Exhausted (April, 2014)

It’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows.  I am spent.  This is hard work.  We are busy and we’re making loads of friends, but it doesn’t just fall into ‘ones’ lap.

I turn up to random events, hoping someone will talk to me, hoping against all hope that I’ll be able to understand them. 

I make strained conversations with people I have never met, potentially have nothing in common with, may very well never see again and can sometimes hardly understand.  I have to give a backstory to everything I ever say.

I accept all invitations to kindy gym, the the kinderborderij, to family events, to music class, to cooking class, to drinks with the girls in a pub on the other side of town where I have to cycle through a town I don’t know, in the dark.

Is it worth it?  TOTALLY!

I am making solid friendships.  These ladies are welcoming and sweet and understanding and super inclusive.

You only get back, what you put in – it’s bloody hard work. I’m proud of me, I am proud of Anneke adapting, I’m proud of Dave going to the ‘boys bowling night’.  

Never ever estimate how hard we worked at making this happen.