It’s a bit hard to describe all of the emotions you feel when moving across the globe. Trying to put them into words is a whole other story, but I will give it a go. Here’s a look back at the past couple of weeks in attempt to share some of our thought, feelings, and experiences.

We have been in a bit of a daze since before the holidays. We had a busy but great 2 weeks visiting family and friends in both MI and WI around Christmas. We enjoyed seeing everyone but struggled with good byes knowing this was the last time we would hug some of our loved ones for a while. It did bring us some peace knowing we have such supportive family and friends who are wishing us all the best in this crazy adventure and that many of you plan to come visit at some point over these next 2 years. 

We were welcomed back to chaos at our apartment after New Years. We had a hectic couple of days preparing and packing items for shipping or storage and getting Brindle to all of her final vet appointments. In the end everything did go smoothly but I can say we still felt the stress and mix of emotions build while cleaning and purging and packing items until there was nothing left in our apartment. We handed in our keys and it was a bittersweet realization that wow, we really are doing this.

In between all of the stress and packing frenzy we were able to share final memories and meals at some of our favorite places with family and coworkers – including one last hurrah at my favorite sushi place. Meiji, you will be missed.

Fast forward to flight day – we were nervous. Not so much for ourselves, more so for Brindle. We wanted this transition to go smoothly for her. She was quite nervous as we packed our belongings and loaded ourselves into the car that would drive us to the airport. We were blessed with a nice driver that I think could sense some of our mixed emotions – she let Brindle ride with us in the seat. Brindle loosened up a bit when we arrived at her pick up location and she got to walk around and sniff. She met Ted – the nice man who would be taking her to the airport and ensuring all of her paperwork was inline for her flight. It was so hard to hand her off and see her go, but we were praying she would be ok and knew we would see her again in about 18 hours (a very long time 🥺).

With Brindle in good hands we headed to the airport to check our bags and wait for our flight. We were plenty early due to the fact Brindle needed more time allowance for preparations. We made it through baggage check and security in record time (yay for clear + pre-check). We were pleasantly surprised to find Husco had upgraded our seats (thank you!) and this provided us access to the airline’s business lounge. It was nice to have a quiet place to relax with a glass of wine, eat, and get a bit of work done while we waited for our flight. 

We got delayed and our nerves started to rise thinking about Brindle having to be in her crate longer (she would already be in it for 13 hours counting her pre-clearance + flight). We eventually got on board and checked out our nice seats. We were able to ask a flight attendant to let us know when Brindle had been loaded and settled in for our long 8 hour flight. We had great service and a meal before we tried to sleep (in our lay down beds – so cool!) It was a bit hard to fall asleep with all the thoughts in our heads and worrying about Brindle, but we were able to doze off for a few hours. We were shaken awake from pretty bumpy turbulence with about 2.5 hours left of our flight. Jacob and I immediately grabbed each others hands and hoped it wouldn’t get worse. We were being shook around quite a bit in our seats, we were only imagining how Brindle might be thrown around in her crate in the cargo area. After a long 30mins we seemed to find smoother air and had an ok rest of our flight. We were happy to have landed safely in London, but knew we still had a long journey yet to our new home.

Brindle was unloaded and taken to customs – it look her about an hour and a half to get there from the plane. Then it took another 2-3 hours for her to clear customs (this is apparently much faster than usual – which we were very grateful for). She was able to be out of her crate during clearing time, which we also appreciated. During this time Jacob and I waited for our luggage and found a coffee shop in the airport to wait for news about Brindle.

We were so excited to go pick her up once given the approval.  A driver picked us and our luggage up and drove us to the HARC (Heathrow Animal Reception Center). Though Brindle did seem happy to see us, she also seemed to be holding a grudge for making her endure all she had and a bit overwhelmed from her travels. We let her walk around for a bit while we loaded her crate into the van and rearranged to fit all of our things. Brindle rode in her crate this time. We had a brief rest stop for some food and to let Brindle out, before finishing our journey home – about 4 hours. We were extremely thrilled to finally just be alone, the 3 of us in our very empty new house.

We immediately took Brindle into her new backyard and found her toys in our suitcase. She was very happy to run around and play and seemed to return a bit more to her normal self. She will so enjoy having a yard of her own.

It was very cold in our house as the heat was left on low while our place was empty – so we tried to warm it up faster with our cute, quaint wood stove.

We decided to set up camp in the living room to be warmer as we had no furniture – just our camping sleep pads and a blanket we brought with us in our suitcase and our newly arrived pillows and sheets from Amazon. 

We ended our first night in England just the 3 of us all cozied up (Brindle found the suitcase before we could set up our makeshift bed) – tired with mixed emotions, but so happy to all be together and for our new adventure to begin. 

More to come on our first week in the UK.

Thanks for reading,

– Amber