From Here to There: A widowed single mom/artist/reiki master with ADHD moving from the PNW to Berlin

Where to start with a story that doesn’t have a neat beginning?

I am in the very messy, extremely stressful middle of packing up my home and my kids and my cats and my art, selling my house, and moving across the world to Germany.

My maternal grandparents were Jewish and had to flee Europe as young teenagers during WWII. As reparations under Germany’s Article 116, my family was able to get dual citizenship with the US and Germany. My adult son and I talked about it for several years, and spent time getting our paperwork together and applying. We wanted to do it just because we could, and we thought it would provide some great opportunities and possibilities for the future. Both of my kids could go to college in the EU for next to nothing. Travel would be easier. And if for any reason we ever wanted to move…

Fast forward to when we got word that our applications for dual citizenship were approved by the German government. The approval came amidst the 2nd term of a certain orange man and Project 2025 in full force, and any guise of democracy quickly unraveling. This combined with the opportunities available for us in the EU and my lifelong desire to travel, a very loud whisper came along with our dual citizenship status, “We could just…GO…”

That whisper quickly became a roar, a pull too strong to ignore. A privilege and an opportunity that I simply could not pass up.

Time is speeding up as the move gets closer. Packing and preparing the house is not just packing and preparing the house. It is endless decisions throughout each day. It is reckoning with objects that are loaded with personal history. It is finding a way to support one child who doesn’t want to go and who is not capable of letting go of belongings. It is contending with ongoing grief of too much personal loss in the past 4 1/2 years. Realizing that this is another loss, not of a person but of a home and a way of life that is comfortable and familiar.

Of course it is also exciting. An adventure and new life await us. Each day my belly fills with anxiety, anticipation, and excitement. Each night my dreams get more chaotic as my mind tries to make sense of it all.

Leaving will be hard. Starting new in a whole other part of the world will be a challenge. A challenge and a dream; I cannot wait to start.