BIG news

I don't really know where to begin telling you about this BIG news because it's been about three months in the making. But let's see, I guess it all started with an email....(oh and it's not a baby).
Mid October I started looking at job ads on TIE (the international teacher) online and sending our resumes to schools that had positions for both of us. In all I probably sent 15 emails and got only three positive responses. The first was a school in Shinyanga, Tanzania, which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. The director wanted to interview "ASAP" but when I asked him in an email to tell us a little about what life would be like in Shinyanga, I never received a response. We crossed that one off our list.
At first we did not get a positive response from India. The director wrote to say that the 6th grade position we were inquiring about had been filled. I decided to be persistent and wrote this reply:
Thank you for your reply. The last two years Brad has been teaching middle school, but he is a certified K-6 teacher and is interested in making the move from middle school to elementary. I noticed on TIE that you have a position for a 1-3 grade classroom teacher and a 4-6 grade classroom teacher. Either would be a good fit. I hope I don't sound too pushy, it's just that we would love to come to India. I've always thought it would be a fascinating place to explore. And I think we are at least somewhat prepared for the challenges of living in India. Barranquilla is humid, hot and not always pretty, but we were quick to adapt to it all and have really enjoyed our time here. Whatever it is that you decide I want to thank you for your time and consideration. Sarah
I guess persistence pays because a few emails later, the director was arranging a phone interview.
About this time, I started waking up in the middle of the night to pace the apartment and worry about moving to India. Also around this time we received our third positive response from a school in the Swiss Alps. As you can imagine we were pretty excited about that. We waited to see what would happen with Switzerland.
Nothing happened with Switzerland, but thanks to two other bloggers, my Indian worries were relieved.
On the 22nd of November we called India for an hour long phone interview and then we waited. And waited and waited and waited. The director wouldn't know about job openings until January 6th.
Last night around 10 I checked my email for maybe the 100th time that day and found a job offer. I called Brad, ran upstairs and woke up Mom and Dad and then the four of us stood in the living room in our pajamas to do a toast with the leftover New Year's champagne. After three months, 27 emails, a few sleepless nights and a lot of consideration, the decision is final: we're moving to India.