Frequently Asked Questions About Our Move To South Korea
Q: Why South Korea?
A: Short answer: because the Army said so. The longer answer is: because we want to go. And by that I mean that we had the option to have Brandon go to Korea for a year while the kids and I stayed in Washington. And funny enough, by the time we GET to Korea, it’ll be about 7 months that he was gone. So some people look at that and think it wasn’t worth the time it took for us to get there. But we want the adventure. We want the experience. And we are so freaking excited to be able to experience it as a family.
Q: Have you ever been out of the US?
A: Brandon served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil for 2 years and he has been in South Korea for almost 6 months now. I lived in Belgium with my family for a year and a half when I was in high school. So we have both had experience living outside of the US. Asia feels like a WHOLE different experience to me which brings up all kinds of excitement and nerves! Our kids don’t really know what’s coming (and neither do I)!
Q: Are you guys excited??
A: Yes. And no. And yes. There’s room for ALL the emotions and we are DEFINITELY feeling ALL the emotions right now. Am I excited to be with my husband again? YES! Am I excited to live in another country? YES!!! Do I sometimes sit back and think about what’s to come and have a little-tiny-mini panic attack? YES. And that’s okay.
Q: When do you move?
A: We officially fly out on September 3rd. Which just happens to be mine and Brandon’s 12th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Brandon – let’s spend 11.5 hours on a plane with 5 kids. How romantic.
Q: What’s the process with moving overseas with the military?
A: Honestly, I’ll probably have to do a whole post on this. Because it’s a list roughly 5.6 miles long of things to do. Just getting to the point of having Command Sponsorship (approval to move as a family to South Korea) was the waiting game from Hell. So there isn’t really a good answer for this one.
Q: Where will you live?
A: While we don’t have a house or apartment figured out yet, we’ve gotten approval to live off post. For Camp Humphreys specifically, they typically have you live on post UNLESS they are at a certain capacity (I think it’s 95% or higher) – in which case you can get approval to live off post. For my husband’s rank and our family size, they didn’t have room on post, so they recommended that we live off post. Which is great, because that’s where I want to be anyway. We are HOPING for a house, but there is a chance we will end up in an apartment or villa instead. At this point, we are down for anything – we’re just excited for the adventure of it all!
Q: What about schools?
A: Early on, I was hoping to live on post so that my kids could ride the bus to the school on post. Then, I found out that there are many houses outside of post that are on the bus line for the schools on post. So all of that to say: my kids will go to one of the elementary schools on Camp Humphreys (no, I’m not continuing to homeschool). Finding a house/apartment/villa on the bus line for the schools will be our number one priority when it comes to choosing a place to live.
Q: How long will you be there?
A: Brandon’s orders put us there until January of 2024. There are options to extend a year or two after that, but we don’t know if those options are available to us because Brandon is slotted for his Captain Career Course following Korea. So we will see!
Q: What about your stuff? Do you get to bring your stuff?
A: We can take about 50% of the stuff that we are normally allowed to take for a state-side move. The rest of our stuff will go into storage (or be sold or given away). I’ve been in the process of gutting our house and trying to get rid of so many things. It has been harder than I thought it would be. I wouldn’t consider myself a hoarder AT ALL, but we’ve definitely accumulated a lot of stuff in the past 3 years. We’ve got movers coming for our Household Goods (the stuff we are taking to Korea) on August 23rd, and movers for our Non-temporary Storage on August 25th (still waiting on ABSOLUTE confirmation for this one… which has been a pain all on its own).
Q: What do you do with your car?
A: The military pays to ship one of our cars for overseas moves. The only problem is that it takes 2-3 months to get to Korea. Brandon actually purchased a 7-passenger SUV in Korea for us to use once we get there and before our van gets to Korea. We will ship our van two days before we fly out (and use a rental car for those two days). And then we are selling my husband’s sedan. So we currently own three cars… which feels excessive with only two drivers. Ha! As far as driver’s licenses go, Brandon has a Korean driver’s license and I’ve got to take the test for mine. I hear it’s pretty easy, just tedious, but it’s on the list of 2.3 million things I have to do this week.
Q: Do you have to fly by yourself with the 5 kids? Or does Brandon get to come back to be with you?
A: This has honestly been probably the most asked question I have gotten. The number of people who have told me they are stressing out for me is… well, it’s a lot. Ha! And truthfully, there was a few months there where I was stressing too. However, because God is wonderful and cares about what’s important to me, things have worked out so that Brandon actually gets to come back to Washington for a month and then fly back to Korea with me and the kids. I’m still not looking forward to the non-stop 11.5 hour flight to Korea, but I’m infinitely more excited about it now that I won’t be by myself with five kids.
Q: What will you do with your time left in Washington?
A: I’ve been pretty determined not to have these last busy weeks ruin my whole experience with Washington. I LOVE Washington. And I knew that if I wasn’t careful, my love for it could be tainted if I let myself get lost in the busyness of moving. And so we’ve figured out a good little system. We’ll spend a day going and doing something fun (beach day, lake day, children’s museum, even just a trip to the park) and then we’ll spend a day (or two, depending on our energy levels) back at home catching up on cleaning and preparing for the movers. And so we’ve got some fun things planned and I can’t wait to share about the fun things we spend our last weeks in Washington doing. We’ve also got one last trip to Boise planned to see family and drop off some things that we can’t ship to Korea and can’t put into storage.
Q: What are you most excited about?
A: Honestly… being with my husband. I know that might seem silly (You’re moving to freaking, Asia, WOMAN! What are you excited about for living in Asia!?) but I haven’t done a TON of research on what to do in South Korea. Mostly because COVID restrictions are still more strict than they are in other parts of the world. They are definitely loosening up, but you just never know when/if they’ll come back. So I’ve been cautious not to get my hopes up about doing specific things and visiting specific places. Thankfully, though, I’ve got some friends already at Camp Humphreys and I’m counting on them to show me the ropes and let me in on all the hidden (and not-so-hidden) gems in the country.
I will say that EVERYBODY that I talk to who has spent any time in South Korea tells me that the people are DELIGHTFUL! So I think that is another thing I am really excited about: getting to know the people and loving them like family!
Q: What are COVID restrictions like over there?
A: I’ve gotten this one a lot too. As of now, you do not have to wear masks when you are outside (there are a couple cases where you would have to), but they still have an indoor mask mandate country-wide. On Camp Humphreys there is no mask mandate. There used to be a 14-day mandatory quarantine when you get into Korea, but they have removed that restriction (much to my relief!!!). All that we need is to have negative COVID test no more than 72 hours before we board our flight. And, for those wondering, YES masks are required for the ENTIRE flight. I’ve spent enough time worrying about masks and mandates and vaccines and all that jazz. Honestly, I just got to the point where I felt very at peace with it all. Would I prefer to NOT have to wear a mask on an 11.5 hour flight? Sure. But I’m not going to make a stink about it. We’ll do what we have to do and we’ll survive. And we’ll love our adventures in Korea, masks and all!
Those are the MAIN questions I’ve gotten. I’m sure there will be others and that’s okay too. Generally speaking, we’ve had a lot of support and love from everyone about this big change in our lives. I’m excited to share all of our upcoming adventures!
’til next time…
Ash