Last night we attended a birthday party for our friend Bill – that’s his wife Jane in purple on the right. Notice his pimp cup. 

In the middle of this photo stand Dallas and Thomas – they’re our two friends who are moving to Belgium in a week. Serious. And it looks like they’ll be there for around two years (initially) – fortunately, Thomas has an awesome job lined up.  

More and more I’m realizing how much preparation we’re going to need in order for us to make our own move out of the country in a few years. And yes, I know that many people just pack-up-and-go, but we’re not going to do that. Mostly because Leah has 1.5 years left before she graduates, and then we also have OneTwo and ThreeFour (our cats) – and they’re coming with us. Yes. They are.

So we have a bit of time to prepare. But also, we would prefer to not worry about the money situation when we get there (in case you’re new to LeahAndMark.com, we’re moving to Asia in a few years – and while we are open to the exact location, chances are good that it’ll be someplace in northern India, Nepal, or anywhere in China.) So. We have to save up. 

We have an idea of the hypothetical plan up to when we arrive – and what we’ll do once we’re there as far as money – but of course none of it is anywhere near concrete until we’re closer to the actual event. Until then, it’s all just saving money and trying to not spend money on things that we really don’t need – and really, won’t be taking with us. 

So other than a coffee table (because well… we NEED a good coffee table – like the rug in the Big Lebowski, a good coffee table really pulls the room together.)

One of the challenges of course is trying to have some semblance of an interesting life while you’re waiting/working for that point 2 or more years away. While it’s easy to just live as though when we get on the plane, we leave everything behind and we’re free – it’s not that easy for us. 

Mostly because we’re not aiming to be the stereotypical ex-patriates. We’re not really moving to Asia to ‘escape’ America – we’re leaving because we want to live/experience/discover – more. And since we’ll also have children, that means that one of us needs a job – a good job that also enables us to fly back and forth to the US at least on an annual basis.

In the same way you wouldn’t move from Atlanta to Phoenix, thinking that you wouldn’t have to keep working and could just kind of ‘scrape by’ – when we move… we just want to be more prepared to really live wherever we land.

Of course, many things can happen in a single year – and each year seems to fly by very fast – especially when you’re busy keeping up with life.