Bluebird's Nest

6 weekends. That’s all we have left.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about coming home. I feel like I’ve been gone for so long and it feels weird on all sorts of different levels.

I think about leaving here. I have a life here now. Ok, so maybe I don’t have a lot of friends – to be honest with you, I’ve enjoyed being alone and just spending time with my family. I think I may wish or regret that I didn’t put myself out there a little more than I did but at the same time, I’ve really enjoyed watching my tweenager grow (let’s face it, she’s not going to want to hang around with us for much longer) and spending time with my wee babe in her first year. You know what they say: time flies by in a rush so enjoy every minute of it.

I think about leaving my hubby’s family. I really feel like the relationships that I have with his friends and family has grown as well. Especially his parents. We Skype with them almost every day and it seems like we’re spending every weekend at their house for sleepovers. It makes me think about how we won’t be spending as much time with them in 6 short weeks and how they will only get to see their grandbaby through Skype. This makes me sad.

I think about how it’s hard to have two people come together who are from different countries and raise a family together. I think it’s maybe more difficult for the grandparents as one set of grandparents miss out on the grandchildren more than the other one. In a perfect world we would live 6 months in Canada and 6 months in Switzerland. But the world is not perfect.

That gets me thinking how lucky we are to be able to come here for 5 months and to be able to provide the grandparents here, a strong memory of their grandbaby’s first year. It makes me happy that they got to enjoy that. And hopefully a memory strong enough for the wee babe to remember them when she sees them on Skype from the other side of the world.

And then I think about going home. What is life going to be like when we get home? I go back to my job, the hubby starts a new one, he goes back to school full time, the tweenager is in middle school, the wee babe in daycare… Same old same old? In a way I hope not. And then I ask myself, how do I want life to be like when we come home?

I think about what this adventure means for our family. Are we destined to travel the world with our kids? We sure have shown ourselves that it’s something we can do; we all are adaptable. How has this experience changed us? me? I don’t know if it’s possible now for me to stay in one place for the rest of my life. I want to be able to experience different things, challenge myself, push my comfort zones, give diverse experiences to my children.

I want my life not to be mundane and ordinary.

And then I think about my hubby and I’m happy that I married the man that I married because I think in the same way that I feel, he maybe feels a little like I do. I hope he does at least.

And so we’re coming home. We’re going to be adding on a bathroom when we get home. My hubby’s family will be visiting in the summer which won’t seem like that long away until the wee babe sees her maminou and papinou again in real life. Life will continue to go on, we will celebrate the wee babe’s first birthday when we get home and my 37th in February.

But I refuse for life to be usual and predictable. I choose for life to be full of experiences, adventures, and worthwhile relationships. I choose for it to be stimulating, nurturing, and above all else, I strive for it to be amazing.

I attended my first English speaking mom and babe group yesterday. I had such a great time meeting other moms!

I walked down to the church where it was held. Only about a 10 minute walk, where I was warmly welcomed by the woman who runs the show.

Upon entering, I scoped the scene. There were craft tables and the stations on the floor where the littler ones could play. I put the wee babe down so she could cruise through the toys.

The place began to fill up with moms (and one dad) and kids ranging from 8 months (that was us, we were the youngest) to 5 years. The wee babe happily played with the toys and even when a boy yanked out the toy she was playing with, she didn’t cry. Not yet at least. Guess that comes later.

I eagerly chatted with the other moms. I hoped that I didn’t appear too desperate for a friend.

There were some commonalities among the woman:

• Either them or the husbands worked for Nestle (not all mind you, just the majority).
• A lot of them have been here for 6 years.
• A lot of them had a British accent. (With the exception of 2 Americans, a woman from Dubai, a woman from South Africa and an Ozzie)
• A lot of them couldn’t speak French but were in classes.
• The ones that had school age children as well, weren’t going to the local French school (like the tweenager) but were going to an International school for English speaking children.
• All of them were permanently here (I was the only temporary one).

I got a chance to meet and chat with probably 10 out of the 12ish parents there. I found myself asking everyone the same questions. How long have you been here? Do you speak French? Who are your children? What brought you here? Where do you live?

The Ozzie I met fascinated me though. I think it was maybe because my best friend has 5 kids and this woman has 5 kids and she packed up ship and moved here permanently. Never to return to Australia again (unless it’s for a holiday.) Her husband owns his own software business. I asked her if it was hard and expensive to bring everything over here. She said it was but that everyone in her family was much happier in Switzerland than in Australia. I guess here they have a bigger yard and house and the school is much better.

Something else that really struck me was that all the families just packed up where they were living and took off to Switzerland to live forever. I mean it’s not completely out of left field but they all had done this coupled with the fact that none of them know French, that must have been really challenging for them. They all did seem like strong women though so I guess it makes sense. Still, I found myself admiring them for being so brave.

Some other things that were mentioned on more than one occasion:

• you can get by here without knowing French (except for the doctor’s office),
• it seems to be a lot safer place for kids to grow up,
• and the general consensus was that it was a great place for the kids to grow up.

Everyone was really nice. I wished that we had name tags though as I’m never going to remember everyone’s names!! I wished that I could have made a connection right away so that maybe I was meeting someone for a coffee/play date this week or even just a walk around the neighbourhood but I guess it was a bit early. Again, desperation is not what I was going for.

All in all I had a great time and can’t wait to go back next Wednesday.