Good news, everyone. We have a mission to further the noble cause of intergalactic peace
I meant to start this a few months ago, but as it turns out moving your family to a new country where you don't speak the language keeps you pretty busy. This is my first time blogging like this so if you have any questions or tips, let me know. I may try to do some back entries to try to talk about our first weeks/months here. For now, a bit of background (okay, I'm terrible at shortening things, this might be long).
My husband got his PhD in the humanities in May of 2015. He had applied for jobs the entire year that he was writing his dissertation, but the market is, well, pathetic. I was working part time as a medical assistant (which was supposed to be a stepping stone to going back to school to become a Physicians Assistant) and I was pregnant with our third child and homeschooling my older two boys. My husband valiantly tried to piece together enough part time work to support us. Sadly in the US non-tenure track professors (which make up about HALF of the university faculty in the US (https://www.aaup.org/report/status-non-tenure-track-faculty) make pitiful wages, so it was not easy. We realised that we could no longer afford to live in our current apartment and we moved in with my parents from August to March, and then we stayed with his parents for a few months. While we were at my parents home my husband was applying for every tenure track job available in his field. I had my baby in November and just a few weeks after she was born he had to leave me for a week with two older homeschooling kids and a newborn in order to go to a conference in his field where interviews are done. He had a few preliminary interviews which were very promising.
He got a second interview for a job that we just knew he was perfect for. If you read the job posting you might think it was written with him in mind. After a gruelling interview process (it is a two day long affair with multiple interviews, teaching a sample class, and giving a lecture) for this job that we had thought was a sure thing for Bronson, we were devastated when we learned that he did not get it. We were simply crushed, we didn't know what to do. I had stopped working when we moved in August because I couldn't commute to my old job and I was going to be having a baby soon, and my husband's work (teaching two classes per semester at a private university) could barely keep us afloat even living with family.
He began to scramble to find any position he could. He even decided that if he couldn't find a position in the field within a few months he would have to leave academia (even though he has produced some great scholarship) and do whatever he had to to support his family. He hoped that he would be able to secure a post-doc, perhaps it would only be for a year, but it would be long enough to give him another year of applications.
A very interesting position came up at a university in Germany which he had visited the year before. They were studying Dead Sea Scrolls and using computer technology to analyse fragments-it was perfect for him. He applied to it and a few other post-doc and grant positions. He had an online interview for the position and we nervously awaited a response. Thankfully, they didn't keep us waiting long. The day after his interview we found out that the vote had been unanimously in his favour, he pulled me aside to speak to me before responding to make sure I would be okay with moving to Germany-OF COURSE!! Now the interview was in April and the job was originally supposed to start in May. They luckily realised that it wasn't really possible for us to get everything in order so quickly, so they updated it to June 1st.
We already had passports for our two older children, but we needed one for the baby. We also wanted to get our passports updated since they were set to expire in December of 2016. The university in Göttingen was kind enough to help us find an apartment. The only hitch was that it wasn't available till July 1 and we had to find somewhere to live for the first month. We had a vacation apartment booked, but a few weeks before we were scheduled to leave they informed us that we couldn't have 5 people (2 adults and 3 kids) in the unit. Oh no, that was stressful, luckily AirBnB came to the rescue, and we found a lovely apartment right in town to stay in.
The last month in the states was so hectic. My in-laws were so very gracious as we made a total mess of their home with our packing. We couldn't afford to send a shipping crate so we decided to just each take the allowed suitcase and pay for one extra suitcase each. We actually used boxes for our second piece of luggage because it was much lighter and each bag had to come in under 23K. We took the risk of putting some smaller heavier items in our carry on because although there is a stated carry on weight, we learned that most airlines don't care much about your carry on weight as long as it fits in the overhead bin. We constantly had boxes and scales in the living room and kitchen weighing and packing and shifting items. My mother in law helped me so much watching the kids and helping me decide what to pack and what to sell, or get rid of, or store.
Ultimately we made it to Göttingen, Germany, other than a stressful snafu with our layover in Manchester (we had to leave the security area and go back through and it took forever) and our stroller/bike-trailer getting lost the travel went pretty well.
We've been here for a few months now and we absolutely love it. The people here are so very friendly and willing to help. We are learning a lot. One of the biggest struggles is language-as I have no formal German instruction, I'm still struggling to teach myself the language. My husband took German in college and although he hadn't spoken it in many years, he continued to read German for his academic work-so he has been faring considerably better than me.
We have felt so blessed and directed by God in this journey. The way that certain things came together truly surpassed what we believed possible-things were not perfect and we weren't sure at times that things would come together, but they did.
As this is turning into a novel I guess for now I'll say...till next time.