Why the big move?

There are lots of reasons to go abroad and I thought I would share mine at the request of a reader. In truth, I went kicking and screaming. My whole life I always thought I would end up in the little house with the white picket fence not too far from my parents :D Well, the backstory is that my husband and I graduated university in December were married in May and preggers by July! He had an awesome job in Atlanta and so we moved from Tampa to Atlanta, no big deal. Well, two months after our little princess arrived my husband was let go due to cutbacks. A big blow for newlyweds and new parents who were starting from scratch! My husband frantically began searching for a new job and we were blessed that through a contact at one of his internships in college he flew to Germany for an interview with his present company. He landed the job and I was less than thrilled, but the offer just couldn't be turned down. I kept trying to figure out God's will for us and to seek guidance for what we should do. We had no other offers and our only options were to go live with my parents until we found something, take a huge pay cut for a less prestigous job (an unacceptable consequence to the male ego), or to take this opportunity abroad. So we went much to the despair of my mother. We are very fortunate in that my husband works for an awesome company. The benefits are out of this world and he makes almost 3 times what he was making in the states! The main reason we made the leap was because the money would allow me to stay home with our daughter, and that was one of our top priorities. If you are a young couple just starting out and your hubby is not a doctor or a lawyer you can forget about staying home! My heart just breaks for the mom's that have to leave the children behind to work when they would choose to stay home if they could. When they put my daughter in my arms I just couldn't imagine being parted from her or trusting her care to anyone but me. The longer we are here the benefits just keep coming! They will pay for our children's schooling including the priciest private school on the island, they pay for us to go home once a year, the salary and bonuses are phenominal, and the company is extremely family oriented! They even throw a Christmas party every year just for the employee's children complete with dinner buffet , Santa Clause, and a present for each child suited to their age. On top of that we live in a very safe environment ... People don't lock their doors or their cars, I can go for a walk around my neighborhood at night, I can go shopping and the store clerks will watch my daughter while I shop !!!! I don't have to worry about pedophiles, thieves, rapists, etc... I think they had 1 murder in the entire country last year and it was nowhere near our town! Going abroad is not easy, and should be well thought out and researched. A lot depends on the country that you are going to and the reason for going there. I definitely wouldn't have made the leap if it hadn't been for all the benefits that the company threw at us! My husband and I talked to many people, we even went for "counseling" to help us discuss better his reasons for going and my reasons for staying! At the end of the day I knew that if I denied him this opportunity for the job of a lifetime our entire family would end up paying for it. I also knew that I wanted to stay home with our daughter and this was the only way. In a nutshell, the reasons for going abroad were the same reasons anyone moves anywhere: better education, more money, safe environment, and overall quality of better living, the tradeoff instead of living in the little house with the white picket fence not too far from my family and friends, I live in a little house with a pool 4 km from the mediterranean sea and a very long plane ride away from my family and friends.