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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

8 months in Finland!!

I'm sure nobody noticed our descreet group at the airport....

Our gang on the plane!!!

Big Guy is prepared, wearing a Finland shirt.  In case he got lost they would know where to send him...


So.  On Saturday it'll be 8 months since we landed in Finland.  Our heads spinning and with clueless expressions plastered on our faces, we stepped out of the plane... 
I had been here before.  Growing up in Sweden, with a Finnish dad, we occationally vacationed here.  This is also the country where I met Big Guy.  He was born here, but moved with his parents, and at the time 2 siblings, to Canada when he was 4½ years old.  He came back here to work many summers for his uncles, and he also came here for a year to go through his army sevice in his early 20-ies. Then he was here to work that magical summer of 1996 when our paths and eyes met... (but that's another story!!) 

For our kids this was their first time here.  And now this was their country to live in... With everything new, new, new... Language, nature, climate, people, food, school, friends.
I felt excited, curious, happy, sad and scrared!!!  I bet the kids felt the same way....

More than ones during the spring before we moved, did I ask myself if I was sanely intact.  Well, I have always asked myself that.  But this was more serious!!!  I just had to trust my instinct and go with that.  We had a baby a few months before Christmas 2009, and he was in and out of the Dr. clinic, and had a few hospital visits due to several intense chest infections... Scary.  At the same time we were preparing our house to be put up for sale.  We rented a storage unit and began declutter our house... One box at the time.  I kept looking for good deals on tickets, and it felt like my days became cookiecutters of the previous one.  Daily chores, baby, homework, pack a box here and there, baby, go through all the closets, do research about Finland, schools there, baby.... On and on.  Every Saturday was dedicated to our house.  Painting, decluttering, construction, or to plan our new house in Finland.  At this time Big Guy and his brothers decided to start at company that they would run in Finland (building ICF homes).  It felt like the timing was perfect.  We had nothing else going on!! (yeah right...)  My hubby worked as an accountant then, and this was the busiest time of the year at the office.

But through it all, it still felt like things went smoothly!!  I prayed a lot, and I felt that I truly got the strength I needed.  At the end of March I found some really good deals on tickets overseas.  I was able to book oneway tickets for half price of round trip ones.  Never used to be able to do that in the past!  So, with 9 people needing a spot on the plane, I went ahead and booked them!!!!!  We didn't even have our house on the market!  We did list our house, privately, in the 3rd week of April...  We were leaving the country in 2 months!!!  Well, things did go our way, and we had an offer that we accepted within a few weeks.  Before it was all officially on paper though, and we were able to put that SOLD sign up front, it was early JUNE!!!  Guess who had to kick into high gear???  Big Guy went overseas at this time as well to prep a few things for us.  I had my hubby's 16 year old cousin staying with us for some weeks then, and she pretty much was my lifesaver...

Somehow it all got done.  Thanks to my hubby's family and other friends. 
I'll spare you the details of our last few days in Kanada.  Let's just say it was busy!!!
It's different than when you move from one city to another, because you can't come back and tie up the loose ends later.  (although we ended up leaving some things behind that did not fit in the container) You have to get it taken care of before you leave.  And also pack for the trip while keeping the kids happy... We sent most of our stuff as well as 2 vehicles in the container.  So for the first month in Finland we only had what we were able to pack in our suitcases.  We couldn't ship it here any sooner either, since we needed our stuff there as long as possible!! 

All in all everything went amazingly well.  Nobody got sick or hurt... 
When we arrived here the kids and I spent the 1st week at friends house a few hours away, while Big Guy helped his brother out on his house.  Then we had a well needed vacation in Sweden.  I hadn't visited my parents for 9 years, so this was very special for us.  Since our stuff was still somewhere on the Atlantic ocean, and we had no place to stay yet, it was a perfect time for a break. Coming back here meant finding an apartment.  We got that taken care of in 2 days, and the day after we got the keys, the container arrived to our city!!
Well folks, now we are here... Next time I'll tell you how it's been going so far!!!

2 comments:

They call me aggie said...

Oh, I so can relate! We did the same crazy thing, minus 5 people.
I know that same feeling of "What the crap are we actually doing??" and "This is SO exciting!!".
And in the end, it all works out and you forget all the troubles. Pretty soon it sounds fun to do it again. Kind of. Almost like having a baby ;)

By the way, you are already skadad. It is Canada with a C.

Sofia's Corner said...

LOL at Aggie's comment - yup, she IS skadad!! :D But, then at the other hand; I ALWAYS spell Canada with a C, so I guess it's even in the end. ;)