The Blank Space
Someone asked me recently what the hardest emotional moment of our emigration had been. I thought I should have a big answer. Something dramatic. A crisis, a breaking point, something you could point to and say- that was it. But it wasn’t anything like that. We’d been in the U.S. a few days. Everything still […]
Emigration doesn’t just test you. It tests your marriage.
Nobody really talks about this. We obsess over the visas, the schools, the shipping containers, the logistics of it all. But underneath everything is something far more fragile… your relationship. Marriage is already a lot. Add kids, careers, the daily weight of keeping life together- it’s full before you even start. Then layer emigration on […]
Watching Your Children Become Something New 🇿🇦 🇺🇸
It caught me off guard the first time it happened. I said a word the way I’ve said it my whole life, and one of my kids corrected me. Not in a cheeky way, not even in a funny way. Just naturally. Instinctively. “That’s not how you say it.” I laughed it off at the […]
Vegas, Volume, and Why We Choose Experiences
A few weeks ago, we landed in Las Vegas. I had seen it in movies. I had heard the stories. Nothing prepares you.You walk out of your hotel during the day and it feels like a busy city, almost ordinary. Heat rising off the pavement. Tourists with coffees. Traffic humming along. Then night falls… and […]
Building a Life — One Allen Key at a Time 🇿🇦 🛠️ 🇺🇸
When we arrived in the U.S. with 10 suitcases, we didn’t just leave behind our home, we left behind every couch, coffee table, and bookshelf too. And so began the era of flat-pack furniture. If you know, you know. The endless cardboard boxes, the instructions that seem to be written in riddles, the missing screws […]
Two Hemispheres, One Heart 🇿🇦 🎄 🇺🇸
Back home in South Africa, summer is in full swing. Schools have wrapped up, “Dezemba” is in the air, and the rhythm slows into long, sunny days, braais, beach holidays, and that familiar end-of-year exhale. Meanwhile here in the U.S., school is still in session until just before Christmas. The air is cold, the evenings […]
The American Holiday That Stole My Heart 🦃 ❤️ 🇺🇸
Of all the American holidays we’ve come to know, Thanksgiving is by far my favorite. It’s the least commercial (except for the sheer number of turkeys involved), and possibly the most meaningful. There are no gifts, no pressure to spend. Just families gathering from near and far around the country to pause, reflect, and just […]
When the Visa Clock Starts Ticking ✈️ ⏰
When we landed in the U.S. in August 2022, we didn’t just arrive with suitcases and dreams — we arrived with a mission: To start a new life, get settled into a new country, and build a U.S. division of a South African business from the ground up — all within our first 8–9 months. […]
Celebrate Everything. Even the Little Things. Especially the Little Things. 🥂✨
This weekend, we booked a short family getaway, not because everything is easy right now, but because it’s been three years since we landed in the U.S. Three years of rebuilding, learning, and recreating. Three years of starting over, navigating new, building new, facing challenges, feeling like beginners… all the while still showing up, every […]
You Can’t Put a Timer on Healing 🇿🇦 💔 🇺🇸
On the 15th of August, it will be three years since we boarded that flight to the USA — suitcases in hand, hearts in our throats, and hope tucked somewhere in between. In many ways, we’ve come a long way. We’ve built a new life from scratch. We’ve learned new systems, made friends, bought a […]
Across Oceans, Through Heartache ✈️ 💔 🌍
Emigration is full of layers — some expected, others impossible to prepare for. One of the hardest? Navigating grief across oceans. Just months after we arrived in the U.S., — my dearest high school friend and business partner — received a devastating diagnosis. Despite the odds, she fought courageously and never lost her passion or […]
Abandoners or Adaptors? 🇿🇦 🏉 ✈️ 🇺🇸 🏈
A personal reflection — and maybe a professional one too. My sons grew up playing rugby in South Africa — the kind of rugby that stitches itself into your weekends, your friendships, your childhood. It’s not just a sport back home… it’s a heartbeat. When we moved to the U.S., rugby wasn’t an option at […]