Thoughts in my head

Lately I just haven't felt like blogging, which makes me sad, because I'm not ready to give it up. I used to compose blog posts in my head and couldn't wait to create my post after something fun or interesting happened. Nowadays, it feels like work.

But like I said, I'm not ready yet to stop, either, so I'm going to write a bit today and see how it feels. Apparently I've used up my photo space so I also need to decide if I'm going to start paying to get more photo space. We'll see.

Last night was the final night of Hanukkah. I'd like to post a photo, but see above...maybe soon. The last two nights, of course, were marred by the tragic news from Connecticut. I can't stop thinking about it and can't wrap my head around it. My heart and thoughts are constantly with the families.

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About two weeks ago, I moved from the Immigrant Visa unit to the American Citizens Services (ACS) unit. Here in Santo Domingo, we deal with Dominican-Americans who live or travel here frequently, as well as tourists who are here only briefly. The proximity to the US and close relationship between Dominicans and Americans mean that our unit is quite busy. I'm still learning, but so far, I'm really enjoying it. One of our main tasks is to process passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) applications. When a child is born in another country to one or two American citizens, it is often, but not always, possible for the citizen to transmit U.S. citizenship to his/her child. We determine whether the citizen meets the requirements, and if so, issue the child a CRBA which states that he/she was an American citizen at birth. The best part of my job is seeing all the little babies. I'm also excited about getting out of the office and visiting our consular agencies in Punta Cana and Puerto Plata, as well as doing outreach elsewhere. ACS work has a lot more variety, and that is a welcome change.

Holiday season is always a busy time. I've barely been able to keep track of all the happy hours, kids parties, and early dismissals. Hopefully next week will be quieter.

This week, we're saying goodbye to two families who we are really going to miss. In addition, quite a few of our friends are leaving to have babies and will only return for a short time. So it feels like our community is shrinking. This is just one of the hard parts of this life. As the kids get older, they are starting to understand and feel sad about the goodbyes. But they can also understand that we will see our friends again- 1.5yrs ago, we said goodbye to many good friends from A-100, and now we're looking forward to meeting back in VA again while we all study language. This community is small, and I know we'll cross paths again.

And we are looking ahead to August 2013, when we leave post. I know these last 7 months will fly by. I'm starting to think about travel plans, and decluttering, and packing out, and what to bring where. I need to get in lots of beach time before that, though.

It's nice to write again.