“You are going to have such an adventure!” We have heard this or some version of the same from almost everyone since first deciding to move to The Netherlands 3 months ago.
Our journey to get to this point was not an easy one-imagine my surprise when my husband told me that he had the opportunity to take on a new role in his company, but that it would require that we move to The Netherlands. My first reaction was to say no. My second reaction was to consider the opportunities it would afford us. From that point, the decision-making process was a tug of war between wanting to grab ahold of the opportunity and to hold onto the life that we had in Oklahoma-a good life near family and friends and with lots of great spaces and activities. While we really loved our life in Oklahoma, in the end, we decided that the opportunities offered by the move were too great and much to our children’s chagrin (and sometimes mine), we charged ahead with the move.
From the moment we found out that my husband was being offered the job to the day that we moved, was a total of about 11 weeks (part of which was spent out of the country visiting family). Attempting to wrap up your life in one country and begin a new one in another country in the span of 11 weeks is hard work and a lot of stress…but, apparently, it can be done. From finding a new school for our kids and a home to live in, to wrapping up my job in Tulsa and finding a house sitter for our home in The States, there was a lot to do. Now add on packing up belongings (and deciding what to leave behind for the interim period-we are now at 7 weeks without our things and I’m getting very tired of wearing the same 5 shirts over and over and cooking with 2 pans!), figuring out legal and tax issues, squeezing in doctor appointments and haircuts, and arranging for the moving of our three pets (2 dogs and 1 cat). While all of this consumed our every thought and most of our time, we still squeezed in all of our favorite summer activities and time to visit with friends.
While all of that was an adventure in and of itself, after many tearful and sometimes painful goodbyes, the real adventure began on August 5th when we boarded a plane with our two kids, 11 bags of luggage, 4 backpacks, a guitar and a violin for our new home in Rotterdam. And, with almost every goodbye, we heard that same phrase: “What an adventure you all will have” or “I can’t wait to hear about your adventures.” So, I would like to invite you all to come along on this adventure with us by watching our journey on this page. From our experience in day to day living to travel around Europe, we hope to bring you, our friends and family, along with us. Let the adventure (and misadventures) begin!
My So Called Dutch Life 