How did we get here?

It’s a very odd and challenging thing — to feel like you have a foot in one country, and your other foot is in a different country. Trying to explore, be content, comfortable and yet enjoy the adventure is a tricky thing when you have family and friends you care about 3,500 miles away.

It also occurred to me that I just started blathering on to you about being in London and 5 hours ahead of New York, with zero explanation of how I even got here in the first place. So, here’s a briefing:

“Do you want to move to London” my husband asked, as I stood in the doorway of his home office. I had just returned from dropping our son off at school. I would’ve laughed, because that sounds like some sort of crazy joke — and while he was smiling and leaning back in his chair, something about his tone and face told me this was a serious question.

“Um. What?” was all I could manage, with a cracked voice.

He went on to explain to me that his company was offering us the opportunity to relocate temporarily to London until early 2026 whilst he built and led a sales team in London. The more he filled me in on what they would help with, and the opportunities it would afford our son, it became clear that this was something that would undoubtedly only come along once in a lifetime, if that.

“Shit”, I finally said. “I knew we weren’t done.”

He smiled pensively, and shook his head as he went back to work. I left the doorway, and I don’t even know what I did after that, because my head was spinning.

I knew we weren’t done.

We had moved 5 times in 5 years. We left New York for Chicago, then California, where we moved twice locally to have air conditioning for our baby boy on the way. Then, we moved to New Jersey and then back to New York, where we purchased our first house and made it a home for 5 years before this opportunity came knocking.

London. I had never been. In fact, I had never been east of New York, really. I had to admit, the idea was beyond exciting. It would be a lot of work, and planning — but we had done that before, so it shouldn’t be too hard, right? Right?!

Hahahaha. HAHAHAHA.

If you’ve ever traveled internationally, you know it can be a bit of a headache making sure you have all of the necessary paperwork. Now, imagine moving internationally. The visas, the research, the school tours, choose a school, how to get our dog there, find a place to live, find a moving company, find a realtor to find tenants for our home, find out about the healthcare there…the list went on and on. And, just when we thought the list was done, other things popped up. Overwhelming? That doesn’t even begin to describe it.

During the months we were researching what we would need to figure out in order to make an educated decision, I had COVID and the flu in the same month. My beloved grandmother passed the following month. The stress felt insurmountable. And, of course — I had this “are we moving, are we not moving” secret I was carrying around the entire time, because I didn’t want anyone influencing our decision either way. It was so hard keeping it from my mom, and then watching her face when I told her we decided to go for it.

Now, seeing my mother on FaceTime with her only grandchild, who she has a deep, unbreakable bond with, is often very difficult. I feel guilty for whisking him away to have this experience, even though she’s never made me feel like that, and even argued against it when I’ve expressed my feelings on that. But still, when I see her face start to register how much she misses us, I quickly remind her, “we will visit soon!” because it makes me feel better as well. I was told there’d be times I would feel homesick, and even with as much as I love it here — I do have those moments.

But, we will visit soon…so really, I guess having our feet in different countries means we have the best of both worlds.