Smile. It's all Good.

Every week, I receive a bit of blogging inspiration from a community of bloggers at The Lounge. Some weeks I join in the post and other weeks I peruse the offerings of other bloggers whilst not feeling particularly inspired to write myself.

This week, we were invited to share out first ever blog post and it was through the sharing of my post and the reading of others that I came across this post from Lisa at Button Brain Happiness is a Choice.

I am sharing her post, because it has a lot to do with how I feel at the moment.

I have had a lot of interesting comments about myself, my point of view, my strength of character in regards to this move overseas. People amazed by my capacity to move across the world with my children, settle in a new country, meet new people and still have a smile on my face, appear relaxed and actually like I am ... enjoying myself.

For the past week and a half, I have been catching the bus to the area we are moving into Friday, to take the girls to the playground directly across from our new house. And just as The Eldest has revelled in making new friends, so too have I enjoyed the opportunity to meet new parents and get a feel for our new neighbourhood and everything it has to offer us.

The first Mum I met last week happened also to be Australian. She has been in Ottawa for a year and said that she struggled for the first few months, that she was unhappy that her husband had brought her and the kids there and it took a while to settle in. I completely understand how she felt, except I don't feel that way when many people are expecting that I should.

 'It must be overwhelming'. 'You are incredibly brave.' 'I would have fallen apart by now'.

Maybe it's because I have lived overseas before. Maybe it's because I am getting used to the moving around. Or maybe it's because I am so incredibly appreciative of this amazing experience we have in front of us. Yes, I miss my family and my friends and oh man, I miss my dog so very much. I am totally missing Huggies nappies and how The Youngest rarely had the leakage that is now the morning norm. I miss Cherry Ripes and I REALLY miss good coffee.

But otherwise, my glass is more than half full.

I am in a foreign country but I can speak the language.
I am in a foreign country but I have my Hubby and two beautiful children by my side.
Flying with children can be exhausting and horrible, but it doesn't last forever and then you are somewhere you weren't before, and how wonderful is that.
My children are over the jet lag and delight in all the things they delighted in at home: spending time with their parents, seeing new things, playing, making friends, reading stories, laughing.
I am meeting new people everyday, exploring new spaces and finding my feet.
I am Dora with a pram instead of a backpack, an iphone instead of a map and two children to help me to reach our destination.
We started off living out of our suitcases but we have furniture provided for us, a roof over our heads. Everything else will come in time.

It's not all completely roses but I don't think I am necessarily 'brave' for moving overseas with my children. I believe anyone could do it. It's just organization and a determination to make the best of every situation.

Everyday here, we walk past a myriad of homeless people, and everyday I breathe a prayer of thanks for just how lucky and full my life is. I have healthy children, the love and companionship of a wonderful man, an amazing family of my own and another amazing family I married into. We've gone through some difficult things this year, but still we are lucky, happy people.

I am not lucky and happy because we moved to Ottawa. Back home I had healthy children, the love and companionship of a wonderful man, an amazing family of my own and another amazing family I married into. But I have lived long enough now to know that if I can't wring half full moments out of most of our moments here in Ottawa, then what a waste it would be. So many people would love to be in my shoes.

Life is good for so many reasons - one of which is that you are alive and if you are reading this - well, you also have the internet - so you can't be too bad off.

(I lose the internet on Friday and not sure when we will have it on again. Eek!)

Smile.

Life is good. No matter where you are.

Jen xxx