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U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Sanderson wedding #2



This is my Chilean sister, María José (but everyone calls her Koté). As you can see she is absolutely gorgeous and a ton of fun - I can't believe she will be here in a week!


It's been a relatively crazy week in the Sanderson family - we've had lots of last minute wedding meetings and plans but with some twists thrown in just for extra fun. Twist #1 - My Chilean sister's host family in Detroit fell through so now she will be staying with me for a week during probably the busiest week of my life. This is her first time out of the country, she is coming alone, she's only 22 and she doesn't speak English. Fortunately, Sean and I have, cumulatively, about 2 local friends who can speak Spanish and who happen to be very kind and generous people who are going to host her for a couple nights when we will be, um, busy.


Twist #2 My little sister got engaged on Saturday! Her fiance, Lucas, called me Thursday of last week after he saw that I was going to be in Columbus the upcoming weekend. We made a plan to meet up (he lives 2 hrs west of Columbus) after he proposed to Susie while she was visiting him from Pennsylvania. Thus, my parents who are already doing a lot for my wedding are already having to start to think about the next one coming up in May or June 2012. It's busy over here!


My weekend in Columbus was a lot of fun. Sean and I drove down on Friday and met up with some of my OSU graduate student friends at Mad Mex on campus. We caught up over drinks and talked about their upcoming trips to Holland for my wedding - I am so excited! There will be a pretty decent showing of Buckeyes making the commute. Then on Saturday, I watched Sean play in a frisbee tournament with the Holland team "Midnight Meat Train". In the afternoon I headed over to Lucas' house to meet his family, to see my sister and her new ring and to hear all about the proposal.


It was fun meeting Lucas' very large Italian family and even more fun eating all of the incredible food that they made to celebrate. We went to see his cousins' band perform outside and then saw a drama outside about the local history called "Trumpet in the Land". I left on Sunday back to Columbus to be able to spend time with my friend Kristin and her family. She has a little boy who I have slowly watched grow up and it is amazing to see how much he has changed in a year. We hung out and went out to eat and then I caught up with Catherine, Greg and Caitlin when we went to see the movie "Bridesmaids" and had drinks afterwards.


After sleeping in on Monday and hanging out at the pool in Kristin's neighborhood we spent happy hour with some of her husbands friends and then got dinner at the Columbus Brewing Company (great food and drinks - why did I never go there before when I lived in Cbus?) The only thing that was sad about the whole weekend was the long drive home by myself (Sean had driven home with the frisbee team on Sunday night). In about a week and a half though I will be able to see all of my Columbus friends again for the reception - can't wait!

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    Sarah Sanderson
    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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    Sarah and Sean
    Grateful for my very tolerant, supportive and easygoing husband who's always game for a new adventure

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    This website is not an official U.S. Department of State website. The views and information presented are the officer's own and do not represent the Foreign Service or the U.S. Department of State.

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