I can hardly believe the amount of time that has passed since I last reflected in this space. The months since our first plunge into a pandemic lockdown have contained so much and yet so little. We had a brief respite during the summer here of almost-normal living, followed by two months of not-really-normal but … More Small Joys
Lately, I have taken to spending time on our balcony after we have finished our evening family time and the kids are winding down for bed. After nearly two years in Malaysia, I’ve come to love the feeling of a tropical evening, with the warm, humid air and the sounds of insects, frogs, and the … More Parenting in First Gear
As I write this, the color of the light coming through our living room windows has been slowly shifting from a flat gray to a more golden hue. I can start to make out the outlines of the hills behind our neighborhood, and for the first time in a few weeks, I can hear the … More The Haze Between Us
The temperature in Kuala Lumpur today is about 90 degrees. Yesterday, it was about 88. Tomorrow it may go up to 92. Or not. The sun rises around 7:30 a.m. and sets around 7:30 p.m. Every single day. Our close proximity to the equator means that our weather and sun patterns remain relatively unchanged throughout … More Yearning
I’ve started this post about five different times over the past four weeks, and every time, the focus of my thoughts shifts. Writing about transitions is tricky because everything is in constant flux, and how we feel from one day to the next changes dramatically as we either master a new routine or massively fail … More Rhythm and Blues
In just under two weeks, our family will wake up in our new apartment in a whole new world. I am in that stage of prep where my brain feels completely overloaded with “notes to self” of items I want to purchase, purge, or pack. Like an elite athlete (which I am not, but I … More Gather Ye Berries While Ye May
Yesterday, we had about six months left until our big move to Malaysia. Today, it seems that we have fewer than eight weeks. I’m not sure what exactly happened in the past twenty-four hours, but this funky time compression thing has left me a bit discombobulated. I’ve been thinking a lot about how we measure … More Counting Down and Adding Up
We received our housing assignment in Kuala Lumpur this past Sunday. I was putting my phone away for the night when I saw the email that I’d secretly started to hope would come soon pop up on my screen. I didn’t actually think we would hear about our future home until May or even June, … More A House (or Apartment) IS a Home
I’ve been getting this question more and more as our departure to Malaysia inches ever closer, “Are you excited?” or “Are the kids excited?” It’s a hard question to answer, because it offers only a binary choice for a response, an either/or, a yes or a no. If people ask me this on the fly, … More Are We Excited?
The changing of the clock from 11:59 pm on December 31, 2017 to 12:00 am on January 1, 2018 marked a titanic shift from “We’re moving to Malaysia next year” to “We’re moving to Malaysia this year.” It’s remarkable how one short minute can move the needle on something that seemed so distant and bring … More Will ALL the Stuffed Animals Move to Malaysia?
Jessica Robertson Wright 