Something happened today. Something clicked. Some planets aligned. We’ve been dreaming about this for over a decade, but now it’s really happening. We’ve even been thinking about it seriously over the past few weeks. But today. Today the path forward lit up so bright, it couldn’t be ignored. We finally found our path to moving abroad. Now we’re really making it happen. We’re moving to Portugal.
I’ve gotten a ton of questions for friends and family and even strangers when we’ve shared this news. So I thought it might be nice to share our story here as it unfolds. I don’t know if anyone cares or will read this. But if you’re curious about moving to Europe from the USA, then follow along! Maybe you’ll be inspired to make the same decision we made.
Why? Why now?
Good questions. As I said, we’ve been dreaming about this for some time now. We’ve talked about opening a bed and breakfast and when we traveled to London and Paris for our first wedding anniversary, we fell in love with Europe. Since then we’ve traveled to 9 countries around the world and decided that Portugal is the place we want to make it reality. I’ll answer these questions in two parts – why… and why now.
WHY Portugal?
We began hearing that Portugal, as a country and culture, is fairly open minded to immigration and welcoming people from other countries. English is widely spoken in many areas and we knew that the D8 digital nomad visa is a possible route to a residency permit. So we started researching. And the more we learned, the more we loved. The climate and the culture were also exactly what we were looking for – warm and welcoming. We asked around – friends, family, strangers – everyone stopped what they were doing to passionately tell us how much they LOVED visiting Portugal. Everywhere we went, people talked to us about the friendly people, the delicious food, the stunning beauty… We were absolutely falling in love. But we knew we had to see it in person before we could commit. So we headed there on a fact-finding and scouting mission over February vacation last month. We decided that if we’re going to change our lives – we’re going to improve the weather in addition to everything else. So we set our sites on the Algarve – southern Portugal where the climate is mild and sunny all year round. We focused on finding a school for the kiddos since I had no idea how hard it would be to find one, get accepted, and enroll. We visited a bunch of schools and found the one that feels like home: The Bright International School in Loulé. It just felt like home from the moment we got there. Read more about our adventure visiting schools and our visit to the Bright School.
During our 8 crazy days running around the Algarve, we were smitten.
So… why NOW?
Well if you know us at all, then you probably know the answer to this question. But if you’re new here or we don’t talk much then here’s where we’re coming from.
We have to get out of this flaming dumpster fire of a country. I know a lot of friends and family think we’re overreacting. Many people, especially here in New England where it’s very liberal and deep (though not as deep as it used to be) blue when it comes to politics, have the mentality something like this: “Oh yes, this is all very bad. He’s unhinged. But it will just be four years of chaos, then everything will be fine.” I do not share this mentality. At all. I am afraid of the damage that Trump and Musk are creating, and I don’t think it’s going to be fine.
The consequences of this administration’s carelessness have the potential to be extremely catastrophic… and long lasting. Americans are not using their imagination when it comes to the potential repercussions. I’m a huge WWII junkie and the similarities between what’s happening now, and 1930’s Germany is startling.
But maybe we’re wrong. Maybe everything will be just fine – or maybe even better! If that’s the case, we didn’t lose anything, we only gained an amazing experience together as a family. And that, my friends, makes it all worth it. There’s nothing to lose. (Except selling our house – that will be hard) And only an amazing experience with my family and a life-changing opportunity for our kids to gain. Here we go…