As it has been a while since posting, I am in grave danger of saturating any reader's attention within a moment of reading due to, what I perceive is a sheer volume of things to report.
The end of July saw changes in William's childcare, graduation, packing up to move to Devon, news from the bank that letting our house has been approved, changing our car and scrappage of our faithful old Megane, and finally, a van ride down to beautiful Devon for the start of our new chapter in life.
These events, all concentrated into only about 2 weeks, caused an immense plethora of feelings and anxieties in me, which are finally now retreating slowly into the past as the joys of pastures new take hold.
Our new au pair arrived about a week before the planned move to Devon. He and William began to get to know one another, however, as each day passed, I became more and more anxious for the task ahead. Knowing I would not be able to oversee the introduction to childcare/cookery/household tasks and all that encompasses, I worried more and more for the situation William would be in and for my own ability to go to work knowing things would be well-taken care of at home. Our situation demanded more than the average au pair would normally be expected to cope with, although I could not be blamed for not making this clear from the outset. Our ways of living were turning out to be too disparate, and so we ended the agreement, days before I was due to start work. All this challenged my desire to be fair and generous toward others - I asked God for this, He presented me with a situation, and I finally had to admit that I couldn't handle what I had asked for.
The move. Having been given the miraculous news that the bank had approved our application to let our house in Liverpool, I began to think about what we needed to pack for the year ahead, what could be left behind, and what could go into storage. This did make packing somewhat more time consuming, however, moving day came, a van was hired and everything loaded, including William, au pair, and myself (driving). Raj was to remain up North for work until the weekend. A long drive down south and we all arrived and were warmly welcomed by Raj's parents, in whose house we would now live for the year.
A further journey back to Liverpool is planned for the end of August to empty the remaining belongings, prepare the house for letting and hand over the keys. I am saying my prayers about this. Not least because we still don't know whether Raj has been successful at gaining the fellowship in Liverpool, even now - on the point of moving out completely and changing the bills over. I am feeling unsettled about this, especially as somewhere like Sweden is looking like a much more attractive prospect for the next year...
The start to my new job has exceeded all my expectations, which, when combined with the sublime peace and tranquility of our new home, speeds on the healing. William is so happy to have the freedom to play outside, and have so many family members around when I cannot be (my mum is here to help while my search for a new au pair continues). I am beginning to love life again.
