What the Heck?? Why Indonesia?

When I told some friends back in Washington, D.C. that we were moving to Indonesia, or when some friends subsequently found out that we are living in Jakarta now, some people gave me a distinct kind of reaction and expression on their face which can only be described as:

"What the heck? Why Indonesia??"

Well, by means of background, let me explain.

Truth is, Darren and I have been talking about living abroad ever since we got married. No, scratch that, we actually started talking about living abroad on our very first date when we morphed from being just friends for eight years, into dating each other. On that very first date as a "couple," we sat and ate sushi (coincidentally Asian) at Spices restaurant in D.C. and talked about our shared love of travel. During that conversation, we each revealed to one another that some day we hoped to live abroad. It was a kind of curious epiphanic moment that made us separately realize, "hummm, maybe this person really is MEANT for me."

As many people know, Darren and I have always loved travel and we thought living abroad would be a great adventure for us as a couple, and as a family. I lived in Tokyo during law school and always heralded that experience as an amazing, eye-opening, and life changing experience. Darren too loved traveling, and was excited (or at least interested in) the idea of living in another country.

When the kids were very young though, they were not very good travelers, and it seemed like too daunting a challenge. Finally, with Logan 7 and Natasha 5, starting to become a little more independent and better at traveling, we finally felt they were at the perfect age for us to live abroad. They were old enough to get something out of the experience and be excited about it, yet young enough that they'd still like to be WITH us (rather than with their friends) for much of the adventure along the way. So, once the timing seemed right, Darren started looking for overseas job opportunities within the World Bank. We considered opportunities in Central and South America, but many of the developing countries where Darren could possibly work, were far too dangerous for our comfort level. Then, this opportunity came up in Indonesia. And, since we both have experience with and an affinity for Asian culture . . . . it was a no-brainer. I took a leap of faith in order to do this move, and quit my fabulous job working for Congress on Capitol Hill. However, we will be here for several years and soon I hope to find a job using my legal and/or HR advisory skills to work for an organization here.

So that, I hope, answers the question of why we are here.