The one-year countdown: where we’re at
Okay, so we’re truly in the last 12 months of living stateside. One more of every season, every birthday, every holiday. It’s feeling simultaneously so far away and that next year will be here in a flash. (How is it already almost July???)
Here’s where we’re at:
Prepping our finances
We sold our rental property and now need to play the waiting game to gather six months’ worth of bank statements for the spouse visa.
I still need to talk to our financial advisor about our retirement accounts, see if they can stay as is or what. Same with life insurance.
We’ll consolidate some accounts next year, close the fancy credit card, not renew the CDs, that kind of thing, but that can all wait for now.
Downsizing our belongings
I’ve been giving away baby stuff for the past couple of months. It’s that odd combination of cathartic and bittersweet. Baby time is over, what a relief and how sad to say goodbye.
I’m slowly taking stock of our other belongings too and being conscientious of buying new stuff. It’s weird to start thinking about just what we need to get through the next year, like, Should I buy the jumbo pack of paper towels? Probably just this smaller pack . . . I always meant to buy a nice chair for our bedroom and never did - guess we’ll just keep using that folding chair until we move. Our car needed new tires and instead of getting the nice expensive ones, I got some mid-range ones since we’ll sell the car next spring. That kind of decision-making is starting to crop up on a regular basis.
Organizing our documents
I’m trying to stay on top of all the boring stuff that’s easy to forget or overlook. I renewed the passports that were close to expiring. (Our family of four has seven passports so there’s always one that’s about to expire.)
Our drivers licenses are good to go. I’ll make sure to get paper copies of our medical records next year. I’m starting to gather documents for the spouse visa, like utility bills and mortgage statements.
Thinking about our scouting trip
We’re going on a family scouting trip in August (yay!) and are starting to research neighborhoods and house prices.
The idea is that we’ll rent during the move/transition with the plan to buy asap, ideally all in the same neighborhood so we don’t have to make two big moves. This means renting somewhere where we could afford to buy and somewhere we’d like to be long term. No pressure.
Building the business
My husband has been head down working on his own marketing business. He wants it to be strong and established enough that he can continue running it from the UK so he is balls to the wall hustling. I’m so proud of him, but it’s taking most of our time and energy - him working on the business as much as possible and me covering everything else (my job, kids, helping him).
There were layoffs at my company again. I made it through again. This has happened at least four other times in my three years at this tech company. It’s a good reminder that nothing is guaranteed, that your work won’t love you back, and that working for yourself is not the craziest idea. At this point I’m hoping to work with him on the business full time after we move and don’t need my health insurance benefits anymore.
Living our life
Everything is so hectic, but we always try to take a breath and enjoy ourselves. This is our last summer here so we want to make the most of it. Unfortunately it’s been raining constantly, which also means supercharged mosquitoes, plus there was a heat dome. So it’s a little bit sad about our last summer and a little bit of good riddance.
Our big kid starts kindergarten in the fall and our little kid has a buckle fracture in her leg. We found a new neighborhood babysitter who’s been helping us out, and in the meantime we’re running around like headless chickens working and cleaning and playing and meal prepping. There are park dates and doctor’s appointments and endless meetings and going to bed early and getting up early and doing it all again the next day. Life is truly blink and you miss it.
