I never realised how difficult it was to move from one country to another. I guess I've been lucky so far - to move between Australia and New Zealand takes little effort. You can literallly wake up one morning and think "you know what? I might hop on a plane and go live in Australia!"
So that explains how I ended up living in Australia :)
However, I am now learning fast that to move anywhere else in the world is a lengthy, well thought out process, mixed with numerous government departments and all their confusing paperwork.
How did this all begin? Well - as most people know, I originally wanted to go to USA. I worked hard to get enough experience as a nurse to be able to apply with an agency to move there. Then life got in the way and that got put on hold for a bit. Then almost 3 years ago I was ready to go ahead again. I worked hard to get my nursing licence, pass my NCLEX exam - I was all set! Only to find that something called 'retrogression' was now in my way. I get to live in America was going to take another 9 years!
UGH!
So, after a lot of thought, a lot of discussions, and a very nice recruiting consultant, I began to consider Canada instead. And as they say - I haven't looked back.
But then the real hard work began. I had to start all over again with gaining my nursing licence in Canada. Then the loooooong process of getting a job. What I have found most frustrating is that there are so many steps that need to be taken to get where you're going. But you can only take one step at a time - there is no multi-tasking allowed!
I gained approval to sit the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam in April, 2010. Woohoo! I was also entitled to a temporary nursing licence. So now it was time to get my CV out there. So I applied for several jobs, then several more, then a few dozen more, and a few more after that. What I had thought would be the easiest part of all this was turning into a nightmare! I found that it wasn't *me* that was the problem, or my nursing abilities, just that noone wanted the hassle of hiring an international nurse!
I finally received an email in July 2010 from a hospital in a smaller town. They wanted to set up an interview!! At last! Due to the 13-hour time difference, and their managers being on summer vacation, the interview was set for mid-August. More frustration! We were hoping to be living there by September so the girls could start school at the beginning of their school year! I was beginning to think it was no longer going to happen....
The interview went well and sounded very promising. Naive little me honestly expected to wake up the next morning to see the job offer in my inbox. Thus began many sleepless nights checking my emails obsessively :)
Finally after 3 weeks, I sent an email to the manager asking how my application was going. There was a hiccup. They were *still* waiting for one of my references! So began a frantic email session trying to chase down my reference and get that all sorted. Another week passed....
This was nuts - it wasn't meant to be this hard! So I gave up. It wasn't meant to be. Oh well :( Instead, we began planning a family vacation on an epic scale - 6 weeks driving around USA.
The planning for the vacation was going well. Then one night, we were out shopping. I had been having problems with my cell phone for a while, but had been putting off purchasing a new one on the assumption we would soon be moving to Canada. But now I was realising it just wasn't going to happen. So on impulse, I purchased a flash (and not so cheap) new phone.
Then I got home and checked my emails....
