I've been keeping quiet about this until I knew what was happening and importantly, if it was happening. I guess part of me was in denial about the idea until my husband boarded a plane for New York in September, to start the next chapter of our lives, while I (with two young children) was to wind down our current London existence. I've known about this move since Spring when my better half told me he was offered a new role at work...great I thought...in New York...Oh.
The small number of people I shared our relocation news with are beyond excited about the idea of living in NY. I, on the other hand was a little less than enthused to begin with. Aside from the emotional attachment to London (I moved here from Hong Kong at the age of 7), I felt like we'd only just settled into our home (moved in December 2014), our eldest was about to start a new school (after years of planning & navigating around the London school scene) and if the stories about school places in Manhattan is anything to go by, finding one for him in such a short space of time would be no mean feat! On top of that, we had a 4 week old at the time and I was still very much in the newborn haze. Timing could have been better by anyone's standards.
Fast forward 5 months, we were at the US embassy, waiting to find out if our visa application would be approved....it was. Two weeks later, the kids and I were at Heathrow waving daddy off through the departure gate but yet the concept of moving continents still hadn't become a reality.
We recently took a trip across for half term, to have a taster of Manhattan life as locals. As we navigated from one neighbourhood to another, viewing apartments instead of bouncing from multiple tourist attractions, that's when the move became real as we planned the school run and the work commutes.
At the end of the year, we will bid farewell to one great city and welcome another into our hearts.