There’s no place like home for the holidays… Many people interpret home differently when they become adults. For me, home is wherever my family is. However, the definitions for both home and family have changed over the years. With each stage of life, they take on new meaning and I’ve shifted into different roles. When […]
The conscious decision to open or close a life-changing gateway is an emotional process. Before an international relocation (or a domestic one, for that matter) every component of the decision is weighed countless times over. Potential consequences from each path and direction are analyzed from all angles. The immediate, intermediate, and long-term effects are mapped […]
Imagine you are a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. You are made of cardboard and have crisp edges that fit alongside your fellow puzzle pieces. Together, you make a beautiful picture and the picture isn’t whole without you. Now, imagine that you are mixed in with other puzzle pieces. In the testing of all of the […]
Every parent is afraid they are making a mistake when raising their children—abroad or domestically—and Jo Parfitt and Terry Anne Wilson are no different. In their book, Monday Morning Emails, they often question if their decision to move their families frequently throughout their children’s childhood results in their children’s inability to cope with difficulty. Monday Morning Emails […]
When my husband and I moved from Manhattan to Paris in 2012, we didn’t anticipate much in the way of culture shock. We were moving from one big, international city to another. No big deal, right? Wrong. Culture shock hit us hard. My husband struggled to navigate the intricacies of his workplace in a second […]
Over the past six years, we have become a murky blend of less-American-but-not-quite-Swedish. We’ve kept some of the old but mostly, we have embraced the new. The differences between January 2012 (back then) and January 2018 (now) are stark. Stark also conveniently translates into “strong” in Swedish. The changes in us are noticeable only when […]
Five years ago, I discovered that my wedding dress, photo albums, and a few fragile items with sentimental value ended up in a dumpster somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn’t my choice to throw away my beloved sentimental items but that of our property management company. I discovered it long after it had happened, so […]
In an ideal world, there would be only perfect relocations. A world in which everything goes according to plan, nobody is running around at the last minute all sweaty with stress, and the children are well behaved on every flight and breeze through connecting airports. In this ideal world, here’s what a perfect relocation might […]
“Money in the bank. Braces are money in the bank,” my Nana told me at her kitchen table in upstate New York. I was 15 years old; my mouth was sore and full of twisted metal. I didn’t feel like having a mouth full of braces was such a wise investment. Her words were […]
The fourth article in the Global Women Discuss Love, Loss, and Family Abroad series between Gabrielle of the Expat Coffee Club and a few Knocked Up Abroad Again contributors tackles moving abroad and the emotional challenges associated with these large transitions. Gabrielle: When my parents told me that we were moving, I was devastated. Despite the fact that we […]