It’s been five months since we moved to the US, say what?! I’m not sure where the time has gone, but if it could slow down for a minute that’d be great! 

Since we’ve been here a little while now, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on our time here so far, and how we are finding it. Although I believe these first few months won’t really be a true reflection of what’s to come. Since we’ve been frantically sorting out the house, settling the girls, opening accounts left, right, and center, and sorting out mountains of paperwork (I’ll expand on these in a future post). And whilst these things are part of everyday life, they don’t encompass life as they have for us up until recently.

Having said that we have still been taking in every experience we can, and despite the chaos, we’re loving it here. However, I’d be lying to say there isn’t a small part of me that’s homesick, which comes as a surprise to me as it’s not a feeling I’ve really experienced before. 

I miss the stuff we often take for granted, like knowing what aisle in the supermarket to look for stock cubes in, what brand of coffee is good (and that’s a big one for me – mama needs her caffeine!) and most importantly, what brand of toilet roll is both soft and good value for money. I miss simply knowing the things we don’t have to think about, the things we’ve slowly perfected over the years, so we grab what we know and like without thought. Currently every shopping trip is part of an information building process, which makes grocery shopping super stressful. But I’m getting there, and you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve nailed the toilet roll, which is a small victory that I’m going to take.

Of course what I miss most is our family and friends. We’re used to living away from family, as we weren’t geographically close to most of them in the UK. We did however travel to see them regularly, and not being able to hop in the car to go and see them is hard. Especially for the girls; Aubrey in particular who can’t grasp how far away we are, and how long (and expensive) the trip would be to get back to the UK. Having to explain to them that we can’t visit right now, whilst fighting the pain of missing everyone too, is really tough. 

We also have a great relationship with our group of friends who we saw regularly for dinner dates, board games, or general gatherings. Not being able to arrange a last minute meet up, or have an event in the diary with them to look forward to sucks. And whilst I know it’ll be easier once we’ve established friendships here, it doesn’t stop it hurting now. On the plus side though, I’m sure we’ll value and appreciate our future visits with our friends and family more than we did in the past.

We have been super lucky to have had family and friends come and visit already, and have more in the diary for the upcoming year. Having these to look forward to makes missing loved ones easier. And I’m so grateful that our friends and family have been so supportive of our move.

One thing I never appreciated enough before now is technology, and social media. Being able to video chat with our friends and family has been awesome. The girls love being able to see who they’re talking too and it provides a great opportunity for a decent catch up. I’ve also loved keeping in touch with everyone on the social sites, seeing photos and videos really helps to still feel included in what’s going on. And has helped me to adjust to not seeing them in real life.

On a more positive note we’re really enjoying getting out and exploring new places, learning about new traditions and meeting new people. It’s been great to see places that I didn’t think I ever would and I’m already looking forward to seeing more! We absolutely love the area that we live in, and can’t wait to integrate into the community. Emma’s doing really well at school, and although she misses her friends from the UK, she’s enjoying the change of scenery. Overall we feel like we made the right decision, and can’t wait to see how we’ll find the next 5 months. 

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