We Did It Joe!

Our eldest daughter, Annecy, with all the luggage.

Well. We did it. If you're reading this, we successfully relocated to the United Kingdom.

While we've been here for about 2 months now (WOW, time has flown) it's taken a while to feel comfortable enough to start writing about it. To say it's been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I've adulted like I've never adulted before. However, through the grace of God, the universe, family and friends we've been able to realize one of our biggest life goals!

So I'll go ahead and start at the very beginning.....

On a bright Ash Wednesday morning, the 15th of February, Debra and Andrew gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jaime. I kid. I kid. I won't go that far back. But I will go as far back as to explain why the HECK I would want to move to cold, gloomy, rainy ass England. [Spoiler Alert: It's actually NOT that gloomy and rainy.]

My first trip to Europe was when my mother and I accompanied my sister on a school trip. This was shortly after 9/11 and many people backed out. However, my mom was firm on "No one is going to stop me from living my life, that's what they want." So in the end, the trip consisted of the Bannatynes and the Johnsons. The Johnsons being my cousin David, his wife and his step daughter. The trip was AMAZINGGGGGGGGG. I'm glad no one else came. Our tour guide was able to give us a super personalized (I mean personalised) experience and this trip planted my 'I want to move to Europe' seed.

The Eurotrip Crew

A castle?

David Daviding

I wanted a tattoo of this.

We went to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid. If I'm honest, I didn't care much for Barcelona, and definitely not Madrid, but you see PARIS?!?!?! Paris had my heart from Day 1. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the cafes, the Metro. All of it. I started thinking...can you guess?...... Yup. "I can live here." LOL. But French is not the easiest language to learn, so I started thinking, where can I move to that speaks English and is close to France? Boom!

Englannnnnnnddddddddd.

So, at age 16, young Jaime decided she wanted to move to London. And I've been working toward this goal ever since.

It hasn't been an easy road, and you can imagine that from 16 to.......now (you thought I was going to share my age?!?!?! J/K. I'm 38. No shame in my game. #TeamNoGrayHairs) there were some roadblocks and hurdles. I began exploring teaching opportunities as a means to get over there (here?), but then I met someone. Luckily, he was as eager to move to London as I was. But then my mom passed. I decided to go back to school to put myself into a better position to support my sisters, and as I approached graduation, I started looking into it again, but then I got pregnant, and then I got a GREAT job, and years just started passing.

And then C19.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that those 2 years really made you question EVERYTHINGGGG. What am I doing with my life? What do I want to be doing with my life? Am I happy? Is this the best version of myself? I can go on and on. And while my husband and I had casually been job searching for positions in the UK, during the pandemic, we decided to go all in and explore all avenues of lawfully moving to England. I had to stress lawfully because I was getting desperate y'all. LOL.

Luckily, I'm married to a pretty determined man. We decided that going back to school would be the fastest route to relocation and thank God he volunteered. LOL. But I mean, it was the logical next step for him anyways. He's already an expert in his field, why not get the PhD to prove it? That's not the entire reason, but this blog is getting long and I need to start to condense it.

So, he started applying in October 2021, was accepted by Feb. 2022, and won a scholarship by May 2022. But honestly, once he was accepted, we started putting the wheels in motion to make the big move!

Stay tuned for the next blog when things start to get real crazy!