Thursday, June 15, 2017

We are moving to Switzerland......now what?

A week ago today, my husband made his final decision to change jobs.  An opportunity came to him two months ago to live and work in Basel Switzerland, and we decided to go for it.  It is exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

We didn't come to this decision lightly.  For those who don't know us, we have an almost 11 year old daughter who is legally blind.  After talking with her teacher for the vision impaired- who encouraged us to do this with her - we decided to take the leap.  She will be well supported in school while we are there, and her TVI and we believe this will increase her independence.  That is an invaluable skill for a blind child to have.

Now the process of moving begins.  We have lived in our current house for six years and love it and our town.  We decided not to sell the house but rent it while we are away.  We would love to return to this town and our life here in the future, so for now....the house stays.

We don't move until the beginning of August, and the rest of the summer will be devoted to getting the house ready (painted, cleaned, freshened), and packing (what goes with us, what goes to storage).  We will be living in a much smaller house or apartment while we are in Switzerland, so we are figuring that out.

The kids have their good days and bad days.  We have three kids.  Our oldest is 14 years old and will be starting high school there.  Out of the three she is the one looking forward to this the most.  She has mixed feelings most days - excited for the opportunity, but sad that she won't be going to high school with her friends.  Next is our 11 year old son.  He is a fairly easy going kid.  He did cry because he doesn't like change.  This is a kid who has a bowl of oatmeal every morning for breakfast and never varies.  But the tears were short lived.  He is coming around nicely and even agreed to start to pack up his legos.  Last is our 10 year old daughter.  She took it the hardest.  She is a quiet, reserved child with vision impairment, and change is very hard for her for that reason.  She is getting there - she still has sad moments, and expect those to continue for awhile once we are living there.  But I know in the end, this will be the best experience for all of them, and that will help us through the hard times.

This weekend, the kids and I (and my mom) are heading to Basel for a few days to visit the area, see the schools, and check out the neighbors where we could live.  We are looking forward to having a chance to see the place in person and for the kids to meet some of their classmates.  I think this will help us all be in the right mind set for this big move.

So buckle up buttercup.  I am going to keep this blog while we live in Basel and travel through Europe.  We look forward to sharing our experiences and keeping a log of these memories for our kids.

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