Moving to Barbados = 5 Tasks

Five tasks. 

To move to another country/location, I thought, 5, simple, tasks.

1) Figure out schools for kids. 2) Figure out a place to live. 3) Figure out work.  4) Pack stuff.  5) Get on plane.

Simple right? Um seems not. I now have a list of 150 tasks.  Two still In Progress and 2 in To Do.  

Through those 150 there have been so many good stories that I couldn't help but dust off the old blog and share some of the more humorous ones that have stretched my zen practice to it's thinnest point. This is edition 1 of series 1. Yeah that's right, I am planning more than one of these things. 

To catch everyone up- we moved to Barbados. We were living in Virginia, in the process of planning to move to Denver, Colorado, when my husband got an expat opportunity so we decided to take it. This is where the story begins.

For us, we like to do things big and in multiples- when we got married we figured that wasn't enough, so we decided to move to the US, buy a house, get married and have a baby. All in the same year. I call it efficient multitasking.

So- when planning to move, why not add on to it Another move, to a foreign country, that we have never been to before, that's a tropical island, just to make it interesting. 

It can be deduced then that each of my tasks from my original simple 5 step plan, quickly turned into 7 or more tasks each. Those who have managed Agile software development projects would say that this is just a story becoming an Epic which results in subtasks. For those who don't manage projects would call it just poor planning. 

Let's go with Epics. I like software development.

So in August of 2020 we get the Go for Barbados and Project Barbados is launched. We start with Task One- "Figure Out Schools" and move it to In Progress. 

Requirement purification leads to a stream of questions - What kind of education will they get in Barbados? What is the curriculum like? Will the grades transfer when we move back? Will the kids be able to transfer from their current schools? How do I do that? Will they have uniforms? Should I buy shoes here or there? Do I know what color she will need? 

You would think we were moving to a third world country by reading my questions now. In my defense,  moving to an island I thought would present challenges to what would be available. Being on an island does present challenges- but none related to the education curriculum. Barbados I learned has a 98% literacy rate so I am embarrassed now that I thought there would be challenges with the system.

We were already in the midst of full remote learning for most of the kids with their respective schools due to COVID precautions. However, with the schools being Virginia based I wasn't certain we could continue this, so the task "Figure Out Schools" spawned a series of sub-tasks around researching remote learning, in state and out of state, out of country, as well as schools available in Barbados, the cost and location to where we thought we 'might' live. (Mind you Task 2 had not been started yet "Figure Out a Place to Live".) 

Then added to this was our blended family situation and finding out if the older girls would be joining us or staying with their mom in Virginia. 

"Figure Out Schools" then became an epic.

We eventually found a way to bridge over school for the youngest while we moved (international online school) and we would visit schools after we arrived to the country. Conference calls with three schools and 8 emails later helped confirm this and shifting her to an international online school would aid in her transition and provide flexibility. Transition was not be straight forward though, and we had another set of calls and emails to confirm what would set in motion her enrollment to the new online school. 

For the older girls, the process was more simple. Thank goodness for 18 year olds. One of the older girls joined a college prep program that was also online while the other started at university. Both opted to stay with their mom and just visit us in the spring for a long break instead.

As I approached task completion, the one thing I started learning was simply- it will all be fine. My veteran mom friends are laughing, most likely, as they have been thinking this all along. My continuous struggle with over-thinking, over-worrying, over-whiteboarding every possible scenario sends me into a spiral most days. 

But I really, really like whiteboarding.

Ironically the methodology I used to manage this move is all about failing fast. It allows for you to do things quickly but if you fail- you quickly pivot on to the next solution. So another lesson learned - I needed to be more Agile.

More failing fast, and less whiteboarding. 

I am not naturally wired this way, so I still have a long ways to go. However, getting through the first task began this process of my being wound less tight and really believing It Will All Be Fine.

So I take a breath, well actually quite a few, and sit because that is Zen right?

My youngest started her new school this week. And as you can guess, it all went fine. I may have cried. It may be allergies.

Task One: "Figure Out Schools", moved to Done status.