As I was telling people that I was moving to Australia, it was often met with “That sounds amazing!” And, it can be. But, there are many things that most do not think about that are not amazing, such as needing emergency contacts.

Brent’s cousin, Rachel, shared this article on Facebook the other week. As I just had my first girls’ night out here, I knew exactly what it was going to say. So, of course, I read it. And, yes, it is right on point.

Dreading the Friendship-Dating Scene, Again.

Rachel is a military spouse. They have moved 7 times in 12 years of marriage, with one being in Japan for several years. However, many of their moves are just 1-2 year assignments. On top of this, her husband has been deployed countless times for usually about 6 months at a time. Oh, and on top of that, she has 5 children. So, I’m in awe. Thank you to Rachel, Dave and family for their sacrifice and service.

She could have written this article (and so could her sister, Sara, who has also moved about as much, if not more, with her husband and 3 children!). Anyhow, this article also rings true for expatriates. Not a title that I ever expected to have.

Trying to re-establish yourself and make friends every two years can be fun, yet also daunting. Making new friends continuously can be a whole blog post (or more) in and of itself. Though with this move, we also had to establish “emergency contacts” since the kids were being enrolled in activities/schools. This is one of “those things” that most people may not have considered about frequent movers, especially those that move abroad. Here is our story of gaining our “emergency contacts”…

When Brent and I traveled here for our house hunting trip, we completed a rental agreement. One question was to list your emergency contact. Brent looked at me and said, “Who is our emergency contact?” I didn’t know anyone here, and it needed to be someone local, so Brent says, “I guess I could list my coordinator’s name.” That was fine with me.

Then I started completing the kids’ enrollment forms for preschool, and the questions were a bit more demanding of the “emergency contact”. Things such as who can be contacted to approve the administration of medication, who can be granted permission to pick up your child from school if you cannot be reached, etc.

I’ve never met Brent’s coordinator, other than through emails. She’s great- very pleasant, always willing to help, responds right away… all the key characteristics of an emergency contact I suppose! So, she continued to be our emergency contact, even though we’ve never met.

And, then one morning, Brent said, “Hey, Fiona wants your number so you can catch up for coffee.” Our emergency contact had arrived in Melbourne!

So backing up a bit…. When Brent took his job in France, his boss was Peter, an Australian from Melbourne. Peter had worked for BMS in the Australian office years ago, but before Paris, they had moved to the US, back to Australia, then to Singapore, Poland, and were in France when we arrived. His wife, Fiona and their three children, were quite familiar with the expat life, and Fiona even moved during two of her pregnancies (as I was when we moved to France). She was very helpful in assisting me with the transition to France. She even went with me to buy an oven because she spoke French, and when it was delivered, they called her so she could instruct the delivery men how to get into our apartment building because I couldn’t do it for myself. She was our first visitor with a bottle of champagne when Isla was born. Needless to say, we became friends with Peter and Fiona. When we were transitioned back to the US, Peter and family were relocated to London.

Shortly after Brent had taken the role in Australia, he contacted Peter, and it just so happened that Peter was also negotiating a role to come back to Melbourne as well.

Peter now works for another company about a mile down the road from Brent’s office. They now have lunch dates. Fiona is our emergency contact, and we are happy to be back to having friends nearby.

And as I was writing this post, I got a text from Fiona saying that she had booked a dinner reservation for four and needed another couple to go along. I guess we serve as their emergency contacts too!

We are feeling much more settled now as things like this have been settled…

{And no, for some reason, I do not have any pictures of Peter and family to add to the post…}