Story and photos by Annie Carbutt
When Marsha McDaniel and her husband Corey moved to Rigby in 2016 with their two children, they knew it might only be temporary. Marsha had taken a sabbatical from her job with the foreign service at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, China, so she and the kids could follow Corey to Idaho for a job opportunity. It turned out to be a good experience for them. They liked Idaho. A lot.
They settled in and enrolled their two kids in school. The kids enjoyed the Mandarin immersion program they were participating in in the Rigby public school system, and they all found the area to be beautiful and interesting with lots of great outdoor activities and opportunities. They felt at home in the community. But soon their time was up.
Marsha was posted with the foreign service at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. The family packed their bags and said goodbye to Idaho, and not without hesitation. As far as they knew, this was goodbye for good. A new experience in China was calling to them.
Marsha smiles when she recalls their time in Beijing.
“We have a sense of adventure in our family,” she says. “Starting over in a new country and a new culture is challenging, but we embraced it. Our kids were younger when we moved there. They adapted well. They were used to moving to a new country every few years and experiencing different things.”
Living overseas was definitely not new for the family. Marsha’s first foreign assignment had been in Mumbai, India. She was expecting their second child when they made the move. From the outset, family life for them became an experience of adventuring in foreign lands among new people and cultures. This was just part of what they did.
“Wherever we were as a family, we made it home,” she said. “We anchored ourselves in our routines at home and tried to establish that feeling of belonging wherever we were. And we always made sure to get out and experience things in the area and enjoy ourselves. That’s what made it an adventure.”
It was fun, but Marsha admits it wasn’t always easy.
“It was hard sometimes to start over in a new place and do a complete reset,” she said. “When the kids were younger, they didn’t know any different and so it wasn’t so hard for them. But the older they got, the more we started to feel these challenges. We decided while we were in Beijing that it was probably time to move back to the states where we could be closer to family and put down roots. We wanted our kids to have a place to call home without struggling through the difficulties of being in a new country.”
In the end, Marsha and Corey found work in Idaho and decided to move back. They were excited. They had loved Idaho. But leaving China and their life abroad brought a twinge of sadness with it. So many good things had come from these experiences.
“The exposure we’ve all had to different cultures has been really priceless,” Marsha said. “We’ve made a lot of beautiful mem ories. I think anyone who has the opportunity to study abroad or even just travel a little should do it. It can expand your worldview and give you an appreciation for people who are different from you.”
Though Marsha hadn’t always known she would have a career that would take her around the world and allow her to learn multiple languages, from a young age she was drawn to the mystery of different cultures and histories. She recalls poring over maps in National Geographic as a child and feeling a sense of excitement and awe.
I spent my time surrounded by magazines, atlases and books,” she said. “My grandfather would find bargain books and bring home stacks of them. I loved reading and started to realize there was this whole wide world out there that I could explore someday. I got an education, which opened so many doors, and I’ve been able to see that world. It’s been amazing.”
Now Marsha and Corey and their three children live in Idaho Falls. Marsha and Corey both work in the nuclear industry. Marsha is currently a senior advisor for Idaho National Laboratory’s economic development program, and she enjoys her work.
Life in Idaho is fulfilling for the McDaniel family. The two oldest children are happily engaged in the Mandarin immersion program in the Rigby public school system again, and they’ve been able to reconnect with their friends. The youngest is energetic and full of his own sense of adventure, which perhaps started in his early years in China.
The family plans to stay in the area. Traveling the world was an amazing experience, but now they’re here and new adventures are on the horizon.
This is their home.