It DOES get better

We are halfway through our second year here in Singapore, and with another year comes a change of perspective.  It's amazing how much easier it is to handle the differences in culture now that we've been through the Singapore seasons already.

We were told a few months back that this would be our final year in Singapore, and plans began to take shape for our next location, our next adventure.  We started to get this frenzied feeling of wait!  I haven't seen everything that I wanted to see or experienced everything I wanted to experience yet!  We quickly came up with a list of what we wanted to accomplish in our final months in Singapore.  Then, a few weeks ago, we were informed that we are here for the long haul.  We will be staying the full three years after all!  Oh, what a roller coaster we experience with this job!  I learned long ago not to believe anything until I was standing directly in it.  So, we still have time to check off everything on our list, and hopefully get to enjoy it as well!

Three things that are making this year much easier than last year:
1. School
2. Friends
3. Understanding

The school issue was such an enormous barricade for us when we got here, it really colored our entire view of this country.  It was so hard to like a country that rejected our child.  It was hard to be understanding when no one would take a chance to understand us.  Once that child was accepted into the Australian school, we cautiously exhaled.  Once that child started making friends and thriving, we began smiling and looking around to discover what more could we appreciate now that we all had a place to fit in.
Our other three are well established into their school and feel comfortable with the familiarity this year, knowing how to get around and what to expect.

Friends always make life easier!  And this year has been made ten times easier for the whole family due to some pretty amazing friendships that we've established over the past year and a half.  We each have a small set of friends whom we can rely on to lift our spirits, join our adventures and help us along the way.

Knowing what to expect relieves so much stress.  It doesn't mean life is stress-free, but reduced by understanding what is going on and why it is.  It allows us to enjoy the differences more by fully experiencing them rather than trying to figure out what to do, where to go, and how not to offend!

So, my friends on adventures in their own areas of the world, take heart!  If life seems rough at the moment, hold on to the hope that it DOES get easier, eventually.