Today the sun is shining, a gorgeous, mostly blue-sky day. The leaves are on the trees and spring feels like a real season here in Dublin. Weather on the surface seems like a secondary concern for any given place, but at times it can feel like the most important thing in the whole wide world.
When we landed on March 3rd, 2024, the rain had just stopped, and the sun was weakly peaking through the clouds. “This won’t be so bad,” I thought. “The weather already is warmer than in December when I visited.”
How wrong I was.
I think it rained the entire month of March, save for a few hours during easter break. My winter coat, which I didn’t even bring with me to California in 2021, was a permanent staple by the front door. We walked everywhere and were soaked to the bone quite often. I tried to stay positive for the boys, joking about the dramatic difference from the world we left behind, but I was truly miserable. Nothing eats into your bones quite like a damp cold, and the wind off the Irish Sea was having its way with us back then.
Life began to look up when we did a bit of traveling, first a quick weekend in Belfast with some old friends, and then the most amazing ski vacation in Zermatt, Switzerland. Sunny skies and gorgeous ski trails made me remember why I love travel so much. I even convinced myself that Dublin would be the same way after just 7 days away.
I was partially right but still very wrong.
The sun did shine more in April than in March, but the cold remained. In fact, the sunnier the sky the colder the air somehow. It seems impossible to fathom but it happened constantly. I’d walk out of the house in a light jacket only to turn around and grab a down coat instead. Surely this weather had to change soon, no?
Winter is often associated with cozy nights by the fire with friends and family, but winter can be incredibly lonely for some, too. It’s hard to make friends when you don’t want to step foot in another freezing rainstorm.
About six weeks into our time here things just weren’t working out. We had one frustration after another, and I was ready to give up on this assignment. I gave it a good try, but it just wasn’t for me. Nothing was easy and the signs seemed to be pointing towards a return to the culture and life that we knew. But of course, that didn’t happen. Unless it’s an extreme circumstance you just have to pull on your big girl pants and move on through the frustration and anger. Good weather always helps that mindset, too.
Pretty soon we will be here 12 weeks already. Three months of assimilating into Irish life as best as we can, and of lining up adventures that we can take as a family to keep the kids looking towards a fun future instead of looking back at the life they had to leave behind.
When we first moved overseas in 2016, our oldest son was not even one year old. He did not care where we lived, what we did, or who we did it with, so long as he had me. I worried so very much about traveling with a baby, but he had few opinions that he needed to express. In retrospect it was much easier to decide on the moves we made because he was happy pretty much everywhere. Moving two children with strong ties to a community and plenty of opinions on the weather is far more challenging than any baby ever could be.
I’m grateful now that they will hold the memories we are making across the world because they’re older. I’m grateful that they have grown so close during this transition and continue to play together even when they fight sometimes. I’m grateful that they’re still young enough to want us around every minute of the day and are entertained by silly games or tram rides. It is a lot for their brains to process and a lot for mine as well, but if I can be writing this letter from a back garden while sitting in the sun, I have hope that it’ll all turn out ok in the end.
Wise words to remember in this season of life: “Grow through what you go through.”
An Ocean Away 
Leave a comment