Embarking

It is 8:47 on a Saturday morning and I am sitting on my second floor deck beginning a blog. I am sitting on my grandmother's floral print chaise lounge cushion amidst my grandparents' old porch furniture, our thriving tomato plants and my very hairy dog, Toby. This seems like a perfect setting for my first post: I am sitting in the house I bought with my best friend, my husband the month that we got married two years ago. This space in our house is furnished with wrought iron furniture, given to us by my paternal grandparents when they downsized, so it's got some history, and it lived with them for much of a 60+ year marriage. And I am surrounded by plants and a dog that Matt and I are taking very good care of, if I do say so myself. I am starting this blog this morning with a sense of adventure and anticipation that I can hardly contain, because Matt, my amazing husband, and Toby, our trusty dog, and I are applying to join the US Foreign Service. Matt took the written exam on my birthday, February 10th, and was among the 20% who passed. He wrote follow-up essays and prepared a very specific resume and found out in May that he was invited to the final test. Matt is scheduled to take his Oral Assessment (OA) in Washington, DC on September 10th. I am so proud of him for getting this far in such a competitive process and understand that many diplomats don't pass the OA the first time around, but I am hoping that we'll be in the 3% of applicants that make the grade and this time next year, my header image won't be of Philadelphia anymore.