Here is a blog about my move to Portugal taken from my parenting blog at www.parenttribe.net
We have been living in Portugal for two weeks now and we absolutely love it!
As I have mentioned in previous posts this move has been a long time coming – we have thought of many places and had different ideas about having an adventure abroad, but now I feel like all those years planning and talking were to lead us to this. We just had to wait until the right opportunity came up and luckily we didn’t give up on our dream.
The logistics of moving have been a lot easier than we thought because of all the fantastic people that have helped us both in the UK and Portugal. Our new friends (The Monson family) we met after visiting Portugal in May helped us find the beautiful Quinta we are renting/ house sitting, our new landlords helped us to bring stuff over in their van when they came on a holiday in October, family at home helped us to look after the boys while we sorted and packed over the last two months and then my mum and her partner flew over with me and the boys and stayed for a few days to help us settle in until Garf arrived in the car with our dog 2 days later.
I am going to write in a later post about the full logistics of packing to move abroad but I’d like to chat about how it feels to finally live a dream we have been dreaming of for so long.
Two and a half years ago after having the opportunity to move to Australia and deciding not to go, I now understand why. It wasn’t the right opportunity. It didn’t feel right to both of us and I believe now didn’t sit well enough with our values for it to work. It threw us into turmoil though, me deciding I couldn’t do it at the last minute and we had a tough time. I battled through a state of depression which at the time I was diagnosed with Post Natal depression but now I look back it was just the situation we were thrown into and having a baby isn’t exactly an easy time anyway!
Now I look back though I know it was all for a reason. I think the universe throws you challenges sometimes to test you and see if you really want something and if you do you will keep going. I really believe that we are on Earth to learn many different lessons in life and I think our time in Ambleside was to learn some lessons we needed to before moving on. We learned more about who we both are, what sort of parents we want to be, we learned lessons of acceptance and also had the chance to explore Europe a bit more before we made a move. Plus we had such a lovely time there with family close by and met lots of lovely life-long friends.
I also discovered flower essences whilst we were there and I really think that has changed my (well our) lives. I have tried many holistic therapies, all which have been useful in different ways but since I started using flower essences a couple of years ago and made the decisions to study to become a practitioner things have seriously changed in my life. I want to talk further about flower essences in the future as I have some exciting plans around it but I have found that using essences is a very gentle yet very profound way of healing and moving forward on your correct path. They have helped me with anxiety, depression, feeling lost, anger, irritation, creativity, self-love and more. When I am feeling stuck with something I find an essence to help and they constantly help me move forward. I was thinking about our move here the other day and I think I can honestly say we are here on this adventure due to the help of flower essences – they have honestly given me the courage and vitality to do it!
Some days at the moment I look at my boys playing outside and us being together as a family eating our meals together in the sun, which has been a vision in my head for a long time and I want to pinch myself. I then get some thoughts in my head thinking, ‘when will the bubble burst?’, ‘how long will this last?’, ‘do I deserve this?’ – but I just try to quiet that annoying voice in my head and affirm to myself ‘yes you bloody well do deserve it, just enjoy the moment right now’. You see, I totally believe if you have a vision and the courage to go for it dreams do come true. It might not be that way forever, something new will come along, but the trick is to be grateful and stay in that moment which you have created.
We’ve been enjoying Quinta life, slow days together outside in the sun, we’ve started J at a new and fab alternative and democratic school (which I will also talk more about), we’ve explored the local area a bit and tried to talk to locals walking by (although REALLY need to learn more Portuguese), I’ve started a part-time home based job working for Pure Portugal Holidays (really exciting) along side my design business, we’ve been to a car boot sale with friends and met some lovely local people and the boys have been playing outside lots just as I imagined and it’s all making us smile. Here are some photos of our first few weeks….
Oh and I have created a new Parent Tribe Community Page on Facebook so people can chat and network on there – please join if you haven’t already!
Big Love. Hatti x
This is beautiful Hatti. I’m so glad you’re all growing and flourishing 🙂 sounds lime you’ve had quite a journey.
REALLY like your blog Hat. Love the photos. Keep me up to date. Rog XX