i don't know if i should congratulate you for moving to a warmer country or feeling sorry that you keep on moving elsewhere, mbak :))

anyway, good luck with everything, hopefully you and especially the children could adapt well to the new country

Cool! Welcome to Australia! Where abouts in Australia will you and your family be based? I'd give anything for a nomadic existence like yours!

Nope I think we'll stay put in Adelaide for a while, my husband has a family business to attend to here.

So which Australian city will you and your family reside in?

c'est la vie indeed. I can barely keep up with where I am myself from one month to another so when every email from a friends starts with, "So where are you now?" I can't be too surprised.

que sera sera... whatever wil be, will be...
like your attitude. going up and down in a roller coaster is good to exercise your heart :p

All of you simply are explorers with the virtues which go with it: curious, open minded, adventurous, courageous, enterprising and a lot more...

I think it's a pity you leave Europe so soon. But I'm sure you will grasp the opportunity to teach your children to talk English with the proper Australian accent real soon.

(And maybe you will stay on the move and return one day to where you started from)

colson

Wow San...don't know what to say. But I'm sure whatever decision you and your family make, it will be for the best...and you will handle everything nicely...:):) Good luck ! Remember to give me your australia's address since I'd loveee to visit Australia sometimes in the future...:):):)

I, too, have been living on a roller-coaster. Life taught me that we're not always on the top.

And leaving a country we just learned to love, that's painful :(

Good luck on moving!

Congrats San! Aussie...great....can't wait to hear your family's life sto next...beside, every changes bear a dillema:)Hani Louisville

are you going to continue to have your children learn german after you move?

oh gosh... I remember the days when I was facing such situations all the time. Some days I was so tired of all the moving around or the promise of having to once again move around and all the potential future havoc that could happen again in my life that I really and seriously wish I didn't have to wake up the next day.
But at the same time...I've been back for a while in the country of my choice and upbringing a while now .. and I've gone through all kinds of stuff being back: reverse culture schock, boredom and stagnation. Depression and dissappointment. Now i'm finally sort of adjusted back to'home' as it were but home it is not. And part of me has still remained a wanderer, while still, at any prospect of change, leaping back scared and tired. With the words "not this again" going through my head. And yet the next moment it's all changed and I'm going
" Why did I just DO that?"
Sometimes I think that going through too many changes makes you incapable of having a healthy relationship with change later on.
I remember myself when life was simpler. I hated change but I also saw it as more of an adventure than I do now. When I didn't know what words like "beaurocracy" , 'homesickness''displacement' and yep, even 'culture clash' meant.
And yet reading this part of me still wishes I had this kind of life.
One thing i would say here though is : seriously, think of your kid.
Adults can cope with this sort of thing but... how is your child going to cope with all the mix of school and social systems,loss of familiar spaces, faces, languages, even ( for when you move abroad the new language you learn pushes out the old ones still) and more importantly, loss of security and break-down of friendship?

I think, no matter what it gave me, I will always resent - no- hate. My parents for having uprooted me aged 16 to Germany.
It's made me volatile, made it hard for me to build my life, settle down anywhere. It's meant an aful lot of pointless separation from places and people I've loved.

Sure, this kind of thing is a personal choice. If you choose it, that's fine. If your husband chooses it, that's fine.

But it was my step-father's fault that we didn't stay in England when
we could have. He too, wanted to chase his 'carreer'.

And then, three years ago he dumped us abroad, with no support.
Because he wanted to pursue a new career opportunity ( and even love)in China.

Now i know. It's only some male incapacity to secure family life that uproots that family life. No matter how adventurous the woman might be. We are homemakers. We weep each time we lose a home.
Men don't.

But we have to think of our children, their psychological well-being.

Because men will never take the time out of their lives to do so.

If I had a husband like yours, I'd tell him to go chasing exotic dreams with someone else. Not to stake other's lives on his adventures.

Sorry. Just my opinion.

But it sounds like it's about time your husband grew up a little but and realised, he's already got a job, he's got a family he manages to support, he's even got a nice country to live in. Everything else is just selfish greed.

Argh. you know what - you're right. Ignore me.

I'm sorry if I sounded like I was mouthing off about you or your husband.

Tomorrow I'll probably back here going "ooh this all sounds so cool" anyway.

Just because it didn't work for me it doesn't mean it can't work for other people. Wish you all the best! Especially that you stay all together.. unlike my family did..