Flashback Friday: Home is where the heart is

Jul 29, 2011 by cafebebemama

This is one of my favourite pictures of Ella. It was taken in December of 2008 during our first visit back to the US with Ella. She was 6 months old and is sleeping on the shoulder of my Dad, Ella’s Grandpa. This visit was a special one for us. First of all, we hadn’t been back to the US since 2005. I had gone back to the US in September of 2005 to settle my life there before moving permanently to the UK to be with Mark, my then-fiance. Mark joined me for 1/2 of my visit and got to meet my family and see what my life was like in Wisconsin. We journeyed back to the UK in October of 2005 and didn’t go back until November 2008 as a family of three.

Ella had a WONDERFUL time on this adventure to my homeland. Everyone adored her and she succeeded in charming everyone she met. It was a bit of a bittersweet journey for us as my paternal Grandpa had passed away in March of 2008, prior to Ella being born and Ella also met both of my Grandma’s who may not see her again due to their increasing age and our lack of funds to travel back and forth to the US whenever we like. But everyone got to meet her at least once and that was the important part.

People ask me what it’s like being so far away from “home”. Well, for one thing, for me now, HOME is where the heart is. England is my home but America (specifically Wisconsin) is my homeland. Being away for 6 years now makes it difficult to feel that I belong in the US because I’m not there experiencing it on a daily basis. I have no clue what is going on in the US. Politics, celebrities, television shows, fuel prices, shops…not a clue. And because I’m not there on a regular basis, I don’t see a lot of point dwelling on it.

I miss my family, no doubt about that. Particularly now that I have a family of my own. Having my inlaws a 5-minute car ride from our house makes me painfully aware of the fact that I can’t take Ella to Grandma’s house for the afternoon or ring up Grandpa and Nanna Janna to see if they’d like to meet us for lunch somewhere. Ella misses out on valuable time with her Grandparents and that does make me sad. But what are you going to do? Our home is in England. Their home is the US. An ocean apart but never out of touch.

Skype is a saviour (when the connection is good) so at least the relatives can SEE Ella and she can establish a connection with them that does seem to carry through until the time that we finally meet again. But it is hard. For them and for us.

There will be no trips back to the US again this year. The last time we were back was October of 2009 when we attended my only brother’s wedding. More than likely, we won’t be traveling back to the US until Summer of 2012 at the earliest when we hope to take our family of FOUR back to enjoy friends, family and a Wisconsin summer. Until then, we’ll Skype and ring and hopefully have Wisconsin come to us when Bebe #2 joins our family.

Today is Flashback Friday! Take a memory from your past (any past…last week, last year, 10 years ago), write your “story”, share a smile with us and link it back for others to venture back in time to. Simple. No theme, no stress, no strain! Thank you, in advance, for sharing your life…it’s a pleasure to be invited!