When you least expect it

Things have been pretty good in our world. We're settling into our new life. Things are good, really good. There is lots to look forward to. Each morning I wake up and think: "Oh we are here, it isn't a dream!"

The kids are finding their places at school. Not without a little bit of turmoil, which is to be expected when you uproot your life to the otherside of the globe.

Skip is working hard and finding his groove.

Me? Well, I'm here. Doing the school run. Trying to make our home a home. I haven't been homesick at all. Well I wasn't until yesterday.

I picked up the kids from school. As I waited for Lil to come out of class, I saw groups of mothers chatting away in French, German and Arabic. I tried to smile and work my way into their conversation, but they nodded and went back to their chat.

When we got home from school I could see dozens of kids playing in the playground. The kids and I eagerly went down to play, burn off some steam and hopefully meet a few neighbours.

There were plenty of kids, but no other mums. Just nannies who'd split off into their nationality groups. I stood and watched and stopped Darbs from eating rocks.

All of sudden I had a pang. I wished I was at our park. I wished I was chatting with my oldest friend about preschool, or our renos (hey, we lived in the inner west) or gossip. I wished I could call in at my good mate JB's and she'd make me a coffee and we'd vent. I wished I could hear a knock at the door and it would be my mum calling in for a cuppa. I wish we could have dinner with our friends and laugh about inappropriate things until my cheeks hurt.

Sometimes, Lil is so intuitive it amazes me. She looked up and said "Who do you miss, Mum?" We talked about who we missed (according to Lil: "Goose misses Ollie. Dad misses Shane and Daniel. Darbs misses Saffron and Emily. And you mum, miss all the other mums") and it made it a little bit better.

I love my own company, I love what we're doing here. I know we'll meet friends here. Just sometimes I wish I could pack up a few people from home, because that's the hardest thing. No matter how many friends we meet and how good our life is, we'll always miss those special people at home.