We're Not Moving to Bahrain

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You're not moving there either? You've never even considered moving there? 

We hadn't either.

We hadn't until my husband got offered a job on NSA Bahrain, in the island kingdom of Bahrain. 

They gave us three days to decide. Even with the extension that made it a week to decide, we had some serious thinking to do, questions to ask,  conversations to have, and phone calls to make. 

Ultimately we decided that it wasn't the right adventure for us, but probably not for the reasons you'd think.

It was a very interesting exercise to consider moving half way around the world on a moment's notice. We thought about what would be a challenge (our house) what would be easy (things inside the house), what would work well (the ages of our girls, our current detachment from our location), what would be a struggle (traveling to and from), and all the other pros and cons. 

As far as westerners living in the middle east goes, we would be safe, and well cared for. Our housing allowance alone would have been several times the amount of our mortgage here and with a large ex-pat community as well as the naval base nearby, we would have had an easy time finding people who share our language and culture.

What was a surprise is that travel from there would hardly have been cheaper than from our home here in the states, with the exception of the indochinese countries nearby. The other surprise is that our finances would have been tighter than at home. 

Even though we decided to wait for another adventure, it was fascinating (and stressful) to see where in our life holds us back, and just how much of our life we could pack up and move for the right adventure. 

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