Everything has a beginning...

Everything has a beginning and this is the start of a new chapter in our life. I am a U.S. Foreign Service Officer on the cusp of heading out to my first assignment to Guangzhou, China. Accompanying me are my wife, known here as RR, and my nearly one year old son, known here on the blog as NJ. The hope is that RR will join me here in chronicling the next few years or more... 

 I've had blogs in the past and understand the work that sometimes goes into keeping them up. But I also know how much I appreciate reading through old passages, looking at pictures, and seeing just how life changes. My personal hope is that both RR and I can create a space where we get to share our experiences, thoughts, and those parts of life that make it all worthwhile. 

But for this post, I just want to focus on a brief introduction and the excitement I feel as we are nearly ready to start this new life. It's been a long journey to get here, much longer in many ways than I ever anticipated. I've known for over half my life that I wanted to do some sort of international work. I just didn't know what type of work. This has led me to wander a bit and create a bit of an eclectic background. But it's one that I've enjoyed for the most part and one that has allowed me to become the person I am today. 

So watch this space. Hopefully over the next few days I (and maybe RR) will start to share what's going on as we get ready to leave, give a bit more background on our lives, and fill in a bit of the nooks and crannies of this blog.