We’ve Been to a Gajillion Countries!

OK, maybe not a gajillion. But we were counting at breakfast one morning and my kids have been to 13 countries, Jack has been to 16, and after my deployment, I will have been to 23. Wow! In school every time they talk about a new place, James’ classmates ask him if he’s been there. A few weeks ago, Heather’s Spanish teacher told her that French is the hardest language to learn. Heather begged to differ. I suppose if you have spent your life in South Carolina and now you are still there teaching high school, you may think French is pretty hard. But my ninth grader who spent a year in Japanese class- learning to read it, write it, and speak it, can tell you that Japanese is way harder than French. And she did it is 7th grade. They told her she would get high school credit for it. Well, she can get elective credit, but this school insists they have to have 3 yrs of the same language, so it doesn’t count for her high school language. Oh well.

I think it’s really cool that because of the military, we have been able to give our kids such a great childhood that includes traveling to exotic countries like Australia, Thailand and China, as well as more typical ones like England, Germany and Italy. It’s really hard on them when we move and they have to learn a whole new area and they have to make new sets of friends, but I know that they will always have fond memories of the places they have been. It’s also an incredible way to learn that America is not the center of the universe and to see first-hand that there are starving kids in the world who would love to have their vegetables. Or their cell phone, or their iPods, or their bikes. Or a bed. Or any number of things that we take for granted. I read the other day that 60% of the world lives on less than $2.50 per day. That is amazing. We are so rich and so lucky to be living in the greatest country on the face of the earth. I hope my kids grow up appreciating that.