One year ago today we took a huge leap of faith and moved our family over 3500km from Calgary to Guelph.
To celebrate this one year milestone, I wanted to share a few of the decisions we made that helped us not only love our new house and neighbourhood, but have felt so at home and happy with our decision.
1) Enrolling Anna in a small (around 180 kids) community public school within walking distance from our house – this has helped us meet lots of people in our neighbourhood, but allow her to not only go to school with friends, but live near them, and continue to grow up with them throughout her public school career and beyond. Anna started school here in SK, with no formal JK program in Alberta, she was essentially skipping a grade, and she has done very well.
2) Buying a house centrally located and within walking distance to Stew's work – we have embraced walking and biking to the library, the grocery store and park, we are going to be downsizing to one car again and have gained having Stew be able to walk Anna to school, a huge quality of life bonus that I never thought was possible.
3) Despite the moving costs, the Government of Canada does reimburse you when you move for employment, and it’s very generous.
4) We joined our local YWCA – this has been incredibly helpful for me as a new Mom of 3 kids all under 5, putting them in daycare while I have a shower is possible
5) Doing a lot of research and planning before we moved. Yes, we researched this move for almost two years, we did our homework on real-estate, schools, proximity to family, volunteer opportunities, airports and crunched the numbers, a lot.
So, anyone out there that is contemplating a cross country move, job change, and having a baby all in one year, it is possible!
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