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...etting mud on the cream leather ??????????????? Now I am starting to realize why so may of the other parents had mini vans ! so I made the kids strip down and put as much muddy clothing in the trunk as possible, resisting the temptation to drive them home naked ! We finally make it home with no major mishaps along the way, and having showered the kids I found that I had actually collected the correct ones, a wave of achievement swept over me – see this mom thing isn’t so tough after all, the kids had fun, the car was not ruined and dinner was in the oven, and I am sure that the washer could sort out the mud problem which was my next hurdle. As my husband got home the kids were tired out and watching cartoons, the laundry was done and dinner was not burnt (something he had become accustomed to, since the days I was actually home in time to cook I would usually get a call on my cell phone just as its time to take things out of the oven, resulting in a happy customer because I dealt with their call and an unhappy family because dinner was sometimes a little over done) Work 1 Family 0 was often a familiar score in out house. As the week progressed I became more used to the smell of damp clothes, mud and outdoor air, the smell of Gucci perfume and the work coffee machine drifting further back in my memory. I think I drove a total of just over 100 miles that week, rather than just under 1,000 as I had become used to, didn’t get stuck in traffic once, and ate dinner every night before 8pm. I saw some of my kids fiends parents once or twice a day rather than once or twice a year, and realized that the life I had been dreading ever happening to me what possibly not actually the end of the world I had always thought that it would be, and that maybe I wasn’t to be considered unsuccessful because the world that I used to live in seemed suddenly so far away and so long ago. Relocation My next life changing experience was not far to follow behind, my husband, who is American, made the obvious point that now my all important ‘everyone revolves around me’ job is no more, the move to America that we had discussed as something we would look to do sometime in the distant future could become reality sooner than we had planned, and do you know what – I had to agree with him, there was now nothing to stop us, with Jim as the ‘breadwinner’ now it could make sense that maybe lifevacross the pond could hold the golden key to our future, after all to be a proper mom I need a SUV and a cheerleader for a daughter right ?– certainly not something England can offer any family. So before you could say ‘Whatever’ the Real Estate Agents were measuring and taking photos of our home. So I am guessing he wasn’t joking ? Within 48 hours our house is on the market, and my new mission is to find a family home in upstate New York, where Jims family are and when Jim happily grew up, away from all the hustle and bustle of our current home, small town England and all the pressures that are part and parcel of English life, but the dream of a life where there are trees, and baseball pitches on every corner. And being a stay at home Mom is not considered a crime against humanity. Within two weeks we had an offer on our home and had an offer in on a house in the USA, the house in the USA however was fraction of the price of ouf UK home, and around 4 times the size, with a big yard, room for the kids to play and run and scream and shout. The kids are suddenly so excited and are planning a puppy and a pool – an interesting mix ! Hurdles Well as with anything – to get what you think you deserve there are hurdles along the way, and as soon as word of moving to America hits the streets, suddenly the ex husbands that kinda love their kids from a distance, but happily took the opportunity to not be involved at a parent daily level, more at a Disney dad weekend level, are oh so suddenly concerned about their children and want me to take them to court to get the necessary permission to move my children to live outside the UK, these are the men that avoid where ever possible paying a penny towards their children’s daily needs, but appear to be happy to offer a lawyer thousands to try to fight a case that they will blatantly lose, and of course do, three months, three judges and about $20,000 dollars later, I walk out with court orders agreeing exactly what I offered in terms of contact for free. Still being the sort of person to take something good out of something bad, throwing aside the cost, worry and stress of court cases involving the three most important and precious things in your life, I have to say I walked out of that court room having learnt a lot about life, people I thought I know, the English Court System and how unstable it is, and that how funny two ex-husbands that hated each other for years were having lunch together after court, something that made the whole thing so ironic it made me laugh out loud as I walked past, oh how soon they forget. Moving Well with the house sold, court orders in hand, a new home waiting for us in Upstate New York, its time to pack what we are taking, and clear out, give away and sell what are not. Something that proved to not be as much as a nightmare as expected. The hardest thing for me to do was getting the kids to reduce their toy ownership to the contents of a box to ship to their new home, still they did it happily, giving away the things they were not taking to their friends, without a whine, and so far no tears about the move, which is something I was waiting for, but something that didn’t actually materialize, its surprising when you learn the strength that a 7 and 8 year old have deep within them, the older one being 14 was just so excited to be going that I don’t think that anything would have upset him, maybe except parting with his X-Box. So the house is empty, the shipping company have collected everything we are taking and we head to the airport, five people, five suitcases, five plane tickets and five hearts full of hope and excitement. Landing The first time our feet touch American soil is Philladelphia, with the exception of my husband this is our first visit to the USA, and its not really a visit, it’s a new chapter in a turbulent life story, the internal flight to our new home county was exciting, the plane held in total about 30 people, and in addition to our family there were three other people actually on the flight. The kids thought it funny to laugh at a guy walking across the tarmac ...