Preparing to say goodbye...

I named this blog "Eurogistics" because sometimes, expat life is a logistical nightmare. Planning for moves, navigating a foreign culture, handling family expectations... it takes a lot of thought and hard work.

Living overseas, thousands of miles from family, means that your friends play a much bigger role in your life than usual. Friends are your support network, and you help each other in good times and in bad. Unfortunately, the transient nature of expat life means that these strong friendships are frequently interrupted, when postings end and people have to move on.

We first lived in Belgium from 2001 to 2004. When we moved, we had a 5 month old baby and no clue what we were doing. Things worked out well - our next door neighbors - Gayl and Nicolas - turned out to be great friends, who were there with us through thick and thin. I will never, ever forget how desperately sad I felt climbing into the taxi to head to the airport, to catch a plane back to the US for the last time. I wept in the back of that car, knowing that part of my heart would always be in Europe.

Then five years later, we came back.  By this point our third child was 2 1/2, and we decided to send her to a local Belgian school. It was a great decision - I have so many incredible friendships with other women in the neighborhood, that my life has been enriched again forever. But now, it's time to say goodbye again. So many of us are leaving - I'm heading off to London, so I can come back to visit those who are staying behind, but others are heading to the U.S., Japan, Italy... and we will never again all be together in one place. We've created something special here, and I don't even want to think about how I'll feel on June 28, when we head out to the airport. That's the dark side of expat life.

And so we'll begin again in Surrey, one of the counties that borders London. We've started to put the building blocks of a life in place. We have a school (TASIS, which looks fantastic), a house, a swim club and a springboard diving club. I've made contact with a couple of women, and I know that the entire family will make new connections and friendships. But right now it's that's theoretical. I have to mourn what I'm leaving behind. And this time, I know that we'll be moving to London for the long term. That means we will stay, but friends will leave and new ones will arrive. And so the cycle repeats.