And now for something completely different

We're moving. It's somewhere far outside my comfort zone, but I'm ready for it. I love an adventure. I love learning to make a life in new places. That said, it's going to be hard to leave the Northwest. I fit here. It's where I've always known I belong. When I lived in Texas, I couldn't wait to get back here. And now I'm saying goodbye again.

No worries. I'm moving to what I have deemed "Jimmy Buffet-land". I don't like Jimmy Buffet, but I sure do like the laid back beach lifestyle he promotes and it seems like we're going to have that for at least three years. I'll look at it as an extended vacation. I'm already sad that at some point we'll have to leave. Oh well, such is life of the military family. We've got at least 2 more duty stations until retirement.

I'm starting to appreciate how significant the cultural differences are going to be. As a mother of five children, most of whom don't look like me, I appreciate that we are not your average All-American family. We currently live in an area where large families and transracial adoption aren't out of the ordinary. When we are out and about in the community we rarely get funny looks or comments. I'm realizing that's going to change soon.

Today I had to make doctor's appointments in Jimmy Buffet-land. It went like this:

Me: "I need to make new patient appointments for my kids."

Doctor's Office: "Great! How about 10:00am on the 13th?"

Me: "That's perfect. But I'll need five appointments. I assume you'll want to schedule us over two days."

Doctor's Office: "Why do you need five appointments? Do you have five kids?"

Me: "Yes."

Doctor's Office: "Oh my goodness! That's a lot of kids!"

I had a similar conversation with the school.

In Idaho, I have a small amount of children. I'm sort of a mothering weakling. I know several families with 8+ children. Five here is like the rest of the country's 2.5 children. In "Jimmy Buffet-land" I would imagine that having 5 kids, most of whom are black (and being a really pale white woman) is the equivalent of having like 12 kids here.

Yep, we're going to be stared at. And that's okay. My 9-year-old is dying to be spotted by a talent scout so this might be the opportunity he's been clamoring for.