The Mountains we climbed to get to England

The mountains we climb that led us to our Dream

March

• Gary is proactive (for the first time in his life, his own words) and sends off for his passport renewal, so in two years he doesn’t have to it in England
• Pandemic=lock down
• Remote Learning/Homeschooling starts
• Passport offices close. Gary’s passport is lost in the system. Online says to call. When he gets a hold of a representative on the phone, they tell him he has to check online.

April

• I get contacted by the hospital stating they would like to move forward with hiring process, if I am still interested. Gary and I have a heart to heart whether it is good idea we move in the middle of a pandemic.
• Waiting for the manager to interview me for the position

May

• Now waiting for the hospital to issue my certificate of sponsorship
• Waiting for Gary’s passport

June

• Got my certificate of sponsorship and applied for my visa. Waited again for 3 weeks for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office to open and schedule my biometrics (fingerprinting and face photo, confirming that you are who you say you are) appointment.
• Original month of departure prior to pandemic has come and gone

July

• On the 9^th Gary’s online passport status changes from “received” to “in process”.
• July 29^th at 1pm was my biometrics appointment. I attend and it went smoothly. The lady that took my photo and my fingerprint liked my mask made by my good friend Adrienne. While at the UPS office, about to send off my paperwork to New York to the UK visa office, I notice #1 I had made an error on the application in my haste stating I had never been to England and #2 there was a page that needs to be sign at my “appointment.” I quickly got into my car, drove back during rush hour traffic to the USCIS office and made sure I was not supposed to sign it front of them. They kindly told me, “no, you just have to sign it and send it off.” As in regards to error #1 I Googled and emailed the UK visa office (every question you send them cost £5), Learned I needed to write a letter explaining the error, cross it out on the visa application and cross my fingers. A high anxiety day.

August

• We came home from camping trip to find Gary’s passport had finally arrived.
• August 17 2020 at 10am I got my UK visa and started working on Gary’s and Alvin’s visa application. Was told “no appointments available”.
• On the 30^th broke a toe on my right foot and was not able to run for six weeks, my primary method of stress relief. Wore a boot for the first week and could not work at the hospital.

• For three weeks, everyday I checked for an appointment. My spirit were momentarily lifted  as the spinning wheel turned then crushed with image above. After three weeks of my spirits getting weathered, I decided to go to the (VSF) Visa Facilitation Services Global offices in The Columbia Tower in Seattle without an appointment.
• August 31, 2020 our day and experience at VSF office. We got Alvin’s and Gary’s biometrics completed and their visas applications sent off. Time to start planning our departure. Another 3 weeks of wait and see.

September

• Looking for Renters: Blaine and Summer planned to live in our house the two year that we lived in England.  We had been sharing a house since June a hidden blessing in the chaos of moving. Intrigued by the housing marking Summer and Blaine started looking for a small investment property. They fell in love with a cute house in a great neighborhood and we of course we relinquished them of any obligation they felt staying at our home. So we were on the hunt for renters and a property manager.
• 3 interviews later we found Deric, a great straight forward property manager.  He told to depersonalize the house and paint Alvin’s bedroom.
• Now we needed to empty the house of everything (rags, collection of mason jars, excess cloths, toiletries never used). Our things had two futures: it was either worth staying and went into the attic or garage; or it came to England with us. Anything that it did not fall into one of those categories left our possession.

• Gary went hard to work in getting the house ready for renters
  • the deck rail off our bedroom had rotted wood and need to be replace so the nail gun broke
  • the back yard needed weed whacking so the weed whacker broke
  • Repainting Alvin’s bedroom after the property manager pointed out the dirty the walls. Well it had been 9 years since we paint the room and a Alvin had lived in it for the last 6…
  • Taking down our photos, filling the holes and painting. Realizing the paint is 10 years old and 10 year old pain clump up
  • Building a temporary wall down the middle of the garage so we have a storage for our furniture.

Housing

• Winchester housing. Called multiple “letting offices”, many of which told me (insert stern British accent) “oh no, oh no, you must see the property yourself” or “no, it must be you, you cannot have a proxy” or “there is a cold feet clause and that is why you must view the property yourself.”
• Did the math for the cost ($$) to stay at an AirBnB that accepts dogs for the first month.  But after multiple calls at 5am we found a realtor that would work with us stating (insert kind British accent) “Oh yes we did this for another family living abroad last month, not a problem.”
• With the help of Charters Estate Agents and Wendy Harrison we found a lovely semi-detached home but they could not confirm Gary’s income and we had to pay a full year in advance pulling the money from our nest egg. Ouch, to say the least!
• September 21, 2020 Gary and Alvin got their visas!

October

• We booked our tickets for October 9^th and called British Airways to add Jasper to our ticket
• Jasper, the world traveling dog, has his own story. But in summary he caused us to change our flights twice, chase after a UPS truck, and his crate caused me to have an epic melt down in front of a stranger. One word of advice, if you are moving overseas with a pet during a pandemic, just don’t, or pay the big bucks for a private carrier.

• A blessing in disguise on October 4^th Yoshiko (step-mom) leaves for Japan since her mother is very ill and I get to spend a week with my sister Anna. Anna sleeps in Alvin’s room, consisting of only a mattress. The spare room bare since Blaine & Summer moved out. Alvin relishing the chance to sleep with us for the week.
• Oct 5^th I noticed redness to my right eye which worsened even with ophthalmic antibiotic ointment. This led me to the ED, my first contrast CT and being diagnosed  with periorbital cellulitis. I was placed on three different antibiotics. In the following week, the week we are scheduled to leave, I had three appointments with Dr. Deem an amazing, patient, caring ophthalmologist. The kind of provider that takes the time to listen to his patients. He treated me well and by the time I arrived in England I was almost healed.

• October 14 mercury in retrograde
• 2 flight reservation changes later we are schedule to leave on October 16, 2020
• 17 October we touch down at Heathrow.
• Things have been going much, much more smoothly! Not sure if it has anything to do with the fact we are in quarantine, but I will take it.

The journey to England was made bearable because of our hidden angels. They gave us hope in our moments of despair.

Wendy Harrison, our eyes in Winchester, taking time from her busy schedule as a mom and with two new puppies to give us a first hand glimpse at our house. She also picked up the keys, hid them so we could come straight home from the airport, stock the frig and brought over her own plates and cups realizing we had an empty house. And to top we found a bouquet of flowers with a welcome card. A woman we only met once as guest of her AirBnB. She is a true angel.

Blaine and Summer for helping us move furniture, giving us an excuse to buy ice cream, and being faithful Bananagrams partners.

Stuart for moving the heavy furniture when he should have been studying and taking most of our food off our hands.

Yoshiko for letting us live with her invading every corner of the house during our last week in Tacoma.

Rick and Lynn for hosting us at Seabrook during the peak of the stress, for letting us spy on potential renters from their house, for caravanning to the airport with our 17 bags, and for being great neighbors.

Sil Underwood Wong, for using her buddy pass and accompanying me to drop Jasper off in LA. This is after she was up ALL night at the emergency veterinarian office with a sick kitty cat. And for being my voice of reason during the epic meltdown.

Kelly Melton, for bringing me a killer lunch and keeping me company the day I was in the emergency department.

To Manny, for writing one of the most thoughtful good bye notes I have ever received. A ray of sunshine during the stresses of moving.

Dr.Deem, for being a great ophthalmologist and helping my eyes heal.

And to the many unnamed rallying for us along the way. You are not forgotten, you are the reason we made it.