Whatever happened after Alice left for Washington, DC?

Our back story in brief:

Some time in the summer of '14, Alice huddled over her computer with her sister, Mary, completing a very long and detailed application for the U. S. State Department to become a Medical Provider serving in an Embassy anywhere worldwide.  A few months later, her sweetheart, Craig was diagnosed with throat cancer; then she flew to Washington, DC, for an interview and passed, paving the way to diplomatic life; so he proposed to her on Valentine's day and they got married in June (so fun!); and they waited... And waited...  And waited...

Craig got better and they painted the house, enjoying the hottest summer in Portland history.

The finished masterpiece

Then Mary, Gary, and Stella, their dog, moved to Hawaii.
Alice and Craig gave up hope of ever leaving...
Until one day an email came that Alice had passed her top secret security clearance and another week passed, and poof! She was invited to start training  in Washington, DC, on January 25, 2016....

When a blizzard hit...

My first two days as a federal employee were snow days since the government was shut down due to the blizzard. (Forgive the switch to first person for no apparent reason.) We arrived to find two feet of snow on the ground late on Monday and spent Tuesday sledding. Craig stayed with me in DC for 3 weeks.  Our orientation involved lots of briefings with about 90 other specialist candidates who will fan out over the globe to support our diplomatic corps in the areas of administration, IT, security, courier services, and of course, medical services!

Alice and Oliver in the race for the White House

Daddy Craig lives on as Uncle Craig

On flag day, our first tour location was declared: Malaysia!

We were sworn in by a Deputy Secretary of State at a ceremony attended by Charlotte, Craig, and Craig's niece Aimee and her family.

Then, poof! Craig headed back to Portland to continue packing up 15 years of history and I entered the next phase of training, focusing on running a health unit. Our group was small: two other nurse practitioners, one PA, one lab tech, and a doctor.  We went to Bethesda to learn about parasitology (ew!), took classes on leadership and supervision in Arlington, and flew off to San Diego for training with over 100 other medical providers and medical officers from all over the world. Every day amazes me. All these people who reference their lives in far flung places like Conakry and Jakarta like they live down the street.

Fast forward again: Craig packed up the house with some professional help,

sold our cars, and many other things on Craig's List, went skiing in Montana, and finally came back to DC.

One last fling in the cold with Willie & Tom

Shock and awe in Big Sky

Now we find ourselves learning how to represent our country in far away lands and preparing to board our plane to Malaysia early next week !!! We've made final trips to Trader Joes and Costco in the vain attempt to take a slice of home with us, not knowing what creature comforts will fade into memory to be replaced by unknown equatorial wonders !!!

The adventure is really about to begin, although it has felt pretty darn adventurous since that day in the summer of '14.  

Here we are in Old Town (and it really is an old town) Winchester, Virginia after a hard day of training... Now that's another story!

Stay tuned for our first impressions from Malaysia...

Selamat Tinggal !!!