Spouses' Orientation, Bid List and Tragedy Abroad

On the shuttle to the Foreign Service Institute with R yesterday, as I was checking twitter, I started to see some of the reports of the attacks on the consulate in Benghazi & anti-American protests in Cairo.  As my spouses' orientation class started the coordinators acknowledged that the Ambassador to Libya & 3 other diplomats gave their lives in the attacks, but not much was really said about the situation.  Not sure if it was just too early to really talk about it or if they didn't want to unsettle us even more as we were a group of newbie foreign service spouses. It was obvious throughout the presentations of the day that different officers personally knew those involved and were impacted by this tragedy.

We went throughout the day learning about life as an eligible family member in the foreign service- everything from how to think about different posts on our bid list to medical services to ways that the FS helps provide support in this strange but exciting lifestyle.  

At the end of the day we walked out with our bid list- 93 jobs at posts literally around the world at consulates & embassies.  We will be assigned to one of them.  There were several things that surprised me about the list, but it was helpful to at least narrow down the possibilities and see what's really before us.  We will find out in a month (October 12th!) where we'll be posted first.  

R and I decided to get out for dinner and a beer to discuss the posts which was a great idea.  He found a Sichuan restaurant less than a mile from our apartment that imports its la jiao & hua jiao (amazing chinese spices that distinctly make a dish Sichuan) straight from ChengDu.  R also got to practice his Chinese (Mandarin & Sichuan dialect) with some native speakers before his extensive language exam this morning.  One Chinese diner told him that he had only met one other foreigner (non-chinese that is) that spoke so well- not a bad boost to your confidence the night before an exam.  

My favorite thing about the restaurant other than the food and incredible owners was that they named it "Hong Kong Palace."  Hong Kong is no where near Sichuan and the food there is TOTALLY different, but if you read Chinese characters you discover that they posted ChengDu twice on the storefront. It was like an insider clue that a few in bustling Falls Church would pick up on.  R also discovered they will deliver to our apartment so that may become a staple in our diet during this stint in DC.  

neon sign in the window reads "成都小馆“ or chengdu bistro

We went over to the Dogfish Head alehouse (in the same plaza as Hong Kong Palace- score!) to grab a beer and talk through our bid list.  We had a few locations that just stood out- OF COURSE we'd want to go there.  We had a few that we liked but aren't really sure how the timing would work out (your list specifies the city, what cone the job is in, what language and level of fluency you need, and when they need some one there; the time table ranges from NOW to sept 2013).  We will definitely rule out all of the unaccompanied tours (where R would go abroad but I would stay in the US due to security issues).  And then there are just a ton that we don't know much about.  We know where they are but don't have a clue as to what working/living within the expat community there would look like.  So research awaits...

We have a little less than 2 weeks to work through the bid list and rank each position high, medium or low and then it's up to R's Career Development Officer (who we meet with next week) to figure out where we'll go. 

We came home after our bid list date and heard more about what was going on in the middle east.  I just can't imagine what those in the local diplomatic communities abroad and their family members are going through.  Honestly I have to keep myself from trying to imagine it especially in the midst of this bidding process with our post up in the air. I keep replaying one of Secretary Clinton's remarks from yesterday:

"Today, many Americans are asking - indeed, I asked myself- how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be."

Confounding indeed.  From the asinine film that sparked the outrage to the senseless violence, it all challenges me to press into the fact that this is truly what the Lord has called our family to for this season.  He is always calling us to trust Him further and exercising that faith can be hard, but he is worthy of my trust and he has specific purposes for R and me.  I do want to be clear- I don't mean that we are out of the grasp of future tragedy of this type or any other.  I mean that even if something of this magnitude should be a part of our story, the Lord would use it for his good in ways I can't dream.

Suddenly the month until flag day seems like an eternity.  Twenty-nine days and counting.