In the beginning.... in the beginning was over a year ago now! The day we received a cryptic call from an old friend and colleague asking my husband to meet him in London, not as a social call but to discuss a proposal!
A proposal!!!??
Instant excitement... our friend of 20 years knew we eventually wanted to move to North America (where I grew up) and a 'proposal' sounded extremely promising!
Gareth met Mark on the 14th of December 2014 to discuss the proposal... here Mark told my husband Gareth that a position had become available in Chicago in a branch of the company that Mark worked in and if interested, they would be interested in talking to Gareth!
We had a very short conversation about what to do and almost immediately said we would like to apply for this position. Oh the excitement we both felt, I was virtually bursting for weeks! The only problem was that they wanted Gareth early in 2015... March/April time. It was my 11 year olds last year at primary school and not only did we not want to withdraw her from school at such a critical stage for academic reasons but also because there was a residential trip booked for her class to mark the last 3 days of primary school it was very important for her to attend and complete that chapter of her life.
It seemed so important then not to interrupt their schooling and so we thought I would stay behind until the summer holidays and then join Gareth out in Chicago... in hind site this would have been a very bad thing for, well, probably all of us, but most certainly me!
With the prospect of Gareth leaving in March we thought it would be a whirlwind once Christmas was over and so, in eager anticipation, we set about deciding what we would keep and what we didn't really want. Searching up houses and school and joining every expat forum available. I was still on maternity leave at this time, although I had accepted a new job due to start in the New Year and I had to decide if I could cope on my own with three kids and working with my husband overseas.
We decided I would make it work even if only for a time and besides I would have three months before I had to worry about that juggling act.
Well January came I started my new job, we waited for the US office to open and gave them a week to get back into the swing of work and then... no phone call, so we called Mark, our contact and he assured us we would hear soon. Another week went by. We called again... what was happening? Again told we would hear soon... another week and another, someone was talking to the office in the UK, someone else was putting a package together, then someone was waiting on information from another department... another week went by... Long story short we waited months... literal months... painful tear filled months where we were fed tiny tid bits of information but nothing ever seemed to actually happen and promises of information and interviews and visits to see Chicago never formed and yet they always said 'next week'... next week... next week!!!!!
Soon it was June, we were arguing... a lot... did we book a holiday or wait to see what happened? Did I start selling toys and household items or wait? Did I tell my job? did I book more ballet lessons for the girls? Did we start thinking about summer birthdays? Did we get dental records and doctors records? Should the school know? So many questions to think about and so much to organise and yet we were literally unable to make even simple decisions about what to do with the kids in the summer holidays or even if I could confirm kids attendance to friends parties as we didn't know if we would be around.... our stress levels were high as our life was simply on hold!!! No moving forward or even sideways!
Then we got a phone call that left us devastated... the company had decided on a necessary global restructure and they no longer knew if they could support the relocation... six months of being dragged along and then the carpet pulled from under our feet! Six months of not knowing if next week we would finally get the call we were told we would get or if the interview would be arranged or the visit set up... six months of intense emotional struggle.... maybe HR had known about the restructure and this is why they were so slow with information and arrangements, maybe it was brewing so they kept us on the back burner... Whatever it was, after this news and many tears we took an emotional break and a holiday in the sun and decided to move on with life and if they came back to us, as we were told they might in August, great!!! and if they didn't... well it was a nice idea and at least now we knew how important moving really was to us.
We had a few weeks of feeling more at rest. I still was looking at houses and praying as I realised my new job was not really what I wanted and I needed to know if I should quit and look for a new job or hold on as we would be moving. I wanted to believe there was still hope.
There was... mid July we got another phone call; they still had the budget and still wanted Gareth!!! Dubious and nervous we began the process again, from the start, but somehow this time there was more urgency. There were interviews!! There was a trip arranged in early October which went very well: Chicago is a lovely accessible city and although we were in the suburbs we still were able to get into the city and back at a fraction of the cost it would be to travel from where we live now into London... the distance being near enough the same! We enjoyed the shopping, the children's museums and the zoo and returned to the UK feeling that we could easily be at home in the USA.
It's December now, the process from July to now has not been much quicker than it was when this all began, the only difference is we have had actual facts and figures being fed to us now and importantly we had our Visa interview in London at the Embassy... and Visa's are ready to collect tomorrow!!!
Next post will look more at what we had to do to get to this point.
A proposal!!!??
Instant excitement... our friend of 20 years knew we eventually wanted to move to North America (where I grew up) and a 'proposal' sounded extremely promising!
Gareth met Mark on the 14th of December 2014 to discuss the proposal... here Mark told my husband Gareth that a position had become available in Chicago in a branch of the company that Mark worked in and if interested, they would be interested in talking to Gareth!
We had a very short conversation about what to do and almost immediately said we would like to apply for this position. Oh the excitement we both felt, I was virtually bursting for weeks! The only problem was that they wanted Gareth early in 2015... March/April time. It was my 11 year olds last year at primary school and not only did we not want to withdraw her from school at such a critical stage for academic reasons but also because there was a residential trip booked for her class to mark the last 3 days of primary school it was very important for her to attend and complete that chapter of her life.
It seemed so important then not to interrupt their schooling and so we thought I would stay behind until the summer holidays and then join Gareth out in Chicago... in hind site this would have been a very bad thing for, well, probably all of us, but most certainly me!
With the prospect of Gareth leaving in March we thought it would be a whirlwind once Christmas was over and so, in eager anticipation, we set about deciding what we would keep and what we didn't really want. Searching up houses and school and joining every expat forum available. I was still on maternity leave at this time, although I had accepted a new job due to start in the New Year and I had to decide if I could cope on my own with three kids and working with my husband overseas.
We decided I would make it work even if only for a time and besides I would have three months before I had to worry about that juggling act.
Well January came I started my new job, we waited for the US office to open and gave them a week to get back into the swing of work and then... no phone call, so we called Mark, our contact and he assured us we would hear soon. Another week went by. We called again... what was happening? Again told we would hear soon... another week and another, someone was talking to the office in the UK, someone else was putting a package together, then someone was waiting on information from another department... another week went by... Long story short we waited months... literal months... painful tear filled months where we were fed tiny tid bits of information but nothing ever seemed to actually happen and promises of information and interviews and visits to see Chicago never formed and yet they always said 'next week'... next week... next week!!!!!
Soon it was June, we were arguing... a lot... did we book a holiday or wait to see what happened? Did I start selling toys and household items or wait? Did I tell my job? did I book more ballet lessons for the girls? Did we start thinking about summer birthdays? Did we get dental records and doctors records? Should the school know? So many questions to think about and so much to organise and yet we were literally unable to make even simple decisions about what to do with the kids in the summer holidays or even if I could confirm kids attendance to friends parties as we didn't know if we would be around.... our stress levels were high as our life was simply on hold!!! No moving forward or even sideways!
Then we got a phone call that left us devastated... the company had decided on a necessary global restructure and they no longer knew if they could support the relocation... six months of being dragged along and then the carpet pulled from under our feet! Six months of not knowing if next week we would finally get the call we were told we would get or if the interview would be arranged or the visit set up... six months of intense emotional struggle.... maybe HR had known about the restructure and this is why they were so slow with information and arrangements, maybe it was brewing so they kept us on the back burner... Whatever it was, after this news and many tears we took an emotional break and a holiday in the sun and decided to move on with life and if they came back to us, as we were told they might in August, great!!! and if they didn't... well it was a nice idea and at least now we knew how important moving really was to us.
We had a few weeks of feeling more at rest. I still was looking at houses and praying as I realised my new job was not really what I wanted and I needed to know if I should quit and look for a new job or hold on as we would be moving. I wanted to believe there was still hope.
There was... mid July we got another phone call; they still had the budget and still wanted Gareth!!! Dubious and nervous we began the process again, from the start, but somehow this time there was more urgency. There were interviews!! There was a trip arranged in early October which went very well: Chicago is a lovely accessible city and although we were in the suburbs we still were able to get into the city and back at a fraction of the cost it would be to travel from where we live now into London... the distance being near enough the same! We enjoyed the shopping, the children's museums and the zoo and returned to the UK feeling that we could easily be at home in the USA.
It's December now, the process from July to now has not been much quicker than it was when this all began, the only difference is we have had actual facts and figures being fed to us now and importantly we had our Visa interview in London at the Embassy... and Visa's are ready to collect tomorrow!!!
Next post will look more at what we had to do to get to this point.
