How we chose to move to chicago from the uk in a global pandemic
I wrote this post for Tots100 not long after we made the move to Chicago from the UK. We are still currently living (and enjoying!!) life in Chicago!
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2020 has been a pretty rubbish year, right? It’s certainly been one for the memory box, that’s for sure. For most people, international travel has been off the cards and understandably so for the most part. But for me, my husband and our two young daughters, this summer has seen us take an 8,000-mile trip, through 4 countries (and on 4 planes) so that we could finally move to our new home in Chicago, USA. Here’s how and why we chose to become expats and move to Chicago.
The first talks of moving abroad started early in 2019 with rumours of moving to Singapore for my husband’s work. However, for one reason or another, the idea was shelved, and life went on as normal for the most part with our then, 4 and 1.5-year-old daughters. Late summer 2019, whilst enjoying the Portuguese sunshine (and wine), my husband received an offer for us to move to Chicago with his job on a three-year assignment. For so many reasons, the choice was an obvious one to go. The lifestyle it would afford us, the international schooling for the children, the adventure and of course, the work experience that my husband would gain. Having young children (now 5 and 3), we felt it was better to take the adventure now, whilst they were young rather than wait until they were older and more settled in school with friends. Yes, it would mean sacrifice; I would have to leave my job as a language teacher, the girls would have to change schools and nursery, the real biggie – missing our friends and families who were an integral part to our everyday life in the Cotswolds. But ultimately, we felt it was a no-brainer and a fantastic opportunity for us all. Our friends and family were obviously a little sad, but also excited themselves for the chance to have a holiday somewhere new and exciting! My 30th birthday came around in November 2019 and it felt like a great chance to throw a party and say our farewells before finally agreeing to move stateside January 2nd 2020.
But as the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry and boy, did this one. Just a week before Christmas 2019, we discovered that my gorgeous Mum who had been rediagnosed with secondary breast cancer earlier in the year, had been given just a few short months to live, despite being an otherwise fit and healthy 53 year old. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to her brain and it meant the worst. The choice for me was very simple. I decided I would stay in England with the children whilst my husband would move to Chicago and start his new job. Mum was adamant that we should all go, but also quietly relieved when I told her that I wanted to stay and spend what precious time we could with her. I have never made such a good decision in my life, as just 2 months after we were supposed to move abroad, she passed away and suddenly, every extra second I spent with her was worth any time I had missed out exploring a new city.
Mum passed away March 4th 2020. Coronavirus was just starting to rear its ugly head in the UK and just 4 days after her (very virtual) funeral, lockdown went into full effect. Thankfully, my husband had been in England for work the week that my Mum passed away and to all of us, it almost felt like she had known. Nevertheless, the promise I had made to my Mum to move to Chicago as soon as possible seemed like a near-on impossibility and certainly not a top priority given the state of the world.
Weeks turned into months with no real plan other than when to bake the next banana bread, or complete the next #DrawWithRob challenge (which are fantastic if you haven’t tried them – see my lockdown activities list here!) and it seemed like the move to Chicago was never going to happen. Like most of the world, we felt in absolute limbo. I felt like the whole world had stopped since my Mum had passed away, and I guess really, it had. Despite already having our visas, and our apartment (with most of our stuff in) we still legally weren’t allowed to fly directly from the UK to the USA (in fact, at the time of writing this, we still aren’t allowed to) and so when June’s announcement of travel bridges came out, we suddenly felt a glimmer of hope. Naturally, it wasn’t the announcement we were hoping for and still no real plan emerged.
Yet little by little, things started to come together. My husband’s work were extremely supportive, as were our friends and family and eventually between us all, we discovered that we could fly to a separate country (not covered by the US travel ban), stay for two weeks and then fly onwards from there. And that is exactly what we did.
July 16th saw us take our first flight to Dubrovnik in Croatia.
I was unbelievably nervous to leave the confines of lovely, rural Gloucestershire where there were very few cases and plonk ourselves on a plane and yet, really, the plane itself was probably one of the easier parts of the trip! Whilst many were having holidays cancelled left, right and centre, we were enjoying a brilliant two-week holiday in the Croatian sunshine. We were extremely careful and only went to the quietest beaches/restaurants but all in all, we felt the first sense of normality that we had in a very long time. At one point, I even remember thinking just how grateful I was that somewhere along the lines, maybe this had all been in a bigger plan to give us a break that was so needed. Who knows? Either way, the two week trip came to an end and we then took 3 more flights to get across to Chicago, landing at the start of August.
We’ve now been living here just short of three months, and we are all very well settled. The girls go to an amazing school/nursery; my husband is enjoying his job and I have some much-needed time to myself. I’m not working right now as I am still waiting on my work permit, so I can enjoy the city guilt-free whilst the kids are at school and after what has been the craziest year of my life, I am quite glad of the change in pace! This time last year we had only just found out we would be moving to Chicago and we were all so excited for our new adventures.
Of course, it is extremely exciting and already we have seen so much that we would never have seen back home. Covid is Covid and of course there are a lot of restrictions on what we can and can’t do. There won’t be any friends/family visiting for the foreseeable future which is really hard at times, especially as we approach Christmas. But in moving here, in this otherwise terrible year, it has shown me that even the darkest of clouds pass. Of course, I have days where I question all of my decisions – I’m not sure I’d be human if I didn’t. But the experience that we are all having, that our children are having is unrivalled. We have made some amazing friends who have become our support network here, and we still regularly FaceTime and call back home. 2020 hasn’t been the best year by any means, but its certainly made me realise my own resilience and strength on a whole new level, and quite honestly if I can get through this year, I’m not sure there’s much that can stop me.
