We Have Arrived!

July 12, 20132 Comments

This will be a quick post because I have to write on my phone until we get internet hooked up at our house, but I wanted to give an update on our trip out to Ireland. Here are our travel highlights:

We realized our credit card was lost when we tried to check in for our flight. The restaurant that we’d lost it at found the card, my mom picked it up, and drove it back to the airport just in time for us to board our flight.

Our flights were on time (Yahoo!)

The boys both fell asleep within 20 minutes of takeoff.

Jacob slept in the ergo on my lap for 8 hours. My arms were numb but the passengers around us were grateful to not have a screaming baby on their flight.

London-Heathrow is a crazy maze of an airport with a bajillion security checkpoints designed to never let you get to your connecting flight. Note to self: Do NOT try to navigate this madness with a short layover and a sleep-deprived 2-year old (especially if you don’t have a stroller!).

David had the wildest toddler meltdown I’ve ever witnessed while we were RUNNING through the London airport. It was so bad they let us cut in front of the entire security line to go straight through. Saved us 30 minutes of line-waiting and allowed us to actually catch our connecting flight. Well played, David.

We actually caught our connecting flight. It was close, but we made it just in time–sweat-drenched and stressed out, but we made it.

The airline lost our stroller and car seat (they have now been found and returned). This was actually a good thing, because it allowed us to pack all of our bags into our rental car at the airport (we really didn’t think it would all fit into one car!).

Our rental house (while we’re waiting for our real house to be ready for move in in Monday) is awesome! We have 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and even a basketball hoop in the courtyard 🙂 The lady who is renting this house to us also stocked our kitchen with bread and pastries from her local bakery, milk, cheese, butter, jam, and tea–Because she knew we would be hungry after our long day of travel. Have I mentioned how much I love Irish people?

We ate McDonald’s for our first dinner in Ireland 🙂

We got food, showers, and naps.

We got a good night’s sleep.

Today we will go see our new house and explore our new neighborhood.

It is sunny and 75° here–gorgeous!!!

We are excited to see more of Ireland today!

Goodbye, USA

July 10, 20131 Comment

Pinch me, because I can’t believe this is actually happening. We’re moving to Ireland. Today. What the WHAT?!

It’s pretty surreal that in a few hours I will actually be getting on a plane with our two children and going “home” to a house I’ve never seen before. Our “Grand Adventure” (as I’ve taken to calling this move) has been a long time in coming so I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. Nothing can prepare you, though, for something like this finally happening when it’s actually time to pack up and head out.

When we first found out about our potential move to Ireland 10 months ago I was excited, then nervous, then scared, then at peace with the whole thing. Now I’m at the point where I’m ready to be done with all of the planning and just be there already. We’ve been so BUSY for the last month that I’ve hardly had time to catch my breath, let alone get all emotional about the move (Do you know what kind of paperwork is required to move a family internationally? It’a NUTS! Now I see why all of the Mexicans just walk through the desert when they want to move…Good thinking, amigos.).

Now that I’m taking five minutes to sit down and write this all out, though, I’m realizing that I do have some thoughts that have been hanging in the back of my mind. Like, how I’m really going to miss this place and these people.

This is the house that we brought both of our babies home to after they were born, the place where our family became a family. I decorated the nursery when my belly was out to HEEEEEEERE. My husband hand-laid our wood floors with his dad. We installed the most ridiculous set of closet organizers and shelves that you will ever see in a house (that’s what you get when two Type-A’s shack up together). I’m going to miss all of that.

I’m going to miss Seattle–especially since we are literally moving during the first (unofficial) week of Seattle-Summer (FYI: In the Northwest, Summer starts the day after Independence Day). I’d say that I’m going to miss the rainy days, the greenery and the blue water–but, actually, I’ll have more rainy days, more greenery and more water when I move to the (damp) island of Ireland. I will miss the rush-hour-at-all-hours I-5 traffic, the legalized pot distribution center down the street from our house, and the CONVERGENCE ZONE (OK, so I won’t actually miss any of those things. Stay classy, Seattle.). No, I really do love Seattle and all of it’s unique and quirky traits. I will miss it dearly.

But, most importantly, I will miss the people. Our family and our friends who are like family. We live out our lives with the people we love, and it will be very hard to leave them. I know that we will meet new people and make new friends in our new home–but it’s never quite the same. So, to those of you who know us well, know that you will be missed (and there will always be room for you in our house if you want to come visit!).

I know this will be one exciting ride and I can’t wait to see where it takes us. Goodbye, Seattle. Goodbye, friends. Goodbye, USA.

Hello, Grand Adventure.

Moving Day

July 4, 2013Leave a comment

Today we made a big step toward moving to Ireland: a moving company came and packed up our house. 58 boxes and 1 very full truck later, we are ready to go! It will take 6-8 weeks for our stuff to sail across the ocean, so we have officially begun the “living out of suitcases” stage of this journey! We still have lots of furniture and personal items to move down to our garage for storage, but we are one step closer to getting this move done. I will be staying with the boys at my parents’ house for the rest of this week while Jon finishes packing and working.

Final Housing Search!

June 23, 20131 Comment

One of our “potentials” in Cork

This morning Jon woke up at 4:45 AM to catch a flight to Ireland for his third–and final–housing search. Unfortunately, 12 hours later, he is still…sitting at the airport. His flight got delayed…then delayed…then delayed…until he eventually changed to a new flight plan altogether. He will now be leaving Seattle at about 6:00 this evening, flying through the night to London, and then on to Cork. This is an unfortunate beginning to the trip, but hopefully it’s not a sign of disappointments to come!

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks researching housing online, making spreadsheets, and plotting potential houses on maps. In the end, though, we will be at the mercy of the quick-moving Cork rental market. Houses go very quickly there, so hopefully the right house is available for us at the right time. Jon will have less than 4 days to set up a bank account, see houses, make a decision and sign a lease. We are planning on moving July 6th, so we are really hoping we can find something that will be available in the next week or two. It’s a lot to accomplish, but we know that God has the right place already picked out for us!

As soon as he signs a lease I’ll update here with some photos. Crazy that by the end of this week we’ll have our very own house in Ireland!

Ireland, Here We Come!

June 5, 20131 Comment

Well,friends, it’s actually happening–we finally have everything we need for our move. Our visas came through about 2 weeks ago but, due to a family emergency, we put everything for the move on hold for awhile. Jon went back to work this week and got the proverbial ball rolling again. He will be going out to Ireland June 24-28 to sign a lease on our house, set up a local bank account, look into leasing a car, and just getting things generally set for us to move. We will have to see what the terms are for the lease that he signs, but if the house we want is available right away we will try to be in Ireland by July 8th.

This, of course, means that it’s crunch time for us to get everything ready now. I made about a dozen appointments today: the vet, a house cleaner, the dog groomer, dentists, doctors. I really don’t even know where to start with the whole packing situation. Since we won’t know if we are getting a furnished or unfurnished house until Jon signs a lease, it’s kinda difficult to know what all will stay and what will go. Jon is meeting with the moving company this week to get things sorted out, so hopefully they’ll be able to help us out. In the meantime, I will attempt to throw things into boxes in a somewhat organized manner.

This whole move has been such an on-again, off-again ordeal that I’m relieved to know things are moving forward. Now, to get through the chaos of the next month!

Visa Update

May 6, 20133 Comments

We just got word last week that our visas should be ready by the middle of June. Our visas are the last “official” piece of business that needs to be taken care of before we can actually move. In fact, since we have already applied for visas it is actually illegal for us to be in Ireland until we have them.

After we get our visas we will book Jon’s final house-hunting trip (this one will actually be a lease-signing trip!). We want to make sure at least one of us gets to see in person the place that we will be living to make sure it will accommodate our family. Jon will probably travel to Ireland about 3 weeks after we get our visas and we’ll start packing up during those 3 weeks. Once he returns from the lease-signing trip we should be ready to move within a week or 2…so, looks like we should be in Ireland by the end of July or early August!

This is perfect timing because we’ll get to spend time with family who will be visiting in early July and possibly even celebrate Jacob’s first birthday here with the people who already know and love him 🙂 It’s also great because we have been given one trip home per year that we live in Ireland, as long as there are at least 6 months left on Jon’s contract when we travel. Since we’ll be in Ireland until July 2015, that means we will be able to travel home for Christmas each year that we live over there (because if we travel at the end of December we will still have at least 6 months until we move back home in July 2015).

Two other exciting developments have taken place recently. First, we have found wonderful renters for our home here–they are good friends of ours with two children the same ages as our boys. We know they will take good care of our home–and they’re even going to let us use our garage as a storage unit! Secondly, we have found a church in Ireland. A friend and former co-worker of mine has a good friend who moved to Cork 7 years ago to plant a Christian church. His church is one of only a handful of evangelical Christian churches in the city, so it is amazing that we already have a connection there.

Hopefully I’ll have more news to share again soon!

We Love, Teach, Grow

My journey through motherhood

Tag: moving