Welcome and Introductions

I became an Expat Wife in 2011.

My husband had been offered an international position in 2010 and when it fell through we felt disappointed.  That realisation spoke volumes about how we felt about trying a life abroad.  So when the next offer came, the wrangling of "if's, buts and maybes" wasn't really a big player, for us it was the how, where, when.

I resigned from my job, a good job, a job I had worked damn hard to cultivate over 9 years (more on that later).  We said goodbye to our beloved and essential children's nursery who had played such an enormous part in our lives. We had a leaving come DIY party at our gorgeous stone built house in a sleepy village with all of our friends.  There were multiple last meals with different social groups before we headed off.

Of course, there were goodbyes to family as well.  For our extended family though it was a mixed sensation.  We are an Aussie/Brit couple living in the North of England with his parents in Brisbane and Fiji and mine in London.  Actually our move would not change the journey time or frequency of visits for either party very much.

When I look back now, we knew very little about where we were going, we hadn't done any pre-visits, there were a lot of unanswered questions that we believed would be sorted out as we went along.  Beyond Expat Husbands start date and our flight time, the only other thing we knew was that a car would meet us at the airport and the following day a relocation agent would show us around.

So with a sleepless, anxious night under our belts, our good friends drove us in convoy, with all our bags and two sleepy kids to Manchester airport ready for our new adventure in Amsterdam, Netherlands.