on with the story

Mon and I have been married for almost seven and a half years. She's Swedish, I'm American. Several times during our marriage the idea of moving to Sweden for a time has come up, but we never progressed any further in our discussions than the obstacle stage - jobs, housing, schooling for the kids, learning the language, etc... A few of life's small details. After a few days the talks would go away. I'm not sure when it hit us but we realized this spring that the opportunity to move over there might be slipping away. Mon's folks are getting older and our kids will soon be school aged. In about two or three years uprooting is going to get a whole lot more complicated than it is now.
One of the catalysts for pursuing this now was Mon's Mom indicating she may be interested in downsizing her house to a one bedroom apartment. She is older but still in great health and fully independent. We told her a couple years ago we were toying with the idea of coming to Sweden for a while and she immediately offered us the use of her house. It's large, out in the country, on an island -- great place to raise kids. The kind of place you dream of ending up. Tucked away, that thought stuck with us. After being informed this spring of her desire to downsize, it suddenly became a priority to figure out if we were actually going to be able to do this thing and if it was the right thing for us to do. Plus, if Mon's Mom is contemplating downsizing, we're wondering if she might like some routine help. [Pictured house is a family farmhouse, not mormor's residence.]
After a time of focused analyzing and prayer, some of the conclusions we came to: my parents are deceased and Mon's are both living and active, though at different ends of Europe. Mon has also been over here for nearly the past 10 years and has only seen her family on vacation or on their visits here. We'd be giving up being near my family for the time being which will be hard, but we've done it before. We're not giving up much professionally, though Mon is with a good company and has opportunity to move up there. She is in purchasing and has a great business/adminstration resume. I'm at home full time with the kids. This was by choice and I'm sure a future post will talk about it. Boiled down, we see that there are advantages and disadvantages of an international move, but getting Mon near her Mom outweighs anything we'd lose. It just seems like the right thing to do. Plus what an opportunity for the kids and us.
Mon's Mom, 'mormor' from here on out, indicated that if we came over she'd prefer to stay at the house with us. We think that would be benefitial to everybody. Kids would be near mormor, Mon her Mom, me, well, I can help with maintenance and ready the house for sale if the family chooses to sell. I can't say what a stable platform this is to land on.
The house is plenty large enough for all of us. Sits about 300 meters from the Baltic on what I estimate is an acre or two. Been 2003 since I've seen it. House does have some maintenance issues that will need to be addressed, plus Mon has her eye on some projects.
One thing at a time though. We haven't worried too much about jobs yet, and mine is going to involve a work force re-entry, career path change and re-entry in a foreign land. Talk about transition. Can't think about it too much or I get lost in the details. I figure our monthly bills will be low so we'll have some wiggle room. If we have even one modest income with no bills we'll do all right for starters.
Going to go check on the boys.