Daegu South Korea

I know many of you have already heard, Jeff was offered a job through the Lee Academy in Lincoln to teach in Daegu(Taegu) South Korea for the next year. I will admit when he first came home and told me, I never actually though it would happen. In order for him to accept this job he would first have to be told that his current job, that we both love, would be getting cut. We have been put on tiptoes every year since he started teaching French at the high school so this latest talk of a pink slip came as no surprise. However every year things worked out for the best and he was guaranteed a job for another year. We found out last night this would not be the case. The school bored told him that he will earthier be cut down to half time, that includes half pay, or his job would be lost altogether due to the budget cuts. To my shock it looks like Daegu might be our only option for keeping our house. It is strange to think that we have to move around the world to pay our mortgage her in the US. It really makes me appreciate everything that we have had while living here.
I don't want people to think that I am naive about what we are about to do. I have painstakingly written ever possibility out on paper many times. The risks, my fears, how this will change not only our lives but more importantly Tyson's. We are about to take him away from everything he knows, everyone he loves and move him around the world. I keep telling myself that we can not do this to him, that he will miss his family, his friends, his home too much. That his doctors are hear, if he needs new or different medication for his headaches, it is an hours ride to his neurologist. That if he or any of us gets sick will we get the same treatment that we would here and how will we get insurance to cover any unexpected medical bills while there. Will he be able to adjust to eating new food, drinking different water, breathing different air. Will he be scared not having everyone look just like him, speak the same language or wearing the same clothes. How could we take him away from his Nannie and Papa, his cat Thomas his soon to be new kitten Carmen. If we go can we even find someone to watch his cats, do we take them with us, do we have to tell him that Carmen will have to go to a different home.
Those are just a few of the things that keep me awake at night. Some of the other things are the idea of exposing him to new culture, new foods, new people and a new way of life. I keep asking myself when in our lives will we ever be able to give him this opportunity again. When will we ever live in a place that going to the Great Wall of China for the weekend is a possibility.
I found an add in one of my parenting magazines for a Little Passport adventure kit and ordered it right away for Tyson. I loved that once a month he would receive a package in the mail from Sophia and Sam, the two children going on the adventure, with information, photos and a small gift from a different country. I though this would be my best way to expose him to different countries and cultures and now we have the opportunity to take him to some of these places instead of just reading about them. We can take him to see a Buddhist temples, he can experience Chinese New Year in CHINA! He can go to some of the Korean fish markets and see where his food comes from. He can ride the bullet train to Seoul or Busan, get a pedicure by tiny fish, go to the center of town and get a free hug. Our apartment would be completely paid for from August 2010 to August 2011 even though we can come back home as early as June. To think that we could use the summer to travel to different places and just go sight seeing seems to outweigh any inconvenience. As far as Tyson's medical issues, the school he would be attending (with a 30,000$ scholarship) is all English speaking and can find us and English pediatrician. There is a state of the art hospital a few miles away, not to mention the largest hospital in the country only an hour away in Seoul. Of course we would make an appointment with Tyson's doctors here to discuss everything with them long before we would go, but I think he would agree this is an amazing opportunity for all of us. I know there are a million more things to work out before we would leave, but so far I can not find anything that would force us not to go. So for now there will be more long talks and late nights until the final papers are signed. Please wish us luck and pray that God shows us the path we should take.