The Decision
Let’s face it, moving to a different country with two young children in tow is never going to be an easy decision to make. Moving away from family and friend, all the support systems that you have built up around you. But that’s the decision we made. Why? Because we were working hard and getting nowhere. We couldn’t give our girls the attention we wanted to, we were too busy trying to earn the money to pay the bills. Add to that our eldest daughter was struggling at just six years old, the school was telling me that she had learning difficulties. I knew this wasn’t true. She was a very nervous child and just didn’t fit into the very narrow box that the Church of England school she attended put all the kids in. She cried and had to be pulled from me every single day, it was heart breaking. I knew she was being bullied but I didn’t know the extent until later. I had to do something, life had to be more than this. Life should be fun and not full of young children being pressured to be the same as the next child.
After a family holiday in Lanzarote, Barry (my husband) and I started thinking that maybe a different country held the answers for us. Lanzarote was too far from home, with two sets of parents and three Grandparents to consider, it had to be closer.
Main land Spain? Barry had never been, but I had as a Child. Spending three wonderful weeks, three years in a row in Mojacar, on the Almeria coast. I had loved it there, so much so that I cried for the whole journey home. I was normally a well behaved child that didn’t cause a fuss, I just couldn’t help it when leaving here, I felt that I was leaving where I was supposed to be.
Barry had a friend with rooms to rent in Spain and when we looked on the map it was only 60 km from Mojacar, it had to be a positive omen. We decided we would go and check it out.
The four of us packed a bag as soon as we could and went to see if maybe Spain was for us.
As we drove through an industrial estate, thinking we were closer than we were in reality to our destination, the doubts began to surface, it was so ugly, did we want to live somewhere like this?
As we continued our journey the landscape changed, gone where the big grey building lining the sides of the road and in their place was the most amazing view of rolling fields and mountain tops. It was breath taking, maybe we could live here, you could never get bored of that scenery.
As we got closer, little villages appeared and disappeared, beautiful farm houses, many in need of a lots of tender loving care, teased us with what may be possible for us.
Then there it was, a perfectly white washed Spanish village perched on the edge of the hill side. It was at that moment the decision was made to do whatever had to be done to move here.
