Even when you are marooned in paradise homesickness is an unavoidable part of being away from home for an extended period of time. It seems to creep up without warning at around the three-month mark. Everyone appears to be adjusting fine and getting acclimated to the food, altitude, language, new friends, new schedule and then suddenly WHAM! You find yourself constantly thinking about home and feeling an overwhelming desire to go back. Homesickness can be an intense and haunting sadness or just random thoughts that flit in and out of your consciousness throughout the day. It can be as simple as your three-year-old missing his favorite fish crackers, or checking email obsessively and writing lengthy missives to friends begging for information about gardens, pets and the weather.

Whether it's mild or severe, homesickness is certainly no fun. I Miss Everything! Homesickness is about missing friends and family and the ease of the familiar. It's not necessarily about wanting to move back home, but more about wanting to think about the things you have left behind. It often comes on when you have finally shaken off all the old baggage and you feel a void that will eventually, but isn't yet, filled with new friends and new connections to the place you've plopped down in. That's about the time you have begun to feel forgotten by your friends and associates back home.

The easy connection you had with everyone has started to evaporate as they attend to busy lives that you are simply not a part of. When we returned to Minnesota after 18 months in Mexico, people kept saying, "You are back already? It didn't seem like you were gone that long." For them, the days of our adventure slipped by unnoticed as they pounded the same old paths oblivious to the passage of time.

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About the Author Elisa Bernick is the author of the The Family Sabbatical Handbook: The Budget Guide to Living Abroad With Your Family, a detailed nuts and bolts guide about the how's and why's of living abroad with your children for an extended period. Topics include financing the adventure, schooling, language immersion vs. bilingual education, health care abroad, legal concerns, homesickness, choosing a location and much more. The book includes interviews with 15 other families experiencing similar adventures in Europe, China, and South and Central America. An indispensable guide. For more information, see her website at familysabbatical.com.

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