Nearly a year ago, I over-excitedly announced that Andrew and I would be moving to the UK January 2015. I was so young and optimistic back then. Of course, things were not where we needed them to be in January, so I updated my original post to say “moving April 2015.” It’s now three months past April, and we will either move THIS MONTH or I will give up and hitchhike to Canada.
Living in a constant state of readiness to move is exhausting. Every time we see friends and family, we think “well this could be it for a while.” We’ve said many goodbyes to people and places without feeling a sense of closure. Andrew has compared the last 5 months to purgatory. I’d say it feels like we’ve been holding our breath waiting for the ball to drop.
But don’t let us deceive you. While it may feel like we’ve just been sitting here twiddling our thumbs, our days have actually been very full. For one thing, we’ve had the time to take a few extra trips to see family, go to Disneyland, a friend’s wedding, and camping. All great stuff. We’ve also had extra time to research, worry about our visa applications, and learn more than we ever wanted to about moving to another country. AND WE HAVEN’T EVEN MOVED YET. (That’s the part that really sucks about this whole thing).
I’ve poured over blogs written by expats who have suffered through similar experiences. Many of them have shared that waiting to move is more exasperating than the actual move. I can especially relate to Wicked Brilliant’s frustration, “I have lost track of how many times I have answered these questions in the past few months: When are you leaving? Do you have a place to live lined up?” (full post here). The answer has always been “we don’t know,” and “no.” UNTIL NOW!!!! We’ve got flights people! So we can at least give an answer to the first question. Baby steps.
We’ve also shipped most of our stuff and hired a pet transport service. Slowly things are being checked off the list, but there are still a few major items left to check. Like: finding an apartment, getting a bank account, a phone plan, and furniture…
C l a r i M i c h e l e 
I understand so many of your emotions. We’re going to land in our new habitats one day…! Blessings, Sweet Friend. May your home hunting go much smoother than ours!!
I hope we both find places to settle soon! We haven’t had much luck looking for an apartment online, so we’ll have our work cut out for us when we get there. Best wishes for your New York adventure! I’m excited for what’s ahead!
Thanks for the mention! Not knowing when we would leave or get visa’s was the most brutal part of the whole process. You’re now past that! I definitely relate to saying multiple goodbyes also. We were delayed by a month, so it got awkward 🙂