In my last post, I briefly explained how the notion of moving to Ireland came to pass. I said yes, but as any married couple knows once you say “yes” it doesn’t necessarily mean “yes”, as the dictionary defines it. Yes in marriage means, “let’s move this conversation forward and keep talking about it” instead of a “no” which means, “let’s put a pin in that for now.” So, I said yes, but moving to Ireland for two years is a huge commitment filled with a minimum of a thousand and one questions. Let me break the big ones down:
Are you Serious?󠅏
This was literally my first question to Kevin when I emailed him my list of questions about the move. I think it’s an important question; honestly if we aren’t both on board the entire remaining list of questions become obsolete.
Can we commit to just one year?
I might be a closet commitment-phobic, but what if I hate it there? What if our kids hate it there? What if the Irish hate us there? We could be stuck in a horrible relationship for two years with no escape, and we all know what that’s like.
Answer: No, it is a minimum two-year commitment. We can stay longer, but we can’t stay shorter (that sentence should work, but it doesn’t; however, I’m leaving it because it makes my point).
How will we get there?
Now this question is of course somewhat rhetorical, I mean, obviously, we fly to get there. This isn’t the 19th century where our only option is a train across the country and long boat ride. We fly, we fly for 15 or so long hours with four kids. That thought alone almost makes me change my mind. It’s been a long time since I have flown anywhere with kids, I think the last kid to fly with us was Maddex and that was an adventure. I’m digressing from the actual point, which is more of a statement than a question. Wow, it is going to cost a lot of money and time to fly all six of us to Ireland, how is that going to work?
Answer: Microsoft gives us a moving stipend, it’s not a lot but it should cover flying expenses. If we’re lucky we may have enough money left over to get a meal when we land. The only catch, this is a one-way ticket. Meaning, they pay for us to go, set Kevin up with work, but he basically gives up his job in the US. When we decide to come back, Kevin will need to reapply for a job at Microsoft and if he is super lucky they will pay moving expenses again (but we aren’t really counting on that.) More on this answer can be found in a later blog.
When do we leave?
This is important because I have one child in Kindergarten and two children in preschool programs. I don’t want to transfer my kindergartener in the middle of the school year, I would like him to finish and then worry about how to go about the transfer process. We also have some things in the works for the year. We’ll cover a few of these things in later questions. After taking all things in to consideration we decided on August 1, or sometime in the beginning of August as our time frame for moving.
What about our House?
Anyone who knows us or follows anything I do on Facebook, knows Kevin and I just build a house not too long ago. Our house is currently 1/3 finished, we are planning on building two more buildings, a bedroom wing and a library. Lucky for us, Kevin has a son who wants to live somewhere with lots of space and a large shop to work on cars and stuff. This all works out great. We decided we will build a shop, with the potential to turn it into bedrooms when we return; Trenton gets a house, a shop, lots of space, and the potential to rent out some rooms or our shed to his friends to help offset the rent. We have someone we trust watching out for our house, we don’t have to worry about tenants destroying the place, and everyone is happy.
What about School?
Another semi-rhetorical question, but I’m a mom and education is important to me. I’ll be doing a more in-depth blog on the education system in Ireland in the future; I’m still figuring it out myself. I do; however, want to get over to Ireland, and get settled with some time before immediately sending our kids off to a new school. It will be a quick turn around, but I’m hoping for a couple weeks to adjust to a new country before starting school. Maddex will be in first grade and Mila will be starting Kindergarten (according to American schools), so I will be spending a few months working out how to transfer them over and what those grades translate in the Irish school system. Again, I’ll be doing an in-depth blog on that entire process.
Where will we live?
Dublin. Short and sweet answer. We will not be getting a car when we first arrive in Dublin, there is a long process involved with obtaining a driver’s license there and they have plenty of public transportation we can use. Microsoft Campus is right off the Luas, Dublin’s city train system. Our goal is to find a place near one of the Luas transfer stations to make his commute easy and we’ll be able to jet around town with ease and style. From country living to city living in one swift move. If anything, it will be an adventure. We are looking to rent a house with 3-4 bedrooms, we would like a guest bedroom in case anyone wants to come visit. The houses are quite a bit smaller than what we currently have and the yards are almost non-existent, so hopefully we can find a place with a park nearby so the animals, I mean kids, can run and play.
These are just a few of the big questions I had to ask before even being able to make a final decision. We have time, and still need to wait for the final approval from Microsoft to give Kevin the go ahead. Time to figure everything out. I’ve been doing a lot of research on rental homes and schools. Schools is my big area of anxiety, it’s the mom in me. I plan on writing a lot of blogs on the entire moving process and to continue blogs after the move so we have a log of all our family adventures. Its like I always say, never a dull moment in our lives, always some new adventure going on; I think this will be the biggest to date.
