It's pronouced punk-an-ach (Yankee)

As mentioned above, I have moved to Northern Ireland. Well, let me correct that, I am in the process of moving to NI, as we'll call it. Yes, all my belongings are here as well as my husband and daughter, but I can't stay as long as expected. When we flew over here in November, we were under the impression that since my husband and daughter were UK citizens, then I could change my status to settlement from visitor. NOPE! Come to find out I have to go back to the States and apply for a settlement visa, do fingering printing/pictures and then come back for good hopefully. This creates alot of stress. Will I get the visa? Can I even afford it? Will husband find a job in time? Can I travel back to the US once I get the visa? The movies make an international move look so easy.......

To catch everyone up, I have been here for two months and we are currently living with my husband's parents. They have a lovely huge house with enough room for all three of us plus them plus my brother-in-law, K. In Europe it's not uncommon to have all the family living under one roof. It has been nice to have the grandparents helping with our daughter and also my father-in-law, RG is a great cook. It has, however, been hard with no car, no cellphone and no income. It will get better and after I get the visa sorted I will get my UK drivers licence, but until then the transition period is very trying at times.  The first month was very difficult as we were getting used to sharing our living space again and also the surprise of the visa issue was emotional. We also had to wait for all our household goods in our shipment and that as very hard. But January has been a good month. We finally got our stuff, hung out with our friends and found some things to do during the day to get us out of the house. That is pretty much the last two months in a nutshell.

Since this is my first post on my first blog I'm going to explain some things. I know many of you know me personally and follow me on facebook, I've decided not to use names incase my blog goes big (everyone wishes, right). Since I'm sure I'm going to get tired of typing husband or daughter, they are going to be call R for husband and O for daughter. If you're one of my friends and I talk about you in my post I'll just use the first letter of your first name unless you tell me other wise.  I am also going to talk some things about myself that many of you don't know about me. All I ask is that you do not judge, the information I disclose will hopefully help others in their struggles. I am also just going to put it out there that I'm not an English major and a horrible speller, so again, don't judge and hopefully you all can follow me.

To finish for today, I hope you all will enjoy my future posts and pictures. Comments will always be welcome!

oíche mhaith