Hello! Follow our journey as we navigate the joys and struggles of emigrating from South Africa to the USA.
Here’s what we have been up to
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7 months in, and we are finally healing. Sitting here, on the porch of a cabin in the North Georgia Mountains, watching the birds on the lake, I know we are going to be perfectly fine. We see the beauty our new country has to offer. The life we are now able to give our…
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It’s done… this chapter comes to a close. I’ve read the Harry Potter series to my daughter for almost 3 years. Some weeks, we took a break, but we read the whole series, chapter for chapter, every one of the 7 books. It became a part of our routine. We have so many special moments.…
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They say to dream big. Aim high. Chase your dreams. What does that mean for our family? When we first decided to emigrate, we had a conversation with our daughter about how we think life would look like in a different country. We shared our dreams with her, and asked her what she imagined it…
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I’ve been asked so many times what I miss about Cape Town. Apart from the view of Table Mountain (that I saw nearly every day for 17 years), there is not a specific place I miss. I miss the people… our family and friends. Starting a braai at noon and leaving 12+ hours later (sometimes…
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We were those people… We said we will embrace the American culture and food and not seek out South African stores. Well, that was until we tried beef jerky, couldn’t find a Chutney equivalent, and my husband realized they don’t sell Crunchies or Robertsons spices in American stores! Someone, please open a Spur! They don’t…
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They say the three most stressful events in life is: death, divorce and moving. Immigration feels like all three of those at once. You’re mourning the life you left behind and following the steps to get through that. You’re cutting ties with your ex country, and you’re not just moving from one house to another,…
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For the longest time, I’ve been a forward looking kind of person. While I know there is an important place in this world for therapy, I refuse to have my future marred by what happened in the past. I don’t dwell there. I prefer to live a life of possibilities, filled with memories of love,…
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A lot of people say that the Diversity Visa Lottery is the quickest or easiest way to get into America legally. While that might be true, you would first need to be lucky enough to be selected. I say lucky, because it really is a lottery and in the African region, you have something like…
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As we approached the 2 month mark, I suddenly realized what we’ve all been going through. I didn’t recognize it earlier, because I was consumed by the process itself, and as often happens, only once I saw it for what it was, was I able to make peace with it. We are in the grieving…
SimplyWoodly 