Moving to Samoa!

For some of you who haven't talked to us in a few weeks this might appear to be a joke. I can assure you its not. I've tried to wait to tell anyone outside of our immediate family until we had the official offer, which came yesterday. To fill in those of you who we haven't talked to in awhile: for this past year, Andy and I had our hearts set on Andy working for LDS Family Services after he graduated. He did an internship with them, liked it and felt he had a good chance for employment. Well about 2 minutes into his interview back in February he was told they had no openings this year.

Thus began our long search for plan B. Its been a roller coaster of emotions ever since, applying for random jobs throughout Utah County and planning on staying around for another year until Andy could reapply. Well in the midst of all of this, Andy talked to a friend in the MSW program about a possible job at a boys treatment center in Samoa, Coral Reef Academy. Of course my intial reaction was - We are NOT moving to Samoa! . . . I guess the idea has grown on me. This is not an indefinite move for us, but more of a temporary adventure while we're still in a place to take one. We'll sign a contract for a year. The irony was that during his interview for the Samoa job, LDS Family Services called Andy and asked him to come in for a second interview. We figure that job will be here when we get back. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We'll be leaving the beginning of May/ end of June. So for right now its cram time! Sell the house, get Tyler a passport, pack, make sure Andy passes all his classes and the licensure test, visas, insurance, travel itineraries, and probably more we haven't even considered. We want everyone to know that we have an open invitation for anyone to come visit us during our stay. Airfare is expensive, but after that you'd have a place to stay, no need for a rental car, and we're told eating out is fairly inexpensive there.

We'll be living on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa and in the "city" of Apia, the captial. This isn't Americanized like American Samoa and will have a simpler, slower pace of life. I may actually miss the crowded Springville Wal-Mart when I have to go to 5 different stores to get my groceries. But I guess thats all part of the experience. I plan on becoming a more dedicated blogger over the next year to keep everyone up-to-date with our adventure in Samoa.