Language and love - a plan without a middle

So friends, here it is -- we are moving to the UK. This has been one of the most difficult decision processes we've ever had to run, but also, in another way, one of the easiest decisions. We know we need to be in a big city, a place where Ivy can be surrounded by her language -- sign language -- where she has access to high-quality bilingual schools and early education, where she can be a part of a big Deaf community, We want Ivy to have access to many users of her language, and access to services, swim classes, soccer competitions, theatre, activity days at the science museum, and most importantly, education in her language.

Yes, of course we have considered moving back to Australia. Our beloved families and friends are there, Ivy's allies and buddies and uncles and aunties and adoring grandparents. It is tempting to go there, and surround Ivy with love. But she needs to be surrounded by language and love. Auslan is the language of the Australian Deaf community. It is very closely linked to BSL, and mutually intelligible. But if we have to choose (and we do), we choose for more users, more recognition, more interpreters, more activities for kids, more educational options to choose from, more theatre companies and deaf clubs, TV channels, resources. More families who are in a similar situation to us. It's a numbers game. Generous estimates say there are around 8000 Auslan users in Australia; BSL has 30 000 at the most conservative estimate.  In this case, quantity and quality are important. We want to be able to make choices, based on Ivy's needs and preferences aside from her deafness. Yes, she is deaf and we think she should go to a school for deaf children, at least for the early years, while her language development is consolidated, and while Dan and I are still beginner signers, but there are many other parts of Ivy's identity that are in development and we want to give her choices and to have choices ourselves. So we are going to the place where we have residency rights that will give us, and Ivy later on, the best opportunity to figure out who she will be. 

We are terribly sad to leave the Ecole - this community, our jobs, this alpine landscape, the friendships we finally feel comfortable in and that we value so much, and the future we had imagined for ourselves and Ivy here. But we are 90 kilometres, over a mountain pass, from the speech and language therapists, the playgroup for deaf children (which is only for 2-5 year olds anyway), the school for deaf children where they are trying to include more signing in the curriculum to the resistance of many parents and professionals...it's just not possible to stay much longer. The clock is ticking. Ivy desperately needs language input from fluent signers, and she needs it now. I feel the urgency so strongly, when we go outside and sign about the weather, or when we're sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, and especially when we're reading books - looking at the pictures, lifting the flaps, and me trying my best in broken BSL. 

Dan is job-hunting now, looking for something that begins in or soon after the summer. Our school year finishes in mid-June. Depending on what happens with the job-hunting and apartment-searching, Dan will probably move to London after that, and Ivy and I will stay up here until Christmas, if we last that long without Dan, and join him then, to preserve at least some stability. I'm not feeling so confident about the last bit at the moment though- four months without Dan around seems unthinkable. So we'll see how plans pan out in the coming months. In fact we're not too confident about any of it, except for the fact that we need to be living in London by the end of 2015. 

If you happen to be sitting there reading this, thinking "oh! I know someone who has a nice little apartment in Camden, with a dog, who is going overseas for a year as of July and is looking for a housesitter", then please, let us know! We would be so grateful for any other leads or tips, too. It is a hugely daunting task, and to be honest, we are terrified. I have written a letter for friends to forward to contacts they have in London who might be willing or able to help us find somewhere to live or work - if you know someone, please ask me for a copy. 

In the meantime, we pore over the Guardian and TES job emails every morning when we wake up, Dan spends hours and hours on applications, we study, study, study our BSL, play and laugh and crawl around with Ivy, take walks in the snow, throw pancake parties on a Sunday afternoon with our dear Ecole playgroup friends, and look forward to our next trip to the UK to spend a weekend at a BSL intensive retreat. I will be taking a stack of picture books, forcing them on anyone who comes near us and demanding story-telling!

This guy is my favourite of the week: