will be about our lives with the State Department and all the trouble we get into (strike that…all the experiences we will have) when Derek isn’t at work! For the next two years we will be assigned to Dhaka but our travels will take us to other places as well. I could explode with the anticipation!