The car has found a new home in Georgia and we wish it well. We are on a plane in the morning to Singapore. We promised that we would tell you just why we are embarking on such a life-changing move to Singapore, and now seems the time to do it.

It all starts, in my mind when Alli and I went for pre-marital counseling at our church. I don't exactly remember the exercise, but we were listing things that were important to us, and then providing a ranking of some sort. The bottom line is that "living in another country" was on Alli's list. I was surprised that she ranked this as "very important". At that point in time, I did a rapid reassessment. This was not on my radar at the time in any way. However, my mind was well made that Alli was for me, so if living in another country was for Alli, by syllogism this meant that I would be living in another country at some point. If that ranked high on Alli's needs, I needed to do it.

Add to this some leading by my current boss. He teaches each summer in Thailand and loves it. A long time ago, he also mentioned somewhat randomly that Singapore might be a good fit (knew some people, etc.). And then there was our trip to Japan, which at the time was the longest consecutive stretch of time the two of us ever spent together (Alli was still in D.C. while I was in Boston). I guess for me Asia was/is very alluring. I think when Alli said she wanted to live in another country, she was envisioning Italy, but a series of events and discussions and opportunities seemed to lead us to Asia.

I personally think that living abroad is just a fantastic opportunity for so many reasons. I want to learn about a different culture. I want to learn about the things that we as Americans take for granted. If I'm going to state, as so many of us do, that America is the best place on Earth to live, shouldn't I have some reference in making that statement? I want to know how a different culture approaches interpersonal relationships, what they value, where they get their identity.

I've been impressed with how even short trips to places like these have impacted my way of thinking. For instance, the short time we spent in Japan really upped the ante on my distaste for litter. I've never been one to litter in the first place, but seeing how immaculate the streets and sidewalks of Japan were, I felt anger well up when I thought of how careless Americans are when they discard their refuse for general public consumption.

As a Christian, I want to know what that looks like outside of the U.S.-- especially outside of the Southern U.S. Christians are definitely not persecuted in Singapore, but they are a minority. What is that like? I've been told many times that by sheer numbers, China (and/or India) is the future world leader. So from a practical perspective, living in a primarily Chinese civilization has to be good for me going forward.

We think Singapore is fantastically located. It's called Asia 101 jokingly—because, again, it's pretty easily accessible to the Westerner, but it's just a hop away from lots of more challenging (and interesting) locations. So, we'll get to live in a place that won't challenge us so much that we come home from work, curl up in fetal position and cry, but we can still take short journeys to those places, learn, explore, and have fun, which is the real “why.”

These reasons may be very different from our reasons for staying in six months and different still from our reasons a year from now. This is our “why” tonight, the night before we leave. You’ll have to stay tuned for the updates.