We have news! I’ve been offered an amazing position as head of digital for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, and we’ve decided to move as a family. It feels like a tremendous luxury to be able to do the kind of work I love for a mission I support so completely (as anyone who’s discussed my “I heart habeas corpus” bumper sticker with me can attest).

This means selling our Seattle house and our cars. We are keeping our cabin because we love it and it’s relatively cheap (stay tuned for more about our cabin soon). But we are going to be selling and donating at least half of our possessions. This is more than partly the point.

Thinking about leaving Seattle has us up at night–both with sadness about what we’re leaving behind and excitement about what lies ahead. But the job is also giving me nine weeks’ vacation to facilitate visits every three months for our open adoption, which certainly feels like another winning part of this life we’re aiming to design.

I will be able to spend two full months each year in the company of Amelia, and Therese will get to stay home with her, figuring out the world of Swiss bureaucracy, reading while Amelia is in bilingual preschool, and SUPing on Lake Geneva. We’re trading stuff for travel and experience, which is the ideal we want to model for Amelia.

Here’s a photo tour of our next chapter. We will arrive in Geneva in mid-May. We are already grateful for friends who have put us in contact with their friends living in our new city.

To start with, the actual Alps, from the roof of the WHO building. Everyone wanted to point out Mont Blanc to me, sort of as a selling point. It was sweet.