You moved to China?

Yep, that’s right. In case you missed our announcement a year ago (late May 2017), we moved our homeschooling family of five from central Virginia to Beijing, China. Here we are a year later and finally sharing as much as we can before names of people and places here fade into the sepia tones of our memory.

Didn’t you used to live in China a really, really long time ago?

Why yes, twenty-two years ago to be exact. Just Scott and I – pre-kids. A year into our marriage, we were eager to share a global experience and get to know some far off people in our human family. We looked into teaching English in Japan and China and decided on China. We embarked on a year working in one of China’s first international schools in the rice-paddy laden outskirts of Huizhou, Guangdong, as well as traveling whenever we had a break. Pre-cell phones and email (at least in our part of China), it was an amazing introduction to the Middle Kingdom.

That year etched a mark in our hearts and stuck with us as we returned to the US for graduate school and careers in international education, writing and film, non-profit and university administration, entrepreneurship and more. And starting a family.

So why move to China (again)?

Well, why move anywhere? Most people follow a job, love, or dream when moving. We followed a bit of all of that, I guess. A job lead in Beijing through an old friend turned to a job offer. Our love of all the world drew us to seek living abroad with our family to give our children a global perspective. A dream we first articulated in the mid-1990s after our year in China, a dream to eventually return one day with our future children, would not leave us alone. (We actually tried to return to China to work after graduate school, but found work in education there was not sufficient to pay off grad school loans. My final grad school loan will be paid in two months!)

Why not Ecuador or Madagascar? I can so picture you guys in a nature-rich part of the world.

Yep, us too. But China was high on our list too because we feel that anyone who wants to understand and be of service to our world would do well to have a grasp on the major cultures/peoples of the world. Exposure to Chinese language means a portal into 1/6 of the world’s population. We have blood or experiential ties, either directly or indirectly, to most other regions of the world, so our kids have easier exposure to those cultures.

The year before our family moved to China, after looking into options in China for a while, we had come to the conclusion that a good opportunity to live in China would not likely develop for us, but we could at least try to travel there one day with the kids. So, in consultation with our children, we had started learning Mandarin Chinese in our homeschool language studies. So glad we did that!

Was it easy to just uproot your family and move to the other side of the globe?

No, it was not an easy decision. There were many difficult factors that came into play as we considered whether or not to make the big leap. In spite of all the risks and terrible timing, we asked the Universe to please guide us in our decision. Ultimately it felt like the Universe wanted it to be, so we proceeded.

 

 

 

 

Did your kids love moving to China?

Honestly, no. Not at first, as is typical for most expat kids. Even a few weeks ago, when brainstorming blog names, one of the kids suggested “Don’t Move to China.” Two of them voted for that as their top picks. They thought it would be funny. While this year has been epic, it has not always been easy. To be fair, it was a huge shift for them to go from homeschooling to schooling at a large Chinese private bilingual international school. The year has been full of tests and therefore growth opportunities. The kids will never be the same, never take certain people, places, things, smells, tastes, concepts, or ways of thinking or being for granted in the same way.

Our boys also openly admit they will miss a lot about this year when it ends tomorrow. In fact, they don’t want everything about our life here to end. The boys went to sleep on their last night in China with hearts heavy from having to say goodbye. They now know what it feels like to call two sides of the earth their home, to feel sad about not knowing when or if they might cross paths with their new friends again, or if they might ever return to China. Deep in their bones, they now know that the world is their home and it’s much smaller than they realized a couple years ago.

 

 

 

What camera did you use?

Mostly my iPhone 6Plus and my husband’s iPhone 6 (when my storage was full mid-outing). On some outings I also used a Nikon D3100.

Can I comment here?

Yes, that’d be great. But please let’s keep comments friendly and loving. After all, this is a place where ultimately I hope we can grow our capacity to “love all the world.”