Every now and then, I stop and just take a deep breath. The thoughts racing around in my head fade a little and I relax a bit. It’s hard for me to believe that, less than three months ago, we were in Ottawa. Then, we knew that moving to California was a possibility, but I had all but given up on it in reality. The lils were ready to go back to school, and we had a full slate of activities lined up for them for the fall and winter. I figured that we would keep going on as we had been for a while yet. Things changed quickly in late August.

The one thing that I asked Willy for when we started to consider a move to California was time. Our last assignment was rushed; we barely had two months from the day that we were approved to the day we arrived in India. This was worse. With the pressure on to get the lils into their new school fast, Willy still away, and the whole house needing to be packed, we gave ourselves three weeks. We could have done it, but I would have lost my mind. It took a little over four weeks, and my sanity is still in question.

In a perfect world, settling in would have been a smooth process, but it hasn’t quite been. Nothing we have faced has proven to be crushing, just challenging in some way. The lils go to two different schools, because there isn’t room for them both at the same school. We still need to get furniture, but I guess Goose can store her clothes on her bottom bunk for a few more weeks. Our property manager is ignoring us, but I am good at escalating. We still don’t have any new friends, but we are trying. The election… the challenges from that result aren’t unique to us, nor do they affect us as severely as many others.

We are, for the most part, content. The lils are happy in their schools, and have adjusted better than we thought possible. We have dinner as a family almost every day, because Willy is travelling a lot less than he has for years. The lils have become AMAZING swimmers, and are in the pool and hot tub almost every day. They miss their home and friends terribly, but can appreciate all that California has to offer us. We’ve started adventuring, and have many more planned. Some of them even include the fun kind of roller coaster.