One year

At this exact moment, one year ago today, the girls were fast asleep in our friends' spare room, and we were enjoying a lovely dinner with perhaps far too much wine. We'd been in the UK for twelve hours, arriving after a harrowing travel adventure, and had the clothes on our back and our passports, nothing more. A couple of weeks later, we had some of our stuff, and Himself had started at his new office. The girls and I had a bit of a rough transition*, going from fulltime work/daycare to fulltime stay at home parent/kids.

We explored the local playgrounds, eventually got internet access, went to various and sundry castles. We went to the land of haggis, and the land of Cycling and Sunflowers. We went "home". The girls started school. I started work, with an attendent shift in my aerobic activity.

The girls had their first real autumn. We had a real London Christmas, complete with snow.

In the new year, we visited a new continent, got driver's licenses, and have truly settled in to our new home.

Looking back, it seems impossible to reconcile the stress and adjustment of those last weeks in Houston/first weeks in London with how smoothly things are going now**. I knew at the time that it would all work out, but that thought doesn't exactly make it any easier at the time.

The girls are blossoming. They've grown an incredible amount; Dev is reading (!) and loving school, Boo is still pathologically independent, and so, so sweet. Himself is enjoying his work, and I'm enjoying mine when I'm actually there to get anything done. More importantly, I am enjoying having the opportunity to both work and do more Mom stuff then I could do working full-time in Houston. It is a gift, and I'm happy to take advantage of it as much as I can. It seems impossible that a whole year has already gone by, but I guess that's what happens when you're busy doing other things.

* To say the least!
** I have now really and truly screwed myself with that statement.