Freak outs and reassurance

Lest anyone think this is the greatest Adventure ever and we never question or doubt our decision  to move back abroad, let me tell you about my day yesterday . I woke up to 3 different emails, all from the relocation people, needing tons of paperwork from us. We had to pick our date that the movers will come pack everything and load. This is also the date we will leave Texas and head to Missouri. I think the actual timeline (of just over 2 weeks!)was a huge wake up call. Cue freakout.

For most of the process, once we actually made the decision, I have felt a peace about it and like it is the right decision. In fact, I've been surprised how non-stressed I've been about it. I should've known it was coming though. I'm pretty proud of myself that it happened only a month before we leave. That's progress! 

So today consisted of me asking myself questions like, "are we ruining our kids' academic career" ( the elementary schools are one of the reasons we wanted to move there). " What if they never learn the language, are lonely at school and never make friends?" (They already know a little bit and are picking it up fast when we practice). " Do I really want to walk/bike in the rain to get my groceries/home goods/insert anything that is outside of my house?" (really all I got here is that it's good exercise). "What if I drive myself and my kids into the canal while manuevering my big bike with a giant box on the front?"(let the record show that I have never fallen completely off my bike before and only one time did I mostly lay it down while doing a right turn).

Although the majority​ of my fears are unwarranted, the truth is, it's scary to uproot your family for any move, let alone an international move to a different country and culture. We had to weigh a lot of things before making our final decision, not the least was how far away we'd be from family. There are so many factors that go into making a decision like this, ones that can alter the course of your career (for good or bad), will change the way your family lives, thinks, and interacts with the rest of the world. We will miss out on typical milestone moments, like taking pictures of each of my kids climbing on the school bus for Kindergarten (does anyone even ride the bus anymore??!). We will miss out on family birthdays and BBQs . Last time we were abroad, my dad passed away unexpectedly and while we were fortunate to get to come back for a few weeks, it was stilldifficult not to get to be around family for an extended period of time afterwards. There are a lot of tough things you miss when you choose to move abroad and prior to this move, all those things have come rushing back. 

Moving abroad is an amazing experience and despite my momentary freakouts, I think anyone who has the opportunity should hop on the next plane out of the country. It will change you. It will change your perspective on the world. It will be tough and you will miss out on things but what you will gain is immeasurable. 

And now that I've reminded myself why we are doing this, it's back to filling out relocating paperwork.

Relocation

The decision has been made, most everyone has been told, and now the real fun begins...actually moving a family of 5 overseas. Last time we moved to a foreign country, it was just me and Dan and 7 suitcases. We signed our rental contract from America, one week before we were scheduled to leave. I had never seen the apartment in person but hoped and prayed Dan had made a good choice(he did!). We arrived and somehow managed to stuff all of our suitcases and selves into our friend's tiny European car. We got to our beautiful, adorable apartment only to realize that Dutch apartments typically don't come with lights, so for the next three weeks we lived by candlelight and called it romance (hey, we were newlyweds!). We spent the next few months fumbling around, figuring out bikes, grocery stores, and immigration. It was a crazy time with lots of laughter and tears and great memories. Would I move abroad again like that with our current family size? Not in a million years!! So for me, this move had to be different or we were staying put and my children were just going to be raised saying y'all and wearing cowboy boots.

Things are VERY different and I thought I'd share a little about it. First of all, we have a relocation team. What does that even mean?! It means we have realtors, we have school specialists, we have an immigration firm, we have a shipping company, and we have a person assigned to us to help us through this transition. First the realtors, they help us find housing. They will take us around once we get there and show us houses and facilitate the whole leasing process, which is great because my Dutch is a little rusty, i.e. nonexistent  when it comes to legal jargon. We have 6 weeks temporary housing, which should be plenty of time to find a place. Next, the school specialist helps us find a school for the kids (because many do have waiting lists even though they are all public). She will also help the kids with basic Dutch phrases to get them started, (will you play with me? Give me that dolly. Why??...you know, all the things four-year olds need to say to play). Hopefully this will be a smooth transition for the kids and they will pick up their Dutch very quickly. We've already started watching Peppa Pig in Dutch, in preparation.

A big help is the immigration firm. They are handling all of our residency permit applications and they should all be ready for us once we arrive. This saves us from having to drag three kids, official paperwork that may or may not be correct, probably in the rain, onto a train to the immigration office, only to find out we messed it all up and have to start the process over. Immigration does not mess around.

Finally, the shipping company. Ahh the shipping company. My one non negotiable. I told Dan after we moved to Texas that the next time we moved, I was not packing a single box. I don't care if we moved next door, not gonna do it! We have moved four times in the past six years, two of those being international moves, and I am so done packing. Plus did I mention that with 3 little kids, whatever I put into the box, two items come out?? So that was my stipulation, hiring movers. Fortunately for us, that too is a part of the relocation package. movers will come and disassemble stuff and PACK MY ENTIRE HOUSE you guys!!! This is not a joke. I'm sure plenty of people have experienced this before but this is a huge deal. I literally do not have to pack a single thing. Silverware? They pack it. Bath towels? They pack it. Bookshelf? They pack it. Random junk drawer that may or may not contain stuff we've been looking for for months? PACKED!! And not only do they pack and ship it over on a boat...they unpack it and reassemble in our new place!!!!!! This has blown my mind and I just keep looking around my house thinking, "don't have to pack that. Don't have to pack that.boom!" Seriously, I hate packing, if you couldn't tell.

Everything has gone super smooth so far. We will see how it winds up on the other side but for now, this relocation is going great, which keeps my stress low and allows me to enjoy the rest of our time here and to look forward to our new adventure in Amsterdam.

Holland, Take 2

It's been nearly seven years since I got engaged, planned a wedding in four months, said " I do" and then hopped on a plane bound for The Netherlands with my new husband and seven suitcases. We spent almost five years there, birthed two babies and was 20 weeks pregnant with our third when Dan finished his PhD program and we packed up and moved back to America. Almost two years to the day of our departure, Dan accepted a position back in The Netherlands so now we are preparing to make an international move with a 4, 3,and 1 year old. Yep, we are a special kind of crazy.

You might be asking yourself, "What makes a family of 5, decide to uproot their nearly school aged children, move further away from family, give up their SUV for bikes, and experience the hardships that come with moving to a new country?" Well, that's a good question and one we have asked ourselves multiple times in the two years we have been back. As those know who followed my first blog, we had a difficult time repatriating to the US, but after about a year, things seemed to settle down and we started feeling more at home.

It was at this time that we felt like we could honestly and (mostly) unbiasedly, evaluate our time abroad. We could see the good and the bad as we were past the "grass is always greener on the other side " phase. We were able to pinpoint things we really appreciated about the Dutch culture and things we didn't mind leaving behind. Thoughts of moving back abroad were always on our mind but the logistics behind another international move just seemed too far fetched. . .until it wasn't.

Dan was contacted by a recruiter from an Amsterdam based company shortly before Christmas. In true Dutch style, the recruiter said she'd be out until after the first of the year but if Dan was interested in chatting, to send her an email. We both almost dismissed it as he was in the middle of interviews for another job but decided it couldn't hurt to have a conversation. Fast forward a month, we decided the other job didn't feel right, Dan had made a trip to Amsterdam for an on-site interview and our wheels were turning about this becoming a real possibility.

We were excited about exposing our kids to different cultures, about them becoming fluent in a second language, about the ability to travel to other countries. We were excited about living a simpler lifestyle (albeit more difficult in lots of ways), drinking good coffee and eating good bread. But we were also hesitant. Hesitant about another international move, hesitant about leaving our family and friends, hesitant about hauling 3 kids, groceries, and who knows what else, around on a bike ( yep, that picture will be me in a few months)

After much prayer, talking it over (and over and over and over), we really felt like all the pieces of the puzzle fell together perfectly and everything pointed to GO! So we are going. Again.

My hope is to document our journey of navigating an international move, lifestyle change, and adventure with our three kids and two not so newlyweds.