The Long Journey Home

After a month away, today Sidney and I are returning home to Belgium. I say home because, despite our month revisiting all of the places we have lived as a family, Belgium has become the place we currently call home.

During our month long journey up the East Coast then back down, we kept asking ourselves the question of "could we see ourselves living here?". And this is a pertinent question for us since with retirement looming, in a short two and a half years when we leave Belgium, we will be returning to the United States and for the first time, moving to a location of our own choosing. Never having the option to fully choose for ourselves, this is an exciting yet slightly scary proposition. 

So over the past month as we moved from one East Coast location to another we looked long and hard at what life would be like should we choose to settle there. The question of schools, job opportunities, cultural amenities, cost of living and overall quality of life were always in the forefront of our minds. Some locations we immediately dismissed as not being options. At one time we had made those locations work for us but in our current situation we just couldn't envision ourselves settling down there for the long term. Other locations possibilities and two became definite contenders. For both locations I even went so far as checking out the local real estate listings to see just what our money could buy us. Geographically and socially the two places couldn't be more different but we could see ourselves being happy and taking advantage of the opportunities they provided. Could we call either place home and raise our family there? Most likely. At the moment we don't have to decide but we do have a lot to think about.

So where is home? It is where ever we make it. Where is that? At the moment it is Belgium and it is good to be back. In the future? Who knows; only time will tell.