We have been living in the States for almost three months now. In some ways, it feels like we just got here. In other ways it feels like we’ve been here much longer. What is certain is how hard this transition has been and continues to be.
We get asked a lot about Haiti and have admittedly stopped bringing it up to people we barely know. Honestly it’s just too hard for us to have small talk about anything related to Haiti right now. It is impossible to know how to answer the questions that follow when someone learns we recently moved here from Haiti. They are the same questions we’ve always been asked, but it’s a lot harder to know how to respond during this season. They usually sound something like this:
- “How are things over there?”
- “Are things still bad since the earthquake?” (News flash: The earthquake happened more than TEN years ago, and there is so much more to Haiti than the 2010 earthquake.)
- “Haiti-- that’s in Africa, right?”
- “Wow, how nice was it to live in the Carribean?”
- “So what was it like to live there?”
- “Why would you choose to live in a place like that?”
The most painful comment for me is when someone says, “I’m sure you’re so glad to be back home.” I know people say this with good intentions, but I cannot tell you how far from home I feel right now and how badly those words sting. Most days I’m still not super jazzed to be here, and it will probably take a while to come around. Transition is really uncomfortable, and learning how to live in America again is so much different from visiting once a year for a couple of weeks.
Our transition to life in the States was already going to be pretty rocky even with good plans in place, but moving during a global pandemic has drastically impacted the way we thought this would all go. On one hand, it has certainly made things harder for us during this season. But on the other hand, it has helped us cope with things a bit better.
I have been gifted with a lot of extra time right now, so I plan to share some of my thoughts about our transition in pieces over the next few weeks. If you’ve been wondering how things have been going for us, stay tuned for more…
- Steph
