Flag Day

Yesterday was the big day we had all been waiting for...the day we find out how our life is going to change for the next 2-3 years. We all woke up before 6 a.m. here...must be the energy pulsing through our house. We took Tom to work at 6:45 and the boys and I returned to the house before 8 a.m. It was going to be a long morning! We watched the clock slowing tick as we tried to eat breakfast and play...I could not stand it anymore. We headed to the park to play, but that only sidetracked us for a short time...9:45...9:46...9:46??? wait, did my watch stop? Somehow we got through the morning albeit painfully slow...

Nick cooperated by taking an early nap and allowing us to get him up early. The boys and I got dressed and headed out about 1:30. Our friend Kevin braved it and joined me and the boys for the ride out to Virginia. We passed through security with little trouble and when I say "little trouble" I mean Mr. Little Trouble who likes to climb onto the xray machines... Tom walked us to the gymnasium that the ceremony was being held in. We picked seats with other families close by (that way if mine through fits, I could blend in better ;) Then we waited...and waited...and waited for what seemed like hours for the ceremony to begin.

After several false alarms (Ambassadors entering the room and the Foreign Service Officers giving the required standing ovation) the flags arrived...70 flags for the 70 posts to be announced...then more waiting. Finally the Ambassador that was in charge stepped up and began his speech about how our lives were going to change, how we are doing our country a great honor and how he is going to stretch this moment because it is the last time he will have our undivided attention...(meanwhile Nick is breaking his crayons and trying to eat the small pieces...did the Ambassador think he really had undivided attention?)

The ceremony began as the Ambassador held up the first flag, the Officers shouted out the country it belonged to and the Ambassador announced the city and the officer that would be taking that position. First post went to Riyadh, an unaccompanied post not on our list...second post went to kingston, jamaica also not on our high list, third post went to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic also not on our high list... then came flag #4...Poland "and the Warsaw consular post goes to Tom Zia" WOW THAT WAS FAST! We were done and there were 66 more posts to be announced. Needless to say that the rest of the ceremony was painful because it was hot, the boys were tired, Nick decided to do his business in his diaper about half way through and he kept shouting "I want to get out of here!" and I had run out of things to keep them busy. They did well though...Noah was amazing, he sat in his chair and smiled and watched the entire time! He asked me where we were going and when I told him, he asked, "mommy, will we see any safari animals?" Not this round buddy, but we are going to get to enjoy some snow sports!
We went to dinner and celebrated with the rest of the 139th A-100 class over sushi (for noah and us) and rice (for nick). The boys again were fabulous and did a great job of using their manners, minus the little incident under the table...but we can leave that to your imagination!
Now our prep work begins. We have until April 2009 to get our stuff together, to learn Polish ;) and to enjoy DC. I feel like we can finally start planning for the next couple of years and for those of you who know me well, know that that makes me VERY happy!
WARSAW HERE WE COME!