"Moving to America', whenever I said these words out loud they led to a stream of questions from literally and understandably everyone, neighbours I'd only ever said hello to, call centre staff I'd rung to cancel a utility, parents in my children's school playground whose names I did not know, the list was endless.
Of course I enjoyed answering everyone's questions, hearing their stories of living abroad as a child, wishing they could go themselves, to Where is Austin? and after a few months of this it really started to hit home how BIG a deal our move was.
After our visas were stamped at the American embassy in London, I handed in my notice at work and informed the children's school, it was then my job to pack up the house, organise the international movers, inform utilities, search for tenants and even book a relocation pet company to transport our two cats to America.
I then spent weeks with as many people as possible, saying goodbye, making sure they were all connected on social media and Skype and generally soaking up every last second of England and everyone in it.
We had a leaving party which began with a children's entertainer and all our children's class mates and other friends, then later in the evening we hired a DJ for just adults. And on our very 'last night' we spent it with immediate family on both sides, this was extra hard as we knew my nephew was leaving for Australia that year too.
So the goodbyes had been done, our belongings were bobbing along an ocean somewhere and we have just arrived at Austin International airport after flying on one of the first Dreamliner aircraft direct from Heathrow, it's early evening, warm-ish and we have with us the following: four adult suitcases, two full size child car seats, two children age 7 and 4, two children's trunki hand luggage holders and two adult size hand luggage, our cats are also in the airport somewhere.
Then there is an announcement from the pilot "please stay in your seats as the police will be boarding the plane", now I don't know if this is just a normal human reaction on hearing something like that or whether it's just me. But for a split second my mind started racing through everything I'd done recently which meant they were coming aboard from me, maybe they've decided my visa looked fake, maybe the cabin crew didn't like the way I spoke to the children. Well what else could it be?
I notice I'm not the only one who is looking around curious as it turns out its the SXSW music festival this weekend and the cabin crew had complained about a couple of drunk youngsters, phew!
So after getting our American visa's officially stamped with today's date March 13th 2014 at Austin airport, a proud feeling of achievement washed over us after months of planning and stress, we then had a lovely surprise greeting us as we walked into the arrival lounge, a couple of my husbands work colleagues waving 'Welcome' banners.
We then waited around for almost an hour as no one appeared to know where our cats were, we collected a rental car from the airport, piled everything we had into it and eventually we located the cats just before 9pm, the poor things wined the whole 20 minute drive to our new house.
We finally arrive at our new house tired, exhausted, hungry but very happy. We get the beds sorted as best we can, have some pizza, get the children asleep and then realise one cat has wee'd on our brand new duvet so the duvet goes outside, one child gets moved to join the other child in bed and my husband and I share the remaining duvet!
We now officially live in America!!!!
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