Being a 21st Century Expat

This morning I talked with my mom on our Vonage line.  All day This afternoon I browsed Facebook, catching up on my friend's latest status posts. Earlier this evening, I watched my US television shows online. And tonight I sat on my laptop Skyping with my husband, who is on a business trip in China, while chatting on Yahoo Messenger with my friend back in Ohio. To those who were expats before all this technology, YOU ARE MY HERO!

I honestly cannot imagine being an expat when all you had were snail mail and very expensive phone calls. So much has changed over the past 20, 10 and even 5 years.  Do you remember what life was like before things like email, digital photos, VoIP phones, Skype, My Space (does anyone use My Space anymore?)  and Facebook? Now imagine that life being thousands of miles away from everything you know, in a place where you cannot speak the same language, remember which side of the road to drive on, or even figure out what milk to buy.

Then there are things like SlingBox, iTunes, and online video streaming. I know there are expats living in rural parts of the world or places where some of these items are forbidden, but for many of us, these technologies make life so much easier.  Just imagine how grumpy I would be if I couldn't watch all the same junk TV that I watched back in the United States. (However if you knew the television programming I watched, that may not be such a bad thing.)

One of the hardest things about being overseas is missing family and friends. One can adapt to the food, language, landscape, and culture but there is no substitute for our loved ones. But with all the technology today, the distance doesn't always seem so far apart.

True Blessings

We all go through some bumpy roads in life. Some are paved with a pothole here and there, while others are totally beyond repair and in desperate need of being redone. Some roads are brightly lit, while others are dirt trails leading into a path full of thorns and weeds.  But no matter what the path may be, I think the Beetles said it best when they sang: "I get by with a little help from my friends."

In my life I have been truly blessed with some amazing people. When my MIL passed away, we came home to a house that had been cleaned and a yard that had been mowed. When we went through the hellish time with Allison and then loosing her, I cannot even begin to say all the amazing things people did, both ones we knew and ones we didn't. Someone we had never met held a blood drive for Allison because neither Matt nor I were able to donate blood to her. Letters and cards of support and prayers came from all over the world. To know that people all over the world were praying for my family and my daughter, and still do to this day, is just too overwhelming to even form words. We have friends from college that we know would jump in front of a bus for us, and I hope they know we would do the same.

In each move we have made, we have met people whom we have formed bonds with that will last a lifetime. We have some friends who went above what a friend should do and held our dying dog in their arms until she passed while my family was on vacation. Friends who laid in bed with me for 4 weeks every day and watched The Food Network while I was on bed rest with Samantha.  This past week friends have driven me places, shopped for me and even sat and cleaned my disgusting knee while getting my stitches out. And as crazy as it sounds, I have some very close friends who I have never even met in person. (Okay that does make me sound just a wee bit crazy) 

A true friend is someone who listens to your crazy babble and doesn't tell you what an idiot you are (however sometimes a little bit of tough love is necessary). Someone who doesn't care if you lock yourself out of the house for the 5th time and need their husband to climb through the window and let you in. Someone who can let you know they care without ever speaking a word. Someone who can just say "Hey, I care".

One thing I have learned, especially over the past few years, is distance and time doesn't make a friend. You can be 13,000 miles away and still be an amazing friend. There are people who you may only see or talk to a few times a year, or once in 5 years, and you pick right up where you left off. It's like time never even had passed. Friends who you know when you really need shoulder to cry on or help standing up, you can call, no matter when the last time you may have talked. 

  

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life." And I have been blessed made some amazing recipes in my life. I just hope that I have been just as good of an ingredient to their recipe as they have been to mine.