It happened on a quiet evening while sitting at our compound pool watching the kids swim. Steve turned to me and with a quizzical look asked how I would feel about going back home? It was not the question I was expecting him to ask, but without hesitation and with a broad smile I asked: “When?” We chatted about his resigning a few more times, when would be appropriate and questioned the kids about how they felt about our expat home, their schools and friends and then subtly found out how they would feel about going home. They did not hesitate, with a resounding YES all round we started making arrangements.
The first call to action was when to resign, this needed to be when projects were completed, children were finished the school term, and a new job was secured. Once we had decided on a date, we created our to do list which looked something like this…
Denise McManus is head of marketing and admin, at Xpatulator.com, a “cost of living” website for expatriates.
