How we got here.

You could say that the journey to here began when I first moved to London six years ago.  I had committed to working in London for just one year but I knew in my heart that that was just the beginning.

I met my husband in London and thankfully one year turned in to two which turned in to an engagement and then a marriage and then one baby and then another and in that time six years passed by. 

Always in the back of my mind and sometimes in the forefront was that nagging question: where is home? 

At the beginning of my time in London, home was in the states.  In New York where I had moved from, in the Midwest where I grew up, and especially in the physical structure of my parent’s house.  Yet as the days and weeks and years passed, home started to get blurry and muddled.  Home was what Adrian and I were building between us.  That gentle haven where we were finding our way of moving together in the world. Home was still the place I grew up, but London was also starting to feel like home, too.  Friendships took root and grew shoots, and we were building a garden of varied people and places that now meant something very deep to us. 

As our family grew to have our precious son, the question of home loomed large in my mind.  What felt like to home to me?  For our growing family?  Where did we want to nurture this family we were forming?

I talked to friends who knew these feelings intimately: others who were living with their lives straddled between 2 countries, hearts stretched across the ocean.  They knew these feelings and wrestled with them too.  We could understand one another, but we were all at different points in our stories and though I wanted to find someone whose road map I could follow, I knew it had to be our journey.

When we were pregnant with our second son, a stirring started in me.  A longing for more room to breathe in.  More room for my boys to explore in.  We did not need a lot more, but we needed more than the small, cozy patch we had.  A shift happened within us.  Our resolve was built.  And despite the painful repercussions from our decision, we knew we needed to explore finding our home on the other side of the pond. 

We are now here and missing our home in England terribly.  There are deep wounds of longing for the friends and family we have left there.  For the city of London and the streets and corners we know dearly.  But this life is not forever and our little growing family needed room to stretch and grow and to find it’s feet on this side of the pond too.  To reconnect with this momma’s roots and to see what life could look like here.  So here we are.