Bye bye flatlands – hello rocky new beginnings

Ever since we said goodbye to our backpacks last summer and settled into our daily lives in Sweden again this itchy feeling refused to leave our bodies. It´s almost been a year since we left our house and set off to the west with our little ones, now it´s time to set off again – all though this time the backpack will be slightly bigger and the destination is pointing south.

It´s been a while, I know. I´ve missed communicating with you through this blog and in the same time I haven´t really felt the inspiration to open the computer and start typing. Ever since we got back from the US last summer we have done our best to find our feet in our old life. Coming back to Sweden during summertime was of course a quite genius move. Everything here was blooming, the temperatures were reaching all time high and people were happy. And I have to be franc, after three months on the road, constantly moving and changing venues, it was quite nice to just land in our house again. Sit on the sofa, that didn´t have to be turned into a bed at night, having a lot of private space and being comfortable in knowing everything around us.

Still, something was moving around inside of us. And it continued to do so during the rest of the year. I started my own company, Eddie started school, Thomas got a new job and Olivia dived into kindergarten and her old friendships like nothing had happened. But something had indeed happened. And it didn´t matter how many new things we tried out and threw ourselves in, the restlessness wouldn´t disappear. We needed to change environment. Really change. And this insight have now lead us to the decision to move abroad for a year and rent out our house.

During the next month we will downscale our stuff immensely moving from our two story house to a small three room apartment in Basel, Switzerland. Our mission is to get rid of everything we don´t need. And only keep stuff that are really bringing value into our lives. How we will pull this off in four weeks I am actually not really sure at the moment, but the moving truck leaves in the end of March and then everything has to be ready.

The fact that we are moving abroad, even though it might be temporary, sometimes freaks me out. The feeling of tearing up something familiar, something that is already working and replace it with something that I have no clue about is leaving me with butterflies in my stomach. Other times I can´t wait to be in Basel, discovering my new home city and figuring out daily life in another country. I´ve always wanted to work abroad and this particular country is not even all that strange to me. It is my husbands home and we´ve visited many times. Still, being a tourist there and settling down is two completely different things.

Also we are not alone anymore. We have two wonderful kids in tow that have their needs and opinions too. They will need our guidance and support when they are scared or feel out of place. And knowing that we will now put them in a situation that might be a bit stressful for them is sometimes an unpleasant thought. In my dark hours I feel like the complete bad guy taking Eddie out of school (a school that he just got to know) and throwing him into a new environment where he knows no one. In my more bright hours I see it as part of life, something that make our kids and us grow as human beings.

Well, I guess all we can do is to try things out. To say yes to opportunities and dive into them with our hearts open. And if it doesn´t work out, we change direction. Taking chances is scary because we have the feeling that we can lose something. Still, the only time we really lose something is when we say no to an opportunity because we are scared of what might come.

I invite you to follow us on this journey – moving abroad and starting over. During the next weeks and months I will guide you through the different steps of our adventure – thoughts and feelings of a family that go from house to apartment, from countryside to city and from Pippi Långstrump to Heidi.