the big move across the sea

second post of the day.....i really should have kept more on top of this reverb-ing. but even though today is the last day of 2010, i will continue the reverb posts until i have finished all of them....

Defining Moment. Describe a defining moment or series of events that has affected your life this year.

in late march of 2010 rhys and i made the decision to move to America. that one decision set in motion a series of events over the past 9 months that have changed the way i view life, marriage, motherhood, myself and family. aside from the life changing decision of saying yes when rhys proposed, i do not think that there has been any other choice, or event, that has changed my life as much as that decision in late march.

i am not opposed to sharing all the gory details of the 'series of events' that decision has created. i am more than willing to discuss the ups and downs of trying to immigrate overseas. (yes, i said immigrate. yes, i realise i am an america so technically i cant immigrate to the states...yadda yadda yadda.) but to dive into all the details would require hours and hours of writing and lets be honest, who is actually going to read pages and pages of intimate details about my life?

so i will leave it at this- a list. because i love lists and they are easy to read.

the decision in late march 2010 to move to america had the following repercussions:

-leaving the only place i have ever been a wife
-leaving the only place i have ever been a mother
-leaving the place of my daughters birth
-leaving behind the most amazing community i have ever been a part of
-walking into the unknown in terms of friends, jobs, living arrangements and well, basically everything
-having to balance green living with life in middle america (basing this on what it was like when i lived there 4 years ago)
-losing the benefits of a mildly socialist government. things like mandatory year paid maternity leave, mandatory 5 weeks holiday a year. mandatory bank holidays where everyone is off. government benefits and payouts for having a baby, being healthy, etc... i could go on and on.
-leaving baby mamas
-losing my independence in more ways than one
-leaving london
-moving to wales
-living with the in-laws
-parenting in 'interesting' circumstances
-living completely out of my control- by others rules.
-created fear of how to live life in my home country
-fear of what it will be like to mother, be a wife etc...
-created stronger faith than i even knew possible
-created a sense of family that is unbreakable

i could go on, but the premise is that since deciding to move to america, our life has been a whirlwind of one life changing moment after another. some have been wonderful. some have been difficult, but necessary and some i could do without. but regardless, no single thing, 2010 or otherwise, has been more defining than the decision to move to america.

and here we are 9 months later and still waiting to go....