Finding the Balance: Expat Diaries

Dear Expats- 

I want to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest with me. 

How do you find the balance? How do you balance your obligations and life back home with your expat lives? 

Right now, it seems like I am being pulled in two directions. 

There is the Alex that just wants to cuddle up back in Georgia and stay there forever with my family. Go to tennis matches and school fields trips and family dinners and birthdays and weddings and game nights with my family. Just be with my family and never leave. 

But then there is the Alex that wants a passport filled with stamps. To take pictures of foreign and wonderful places. To try new foods. To hear different languages. To not settle. 

So how do you balance? 

Right now, I am having some severe expat guilt. I am having older sister guilty. Daughter guilt. Grand-daughter guilt. Shoot I'm even having Daughter-in-law guilt. 

I feel guilty for being here. I feel bad for not helping out back home. And it is honestly making me sick to my stomach. I feel stressed. I feel selfish. 

How do you know when to stop exploring and to just settle? 

{Linking up with Chelsea and Rachel}