Moving Internationally with Kids

We are 3 weeks in to our move to the UK and starting to take inventory of our progress.

So, how do three children of varying ages handle an international move?

**I should preface this with stating that our children have moved before.  The oldest two have also been to the UK before on vacation holiday, so the process and destination wasn't 100% new to them.  More like 80%.**

Our oldest is 11. The connecting and overnight flight from Nashville and New York in the US was no problem for him whatsoever.  He played on his iPad or the video games in the monitor built into the headrest in front of him. He stayed awake the entire night, even upon my urging to get some sleep, so he passed out the second we got in the van at Heathrow.

J has been a true leader amongst the children.  He never complains and is JD's right hand man when it comes to assembling everything we've bought for the house. 

He quietly yet bravely toured his new school with me. Being a British Church of England school AND a secondary school (middle and high school grades) it was quite different from what he's been used to.  There are no colorful murals painted in the hallways or yellow smiley faces around the white board, and the campus consisted of 5 or 6 multilevel buildings.  It felt like a good place for J, but I didn't take for granted his courage in the face of change. 

Our middle child is 7.5, and if J has been the leader of their group, K has been the "little mama."

She sat next to Gracie on the plane to help entertain her, and her only complaint was about the food. She's always hungry (and growing!) these days and airplane food isn't exactly tasty.  I brought snacks, but after a while those don't quite cut it.  She got a little sleep (maybe less than an hour) but crashed in the van just like her brother.  Oh who am I kidding, we ALL fell asleep in the van during the 75 minute ride to Tunbridge Wells.  Pretty sure I was snoring before we left airport property.  No seriously.

K has been curious -- she mostly has questions about when we will go to Paris so she can see the Eiffel Tower -- and flexible, and most of all enduringly patient and loving with Gracie.

Ah Gracie.  Gracie turns 3 in two months and this move has hit her the hardest.  

In many ways she's done extremely well.  She was happy and awake for most of the flight to the UK. Only in the last hour and a half did she start getting stir crazy and wanting to go back and forth across the aisle between parents.  We couldn't blame her as she was ridiculously overtired.  

There were no meltdowns or screaming on the plane.  She even held hands and walked nicely all over the expansive airports of JFK and London Heathrow (even though we had a stroller for her).

Though many nights she ends up in our room after midnight, she is falling asleep in her own room.

It's been a lot of change, though:  

Preschool ended.

Old house - hotel - rental flat - new house.

Crib to big girl bed.

Riding in a car everywhere to walking all the time.

Daddy and big kids home for a month instead of at work and school.

Her life, though it contains the same people who love and care for her, is very different.

At her age she can't quite understand her lack of control over so many areas.

So, she's taking back control in any way possible.

I think for a toddler or preschooler like Gracie, time, patience, and routine are what will get her through this.

The big kids have benefitted from time as a family playing games and cards, and the occasional one-on-one time we can fit in with each of them.
We're also having fun exploring our area and talking about the things we want to do and see while living here.
Everyone (including the parents) is getting big long hugs and, at times like when a certain 2 year old is being carried kicking and screaming home from the grocery store, reassurance that everything will come together in time.

After all, even when we don't have furniture, we're a family and here for each other! Even if "here" means "at the bottom of a pile of kids!"