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Our plans for the future

Our current lifestyle is rather interesting.  We are not (im)migrants, we are not military, and we are not fully expats. Our kids do not go to international school, they go to local German schools; we have to deal with German government services yet our knowledge of German is rather limited (we make it work nonetheless).

This week we said goodbye to our friends who are moving to Israel by the end of the week.  It sucks for us but we are happy for them.  It took them about 4 months from "we might go" to "leaving on Sunday."  More or less the same time frame our move happened.  Partially because of them, partially because of wanting to have less stuff, we have been clearing our stuff - file cabinet, baby/toddler books, some random stuff. 

The question that while is not always on our mind, but comes up regularly enough is how long are we planning on staying here.  According to our original plan, we were not even supposed to be here in Germany as I type this up on September 1 of 2017.  We were supposed to move back this summer.  At this point, we are taking it one school year at a time - right now Andrei is going to finishing Grundschule (4th grade) here and Ilya will finish 3rd grade.  Are we staying here for another year after that?  Only time will tell.  But definitely stay tuned for our explorations in next steps of our children's education- it will be an exciting ride :)

Here is the thing though - we have enjoyed watching our kids grow up here.  They are getting an amazing experience, learning to be a bit more independent than they probably would of been had we stayed in Pittsburgh, they are speaking,reading and writing in German and Ilya also in Russian.  We have traveled to so many incredible places.  Life here is not always easy but it seems like it's certainly worth the troubles.  And we probably would of have "troubles" in Pittsburgh as well.

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