Our situation was very different from yours but my two cents.
I live in San Pedro, a small harbor town on the edge of Los Angeles.
My wife was in Beaverton a small suburb of Portland OR.
When we met she was divorced 2 years and had a 16 year old daughter.
We did the long distance thing for a year but decided it would be better to let her daughter (then 17) finish high school (honer role student, big into sports, close friends, Her Dad was local).
We decided to do the long distance thing for another year (expensive) and let her finish high school (she was on the fast track to college, taking college classes her senior year.)
Wife and I agreed that if the daughter was 12 years old they would have moved down to L.A. (I own a house and work for the state, she was in an apartment and had a just okay job.) but at 17 I was concerned about the culture shock of moving from OR. to L.A.
(Daughter is interning for Food Network in N.Y. now BTW)
Having said that I know the brother of a friend that is in the Navy and has two daughters, they have traveled all over the world, the two daughters have graduated from college and doing spectacular.
Our church is close to Air Force housing therefore we get a lot of A.F. families that move every few years and their kids seem to be doing great.
I guess what I am saying is timing is everything.
