10 years - how did that happen
 

Ten years ago we arrived in the suburbs of Hamilton as a family of four with a one and four year old. The plan was for hubby to study like mad for two years to obtain his physiotherapy masters and for me to hunker down with the kids and settle us in, always with the hope and intention of staying long term.

We've had an adventure these past 10 years. There have been many laughs and tears, both fun and stressful times. We've thrown ourselves into the Canadian way of life, we skate and ski in the winter, we rake leaves in the autumn, and we camp and swim a lot in the summer and we've even started sprinkling earth and fertilizer on the lawn in the spring!

In many ways moving with kids that young was the easiest time to make the move. I was home anyway, we didn't live close to family in the UK so being here alone didn't feel any different, the kids hadn't formed close friendships yet, and there's nothing like having kids to force you to get out and about and meet people.

We've been reflecting a lot these past few weeks and honestly moving here has been the best decision we ever made. Hubby works as a Physio and loves his work. He's had some tough times with the usual bad boss issues, people he worked for going bankrupt, or a long commute, but he's now working fairly local for a reasonable boss and being paid quite well. I returned to work once our youngest turned 3. It certainly wasn't easy cracking back into the world of work for me and certainly for a few years it didn't make financial sense for me to be working but I really wanted to. After many applications and much determination I'm seven years in to a government job and now finally feeling very challenged in my work and that I'm making a difference to the world and for my family.

It's always hard to know what would have happened had we stayed in the UK but we were certainly in a rut and moving here gave us both a kick up the butt and provided opportunities that we didn't seem to have in the UK. Our kids have a great life too. Compared with kids in the UK, they seem less stressed and more free and happy and also seem to stay young for a few years longer (high school not starting until age 14 here is a huge delaying factor for the girls, in my opinion). And yes, it is materialistic, but having a bigger house and a bigger garden does make family life easier on occasion.

In the last few years, the ageing parents factor has crept up on us and with that comes a certain amount of guilt, but we both try to be the best children we can be from afar. They can see we're a happy unit here and they thankfully don't begrudge us for our decision. I don't think you ever really know if you're "suitable candidates" for emigrating until a few years into doing it. Looking back I do think it was around the 7 year mark that we stopped feeling like we were here temporarily and now 10 years in, Canada definitely feels like home.

Re: 10 years - how did that happen
 

:goodpost::goodpost:

Carry On and Continued Success and Happiness.

Re: 10 years - how did that happen
 

Congrats on 10 years!! 🥂

Re: 10 years - how did that happen
 

Congratulations, and so glad to hear that you are settled and happy!!


I'm wondering how we've got to almost 49 years here .........

........ or maybe it's more that I don't believe that 49 years have gone by so darn fast :lol:

Re: 10 years - how did that happen
 

That's a nice story, glad it worked out so well.

Re: 10 years - how did that happen
 

Really nice post to read, thanks for sharing :)
It sounds like you have a great life, here's to many more years!