Ten months ago our family decided that we would take a year to move back to Abidjan.
The plan was that by January 2022 we would be on our way.
It’s May 2022, and we’re still in Miami.
So what happened since we took that fateful decision? Why are we still here? Are we still planning to move to Cote d’Ivoire?
American citizenship
A lot has happened since we decided to move back to Abidjan for a year. As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, I realized that I would not be as free of movement as a Green card holder as I would want to be. So I finally decided to apply for my American citizenship, after more than a decade spent in this country.
The application itself wasn’t complicated. I basically re-submitted the same documents that I submitted for my green card application, with a citizenship application form I had to fill. But due to COVID-19 and the fact that I live in a big city with a big immigrant population, the process was long and took months!
But I’m happy to tell you that I’m officially an Americanah as of now! Felicitation a moi!
Surprise diagnosis
During these past few months, I’ve also been diagnosed with a serious health condition. I’m not ready to talk about it in great detail here. But I would say that it’s been a shock, and an emotional coaster to digest the news.
I’m doing great as of now. But my new diagnosis made us go back to the drawing table and adapt our plans to my new reality. We decided that we still wanted to move to Abidjan for a year (or two). I’ll just have to take the necessary precautions in regard to my health to make sure that I stay stable.
Renting or selling the house?
After going back and forth for what feels like 10,000 times, we finally settle on selling the house when we’re ready to leave. Renting it out just didn’t seem like it was a good solution for our family right now. For me, one way of dealing with my diagnosis was to simplify our move to Abidjan. And renting the house out just seems like more complications than what we were willing to deal with. So selling it is (unless we change our mind again in the following weeks)!
It will allow us to start from a clean slate in Abidjan, without having to worry about house issues.
Repat blog or bilingual blog?
You also may have noticed that I started to share a little bit more about raising my bilingual, multicultural child when the original purpose of the blog was to share my and other repats and aspiring repats experience.
Well, the blog is still about the African repatriates’ experience. But I realized that :
- African repatriates are usually multicultural and raise multicultural babies because we come from one country and end up living in another. And I thought it was interesting to explore how we balance teaching our cultures to our kids while also living in another country.
- One of the main reasons why I wanted to move back to Cote d’Ivoire for an extended period of time was for my girl to fully experience and embrace her Ivorian culture.
- I’m sure other parents from the African diaspora experience the same struggles I do in raising multicultural children. So why not share what I’m learning along the way?
So the blog will still be a resource for African aspiring repats. But, along with posts about our return to Africa, I will be sharing tips and reflections about raising a bilingual multicultural child.
So are we still going this year?
God only knows!
Yes, the plan is still to move this year. But the final date will depend on several factors, mainly my follow-up medical visit and the house sale (or renting) process.
