Tuesday, February 21, 2012

47 St. Davids Drive, Wentworth Gate, Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0BA

Big Ben…Parliament!IMG_1399
That we’re moving to London is no longer a secret so I’m sure it’s also not a secret that our lives are feeling a bit topsy turvy these days.  I’m blogging from a Sky Club in the Atlanta airport during a layover between our house-finding trip in the London area and our annual AGS trip to Cancun.  You might ask why we would consider staying away from the kids for 2 straight weeks when I just got back from a long trip away from them in January and it would be a fair question.  85 sunny degrees, turquoise ocean and free.  That’s my answer.
We flew from Seattle to Wausau a week ago to drop the boys off with my parents.  We spent Monday night together before our 2pm flight to London Heathrow the following day.  Unfortunately all did not go as planned.  Graham’s cat allergy (just recently discovered during an allergist appointment to check up on the peanut problem, which of course is in full effect) is worse than we thought and even though my mom dropped her cat off at my sister’s before we got there and laundered and cleaned the house top to bottom, Graham had trouble breathing in less than a day and after a visit to the ER, a steroid and breathing treatment, my parents and the boys are having fun/living in a hotel down the road from their house.  And when I say having fun, I’m not kidding.  They swim every day. Chuck E Cheese, the movie theater and light saber fights are the norm.  The boys will be in for a rude awakening when we pick them up as life at home isn’t nearly as exciting.  To say we are grateful to my mom and dad for their help doesn’t do it justice but THANK YOU!!
After a week in London, Mike is excited to make the move.  Our relocation agent on the UK side drove us around the areas we had researched and we’re happy to report that we found a house.  We were prepared for very small and very expensive and we got both of those but we are pleasantly surprised by the light and the space given our expectations.  We have a full guest suite plus a bit of extra room so we’re looking forward to hosting friends and family. (The below is a pic of the living room)
London
While in town, we also toured the schools that were recommended by friends and colleagues and aside from the expense (Ripon College tuition, anyone?), we are very confident that Greyson is going to be happy at ACS Egham International School.  We looked at the TASIS American school along with a couple of British schools and ACS Egham rose above.  They can also take Graham into their “Pre Scramblers” program for as many half days as we feel comfortable leaving him.  We can walk to the school from our house and Windor’s “Great Park” is nearly across the street with Windsor Castle and the famous Ascot race course just a short 5 minute drive away.  After crossing off the home and school to-dos off of our list, we spent the weekend touring the city of London and eating its amazing food (including a wonderful Gordon Ramsey restaurant).

March means packing, marking large furniture for storage and selling a number of items including our cars before we head to Hawaii with Mike’s family- something everyone is very much looking forward to before we make the official move.
Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey.  We are optimistic, a bit anxious and mostly excited about the next chapter.  Mike is planning to join the Facebook world and he tells me he may take a stab at blogging as well so stay tuned for that! 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

“Hi Nana!”

“The first thing that came to mind…is how loved ones have a way of letting us know that they're still there, they never left to begin with.  What an awesome gift”  ~Nathan Kofler (my little brother), 1/31/2012
The craziest thing happened while I was in Copenhagen.

My mom sent me an email link with a note from my Uncle Ted. It said “read this right away and let me know what you think”.  The link was to an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette about a woman, Anne Gallagher, who was searching for a nurse named Maggie who worked in the Pediatrics ward at St. Vincent’s Hospital in the mid-1960s.  Ms. Gallagher, a writer, was doing research for her memoir.  When Anne was a 2-year old girl living in Green Bay she was badly burned in a house fire and the nurse, Maggie, took care of her for 3 months.  Maggie stroked her hair, read her stories and cried softly when she was in pain.  She writes about her connection with Maggie poignantly in ”Her name was Maggie and she was my nurse” from her blog. Finding Maggie was one of the final pieces of Anne’s story and the article in the Press Gazette made it happen.  Anne had a photo of the day she was discharged and standing to the right of her wheelchair, in her pressed white nursing uniform, is the nurse Anne’s been searching for.

maggie-the-nurse
Maggie is my grandmother.  My Nana.  In the swell of emotions I was feeling in the moments after reading the article and seeing the photo, I emailed her.  “You brought her back to life” I said.  I spent hours reading Anne’s blog- Anne on Fire- that chronicles her journey of discovery and I found a kindred spirit.
 
Anne will not have the pleasure of meeting her again on this Earth but she is laughing in Heaven at this destined encounter and is so wonderfully alive in our hearts that I feel like I could touch her.  She was German and I spent the day yesterday walking around Denmark; a country similar in so many ways, tasting the local foods and eating off of dishes that resembled her white and blue porcelain. I re-told this story to colleagues, clients and friends and am repeatedly filled with gratitude and amazing memories:  stockings stuffed full on Christmas mornings, the smell of her kitchen, her roses, black licorice candies, the Milwaukee Zoo, homemade birthday cakes, sleepovers on the “davenport”, her big glasses, beautifully intricate handmade Christmas ornaments and infectious laugh... she would have loved my husband and children.  That my boys call my own mom “Nana” is a source of pride for all of us.

Saying a simple ‘thank you’ to Ms. Gallagher doesn’t seem like enough. We will all follow her story and line up to read her book.  Her email response to me this morning summed it up for all of us:
“It never occurred to me that I would bring to life someone so loved. I spoke with Maggie’s son Ted and Aunt Shirley.  I told them that when I was burned, I was just a child of 2 (turned 3 in the hospital) and that one of the reasons I wanted to do this research was to understand if the images and memories in my head were real or if I had made them up.  It’s really beautiful to know that the memories are real.” ~Anne Gallagher, 2/2/2012
To my Nana, who touched our lives so profoundly, we miss you. We will see you again.  We will hear your laughter and listen to more stories of the children you loved and cared for, like little Anne on Fire.