paul returns home from NZ

paul has been gone for 3 and a half weeks, for the crazy month of december which was chock full of concerts for all 4 of us, sickness for 3 of us, and lots of appointments and planning.  we were in a sort of limbo waiting to hear whether new zealand and the work would be a good place to temporarily move our family for 6 months. in  february 2010 there was a 6.3 earthquake in the city of christchurch south island new zealand, and the city is still recovering and trying to rebuild-paul will be a geotechnical engineer brought in to help with the damage assessment and building.  it is something paul and i had always dreamed of and tried to make a reality: live and work overseas.  how could we say no to something so well-placed in our laps?  paul had a good adjustment to the area of christchurch where he will be working, mostly discovering food joints, sushi and fish and chips plus some zen groups and running to occupy his time.  by the end of his time there, he had rented a house for us, bought a car ( i will not be attempting to drive on the other side of the road!) and loked into schools for the kids.  all three kids have adapted to this idea in different degrees and timelines: alex ecstatic and positive, kogen hesitant at first and mia was positively adamant that she would spend no longer than 2 weeks there.  this is always her first reaction: say no and then hear more details.  she is now on board for 6 months :)  kogen was pretty quiet about the move and when i asked him his ideas he told me " at first i didn't want to be away from home for so long, but then i thought, if my life is like a long book, and i was reading that book, would i want my character to take advantage of this opportunity?  and i decided yes." 

pretty amazing perspective: would you want to be reading your own book? would you enjoy it? shouldn't we all be living our lives with this in mind?