Have you ever looked back on opportunities and realized that you missed out on something that could have been?
Because they left their old life in a small suburb outside of Buffalo, New York, to begin a new one in Ireland, Debra Kelly and her husband can say that has not happened to them. And they have no regrets about finding their home.
Making the decision to move to Ireland was the easy part. Debra’s husband, Stephen, had more family members living in Ireland than in the United States. Debra’s first visit to Ireland came during their first anniversary. At the end of that trip, they returned to a cool and windy Buffalo that would soon face the cold, snowy days of winter.
But the memories of their time in Ireland were much on their minds. They remembered traveling beach roads to the Atlantic coast, visiting pubs and hiking farmers’ fields. They had been planning to downsize, but Debra thought they would move closer to her parents in the Northeast. Then one of them wondered if they should move to Ireland, and as quick as that, they decided to move.
finding a new home
When they had been driving through Ireland, they had joked that if they ever moved to Ireland they would live in Connemara, on the west coast of Ireland, a place called “the real emerald of Ireland.”
When they found a centuries-old cottage in the hills of Connemara surrounded by sheep rather than people, they knew they had found their home. And it was pet-friendly, a plus for them because they were bringing their two dogs and two cats to their new home.
Saying goodbye to her parents, cousins and friends – those were the things that were hard for Debra. What made preparing to move easier was discovering, in the large amounts of paperwork the move required, an ironic connection to her late mother-in-law, who had had her own difficult journey from Ireland to the United States. Share in their journeys of finding their home. http://bit.ly/movingtoIreland 
