FInal List

Our final list was submitted to The-Powers-That-Be in DC Monday morning. Now all we can do is wait and see where they will send us. When you receive the bid list, the Career Development Officer (CDO) reiterates that you can be sent to any post on the list, regardless of how you rank the posts. In practice however most people get one of their top ten picks. So here’s our top 10:

The Hague, Netherlands
Frankfurt, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Vienna, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Lima, Peru
Mexico City, Mexico
Santiago, Chile
Toronto, Canada
Managua, Nicaragua

The next step is to hurry up and wait. The CDO will submit his three choices from our list to medical and get a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether we can go there. This is because we have a class II medical clearance in our family. After speaking with medical at our current post we do not anticipate any problems with any of the top 10.

In selecting these 10 from the 35 posts on the list given to us, we had many factors that we had to take into consideration. They include but are not limited to: adequate schooling for the three oldest kids, outdoor activities, the actual job description for Dave, the ability for family and friends to come and visit (and for us to go home), availability of medical care, and most important NOT ASIA.

After we submitted the list to the CDO he told us that we should know our next post assignment in early December. But we will not get the official cable from SECSTATE until Dave has what they call paneled. That will not be until early January. Therefore we cannot make any plans for next summer until we get the cable and our next post has approved Dave’s summer schedule.

Please feel free to leave comments. Let us know of the top ten, which one is your favorite.