Full Disclosure

Deciding that we should still go was just the beginning. We weren’t sure if we should disclose the pregnancy to the school, but after some advice from other teachers in Indonesia, we decided to tell the school. As pointed out by some veteran international teachers, the school’s reaction could provide insight as to whether or not it’s a school where we’d want to work. Fortunately for us, we received a really positive response. They will cover the visa, medical insurance and flights for the baby, which is great, but as we anticipated, we have to pay for medical costs related to the pregnancy and I'd have to take unpaid leave.

This was all fine with us and we were super happy that everything would work out, but then there were more complications. The school had difficulty finding someone to cover the period for my leave, so they wanted to find someone who can be in attendance on a more consistent level. I was offered to take a half-time position (of course at half the salary) that would make the unpaid leave feasible with the option to revert back to a full-time teaching position the following school year.

We were lucky that the school was willing to work with us, but this new development came with more complications. We had to re-evaluate the financial aspect of the whole situation. We wanted to make sure that we'll be able to cover the medical expenses out of pocket with me only earning half of what we planned minus the income from the unpaid leave. We also had to consider the financial responsibilities we have here at home as the school’s proposal would be more than a 75% pay cut in my income.

We understood that the school was scrambling to find last minute replacements because of the change in our situation, so we didn’t want to pull out of the contracts. We wanted to keep the commitment we made to them and who knows when we'll have another opportunity to find positions abroad or if we’d even want to after having the baby and settling down even more. However, we really need to think about how prepared we are to take such a financial hit especially when everything seems to be easier if we stayed to have our baby here (reliable covered medical care, and our family and support system in the US). On the other hand, the school has been so flexible and willing to accommodate us. Also, this is our first baby, so maybe I'd want a position with less pressure and more time to spend with the baby. As a new teacher, it may also be a good opportunity to do more observations of veteran teachers in an international setting. For the 2^nd time, we again decided to move forward and move to Indonesia.