Embarrassing Addendum

Setting: Overstuffed chairs in any Starbucks, late evening
Scene: Ashley and Lynne, hands around steaming mugs of coffee, discussing the challenges of balancing motherhood and life.

Ashley: Well, sure you're feeling overwhelmed. You're moving to China!

Lynne: Yeah, I guess.

Ashley: Not very many people do that. And with two young kids! That's overwhelming for anybody.

Lynne: But its not the China part that's overwhelming. Going to China for two years is nothing but exciting - I mean, we've got an all-expenses-paid 2-year vacation. How could I not be excited about that?

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but the overwhelming part is the move. The move and the various doctor appointments. Here's the root of the problem. I'm an expert and an outsourcer. Whatever the task may be, either I do the job perfectly or I outsource it to someone I can hold to the perfectionist standard. I'm no medical expert, so I take my kids' to a pediatrician. I trust that pediatrician entirely - if he says feed 'em oatmeal, I say how much. But there are so many decisions to make right now. And I'm no more an expert on international shipping than on pediatric esophogal abnormalities.

Yet, I'm the decision maker in both fields.

But China I can handle. Finding a home in a neighborhood entirely different from my own; socializing my children with kids from multiple other cultures; exploring new grocery stores - both the import stores and the local markets; figuring out how to communicate with precious few words of Mandarin; recreating the parts of home I value and discovering the many aspects of a new life. For this... For moving to China... I can't wait.

Actually, Maybe I'm more proud than embarrassed.