I am going to go back right at the beginning of our relationship and marriage, 12 years ago. The moment we started dating, we woudl joke of our 'international' relationship and how we could benefit from each other: I get the green card through him and he gets a ticket into Europe, especially after Romania joined the EU. I would always chuckle at our joke, because I felt that I got the best 'deal' out of it. I mean, yeah, I am from Romania and have roots there but why would we need that?
From the moment the kids were born, one of the first things we got done was to get them a Romanian passport. It was quite a bit of a process through the Consulate in DC but we got it done both times. At that point I still thought Michael's enthusiasm over this accomplishment was a bit too much. He was just SO proud and happy about that, it was kind of cute to see him brag about it. He's the outnumbered one now... only one citizenship under his belt hehe.
One evening, last April Michael told me how out of curiosity he looked up the University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj Napoca and how they seem to have a very strong three year PhD program in Computer Science. A little bulb went up in his smart brain and got the idea of doing that doctorate, and it was only getting stronger and stronger. Over the summer of 2016 when we were in Romania, visiting my family, we arranged a meeting with the professor from UBB in charge of the Computer Science program and we hoped this hour or so spent with him, would make it more clear wether this idea was totally nuts or totally doable.
At this point, I was still hoping nothing would come to fruition to be honest. I mean, why would we leave our amazing life in DC? We are part of the best communities: our church, neighborhood, school... why shake our life and move to Romania? I was enjoying our summerly visits there and our every other year visit from my parents in the US (we had a system and it was great!). I was comfortable in this predictable routine, so the last thing I wanted to deal with was a move, a real, across the ocean, starting back from suitcases move.
But then that meeting was very encouraging and assuring for Michael that it wasn't a crazy idea, but it made sense and the professor even encouraged him to do it as soon as possible! Really!??!?! OK, OK... at this point I was more comfortable talking about it but I was still skeptical and neutral. I never felt against it, but in my mind was hoping it will become somehow obvious it's not the right step for us.
Ever since coming back and resuming our nice, comfy life in DC lots of little signs and clues happened that felt like 'little nudges' of encouragement that we are on the right path and we are actually taking the right step for our family. We feel more and more that God has put this in our hearts, well, first in Michael's than in mine's, funny enough. We feel its time to pack up and start a new adventure as a family. We want to grow global kids, travel all through Europe these three years, be closer geographically again to my family, be able to make an impact in the future communities we will plug ourselves in over there and just see where life takes us. Let's do this!
