Our Dammer Year: An American Family in Amsterdam

Our little family had been yearning for a year abroad. The girls (C. and A.B.) were hitting what we thought would be perfect ages for a big adventure (8 & 12), and though we love our sweet life in our charming Virginia town, we were itching for a change. My husband G. travels often for his work as a documentary filmmaker, but my realm is the theater, and I was more than ready to escape the black box and join him in living the stories, rather than telling them.

When an old colleague of G. offered him a year-long position in Amsterdam, we leapt at the chance — and now we find ourself on the precipice of this journey.

We’re determined to take everything we need for a year with us on the plane — which means that we’ve narrowed down our belongings to what we think are the absolute basics. We’ve held yard sales and hauled at least 25 loads of old clothes, toys, books, and furniture off to charity houses. We’ve found a loving family to foster our sweet-but-large dog while we are away, and we’ve put our house up for rent. The girls and I have travelled throughout the Southeast US to enjoy a few days with people on the Southern side of the family, and now we’re preparing to head back up to see the Northern side before we fly over the pond.

In preparation for leaving, we have to take care of what we hope is the last of the major paperwork. Paperwork is a pretty big deal when you’re moving abroad, and though we have an excellent legal support team guiding us through the process (via G’s work), we have had some difficulty obtaining the Apostille documents necessary for securing the appropriate work/travel visas. Because we were born and married in 4 different states (Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and New York) we had to wade through four distinctly different government applications. Though the other states’ processes for procuring these documents were relatively straightforward and speedy (taking only two weeks), New York is our last hold out. We plan to take one of our last stateside days to wade through government offices of Gotham and Westchester to get the Apostille certificates for G. and C.

Wish us luck!

B-