Heigh-ho!
We decided to take a rather last minute, quick house-hunting, school-searching jaunt to Australia. When I say quick, I mean lickety: I was there for all of 3 1/2 days. (And I think it's going to take me at least twice that long to recover! I've been back four days and I'm still staring at my ceiling for a good portion of the night and dragging all day. But it was worth it.)
Sadly, I left G there to start his new job and came home without him. Sigh. We saw houses and made decisions and bought supplies for him for the coming months. As I left I had the odd feeling that I was dropping off my husband at college: the errands, the setting up, and the farewell all had that same melancholy tinge from last fall with Lauren. We will miss him dearly in the meantime but he is occupying himself with traveling around to the different offices he will oversee and getting to know his new role. August, come quickly!
On a brighter note, we loved Canberra, Australia, all of it. We found a great home in a lovely neighborhood called Yarralumla (with the bonus of being deliciously fun to say), across the street from a park and a stone's throw from the lake. It's tremendously comforting to be able to picture where we'll be. G will be able to ride his bike to work and we're less than 10 minutes from church, schools, and just about everything else. That right there is a game changer, folks!
I'm breathing a sigh of relief now that Maddy and Sam have each been offered a place at the schools we were hoping for, the ones that came up most often highly recommended from helpful friends-of-friends and G's work colleagues. Maddy will attend the Canberra Girls Grammar School and Sam will attend Canberra Boys Grammar School. Walking around them both, I felt like I was entering an Australian version of Hogwarts. When we were there, the boys were preparing for a Music Festival that is a competition between the different houses (3 points Griffindor!). It will be so interesting to enter the world of uniforms and houses and cricket and chapel and tutorials. I know the transition won't necessarily be easy in those first few months but I'm grateful that my kids are up for giving it a go.
Canberra Boys Grammar School
Canberra Girls Grammar School
Now that we've crossed house and schools off of our list, I feel much more at ease with the looming changes. As long as we have a place to feel at home and my kids are (hopefully, forseeably) happy, everything else is just details and will work out in the end. That's true, right? Humor me. Or, I should say, humour me.
p.s. I'm thankful for my mom's willingness to fly out to care for M & S at the drop of a hat (even though she had just visited us here that week before!). My kids loved it and it made the whole thing possible. Thanks, Mom! xo
