The call came while we were on holiday in Greece. “It’s my boss,” Berto said nervously, before answering his phone and disappearing upstairs. We were staying in a Greek villa on the island of Poros, with thick walls, but apparently thin floors because from the bedroom below I could hear the conversation. There were a lot of ‘uh-huhs’, many ‘Okays’, a few ‘I sees’. A lot of silence. When he came back down after what seemed like an eternity, I could see it wasn’t good news.

“My jobs gone,” Berto said matter of factly.

“Are you gone with your job?” I asked, the reality of what had just happened dawning on us both.

Berto shrugged. “He said they’re committed to finding me another role, but who knows.”

The dreaded corporate restructuring had finally happened. We knew it was coming. Companies all over the world are reassessing their ways of working, cutting costs, trying to prepare for a different future. This time it wasn’t just about cutting and condensing jobs though; it was a shake up of the entire structure of the company. Berto has survived similar shake-ups in the past, but this was on a whole other level.

Living in limbo…

After 17 years as expats we are very well acquainted with the feeling of uncertainty. Our lives have changed radically every three years as we’ve moved from Asia to the Middle East to Africa and Europe. Living in limbo just becomes a part of life, a consequence of mobility. And so, perhaps because of this we took the news, not as an ending but as the beginning of something new and exciting. We just didn’t have any idea what our ‘next’ would be yet. Would it be back to South Africa? A country we both adore but agree is not our first choice right now. Would it be back to Asia, top of our wish list? Or would we stay put here in The Netherlands? After three years here we are both ready for a change. But change is always scary, especially when you know it is coming but don’t know what form it will take. In the days that followed I was reminded that expat life is often a lesson in trust.

We headed home after our Greek holiday, none the wiser as to what would become of us, and the very next day Berto left on a business trip to the US and then on to London…a business trip for the job he no longer had. I’d be lying if I said those days were easy. Uncertainty lurked in the pit of my stomach, coloured my thoughts, and sharpened my tongue. But I recognized the flicker of excitement too: no matter what, it was all-change, and so I chose to focus on the potential that lay ahead, not the loss that lay behind. What is it you actually fear when you fear the unknown?

The news…

Late one evening while Berto was still away, my phone buzzed. I was watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix, Saxon asleep on my chest. As I reached for my phone, premonition rushed through me like static energy. This was it.

The Whatsapp message was three words with a smiley face: London. Great terms.

My reply (with a champagne bottle emoji): No brainer!

So there it is. We are moving to London and are actually really happy about it (despite my longing for a more ‘exotic’ location!) This is a huge role for Berto, great visibility, totally out of his comfort zone and I just know he will smash it. For me personally this is a big deal: we will be living in the same country as my mum for the first time in fifteen years! My extended family and best childhood friends are all there too. And to sweeten the deal even further, not long after our move was confirmed one of my very best friends from our Istanbul days told me she and her family were moving to London too!

This is a return for me in many ways because the UK is the country of my birth, but not of my blood. I am grateful I get to explore what it means to return to my roots, so to speak, to return to my original ‘home’, to the place where I was first ‘me’ before my mobile life began. And of course, my boys get to live in another of the passport countries.

Follow along as I document our moving process, from how we told the kids, to our pre-visit last week and approaching schools so late in the year, as well as the other nuts and bolts of an international move.

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