This past year, 2014, has to have been one of the busiest, craziest and most special years we have had to date as a family. After waiting for the past 2 years for another overseas assignment to come our way, it looked like it was not going to happen. Scott and I had set a timeline for accepting another move- it had to be before Maya was in 7th grade. We wanted to make sure that our kids were old enough to remember and grow from the experience, but also for Maya to be back in time to enjoy 4 years of high school in Portage, with her friends and all in one place. We both want our girls to graduate from high school feeling like they had a home to come back to- not just a place to visit.
So when February hit and it did not look like it was going to happen, we decided, instead, to look for a new home. We had outgrown the home that we had bought when we moved to Michigan from Connecticut, and were looking for something with a different floor plan, in a different neighborhood, with a larger, quieter backyard to enjoy having friends over, hanging out in and playing with our dog, Miko. We were lucky enough to find a home that fit all of these requirements, and during the 1st week of May, 2014, we moved in- ready to enjoy our new home and neighborhood....haha. That very same week, Scott was approached about a potential job opportunity in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Stryker was about to open up a European headquarters, and they were at the beginning stages of placing existing employees/positions over in that location. While we were excited (we really wanted an opportunity to spend time in Europe), the timing was not ideal. Thankfully, it took about 2 months for Stryker to figure out the job, and what it would entail...giving Scott and I enough time to sort-of settle in to our new home, research a bit and discuss, both with each other and with the kids, the idea of moving again, so soon. Frankly, we both were in the "no" category, until we spoke to Maya and Hanna. Surprisingly, they both said yes- they wanted to do it again!
In August, Scott and I took a trip over to look at places to live and visit the school we were looking at for the girls. While the city seemed promising, the housing did not. There were only 13 houses available- in both Amstelveen (suburb) and Old South (Oud Zuid) Amsterdam in any sort of price range that we could afford. 1/2 of them had stairs so steep or narrow that we were not even willing to consider the homes. Others had only 1 bathroom, or 2 bedrooms on one floor and a third two levels down. It was an overall highly frustrating trip, but by the end, we made a few sacrifices and ended up finding a home that we think we can live happily in for 2-3 years.
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| Amsterdam |
We spent the majority of August and September organizing, planning, talking to moving companies, rental companies, property management companies, language and cultural training companies, finding our dog, Miko a temporary home to live in...there was SO much to get done in such a short period of time, getting ourselves ready for a mid-October move. During this, we also tried to see as many people as we could, and live a normal life for the kids- filled with club soccer, piano practices, school get togethers and friends. It was a VERY STRESSFUL two months (unless you have a very strong marriage, I do not recommend moving two times in a matter of 5 months).
We ended up figuring it all out, the most important being a home for our dog. Miko has been a part of our family for 2.5 years, and we love him tremendously, We just didn't know how to get him to Amsterdam with his anxiety issues and did not have a ton of time to research it. We are hoping to bring him over next fall when we come back from the States.
Move week was the week of my 41st birthday- October 6-10, 2014. We wanted to pick a different week, but we did not have much choice, or time available. The movers came (a whole other entry to this blog) that week, packed up our things and after a few nights in a hotel, finishing up the fall soccer season with Lightning and dropping Miko off at his new home on a farm in Burlington, we were off.
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| Good thing we had an SUV- all of this came with us on our Move flight to Amsterdam |
