No regrets!!!

After reading my last post a friend of mine left me a comment saying "... Your sacrifice will not go un-noticed."

First of all I want to say that I appreciate the comment and took it in no other way than as a compliment but it also inspired me to write this post about my feelings about moving our family to Sweden.

I am forever grateful that we had this possibility to come here to help my Mother.  I always say that I don't ever want there to be any regrets.  My sacrifice would have been NOT packing up and moving across half the globe.  A decision that my dear friend Ronny says would have been fully understandable and accepted.  "Most people would find reasons not to go..."  I understand that looking from the outside - leaving a pretty organized, comfortable life in favor of big question marks filling our future may seem risky.  But by Divine Intervention - or whatever you may call it - our family was in a transition anyway, having just sold our house in California in order to live closer to our East Coast family.  I don't know about you, but I think a lot of times things happen for a reason - we just have to be open to whatever is being thrown our way!

I don't mean to get stuck on words but with our move here and with tough days that we sometimes have - I still can't see the sacrifice - I only see the opportunity!
... An opportunity to bring comfort to my Mother to know that we are there for her through our actions.
... An equally important opportunity to teach our children what our values are.  - To teach them that when a family member (or friend) faces a challenge, we stick together!  I sure hope that's what they learn from this! ;)

Obviously we've been fortunate that the transition has been quite smooth.  The kids already spoke Swedish so well that there's been no problem for them to adjust to school and making friends here.  My husband also enjoys the life here.  He likes to tell the story of the after-school-care that are for children with "parents that work late - like 4 pm or so!" (Like one teacher told us.)  Life here is more focused on the family than work...  As for me, who have not lived in Sweden since I was 21 - I am falling in love with my city all over again!  As a teenager, longing to see the world, I couldn't see all that this city has to offer.  But priorities change... life change... and life is good!

Christmas 2011