Imagine this. Someone hands you piece of paper and on that paper you get to write down almost anywhere in the world you’d like to live. It’s called a dream list. Doesn’t it sound, well, dreamy? If you’re not familiar with the military, it probably does, if you are, then probably not.
A dream list is what Uncle Sam gives military members to fill out when they get close to PCSing (permanent change of station) or moving. For dentists, this list is huge. We had to put 20 bases on our dream list. That’s 20 places in the world we’d like to move to. It’s not easy. Sure, there are 20 places we’d be okay moving to, but excited about, “dreamed” about? I’m not so sure.
We toiled over this for 2 days. We used blogs, Trip Advisor, Wikipedia…anything that could give us a better glimpse of where we might be moving to next.
Knowing that our stay in Vegas would be a very short one, I’d already imagined getting this dream list before we moved here. I just assumed that I would take this year off and then when the list came down we would fill it with places that had news stations, preferably in small to medium size markets. We would stack the deck.
In life, that’s all we can really do, isn’t it? We try to hedge our bets. We get a 4 year degree with the hope that it will land us a higher paying job, we eat healthy foods to prevent disease, we move to high cost areas so our kids will hopefully get a better education. Even though we can and should prepare for the future, the future sometimes has a different plan.
For the first time in my life (and probably Andy’s, too) we decided to simply roll the dice. No stacking, no hedging, no doubling-down, we just put down cities where we we’d like to go.
When we got the list, instead of thinking where I could continue my career as a TV News Personality, I just kept thinking where I’d like our next family adventure to be. Things are becoming clearer since I last wrote about being a stay at home mom. I feel more complete than I ever have before. I’m not tied down to contacts and deadlines and managing two iPhones at night. Instead it’s changing diapers, doing laundry, making Andy lunches (which I’ve actually come to enjoy). These things may sounds tedious and boring, but taking care of my family has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.
So, even though I’ve prepped for my future career, life seems to be taking a different turn. Go figure, right? I’m not saying “no” to news or work outside the home just yet; I’m just saying I love my life right now. If the right opportunity presents itself at our next assignment, fantastic. If not, maybe even better.
For now, our fate rests in a guy named Fred’s hands. I’d like to think God has a hand in it too. He has been with us in every other big moment in our lives. So, we’re tossing all our cards to Him, let them fall where they may.
And Fred, if you’re reading this, please don’t let our card fall on Alaska.
Read more articles about the decision to stay at home over career here and here.
