A few facts

Tanya is a mum of four boys who spent her childhood and youth near Lviv in the Ukraine. She studied economics in Lviv and co-founded a company for car components where she worked in logistics.

Tanya moved countries twice so far and hopes to spend another summer in Stavanger.

I have heard about Tanya even before I knew who she was or how she looked like! It turned out that we had a common German friend who, about two years ago, was spending some time in Stavanger for work. When I met up with that common friend, she told me that her friend’s children just joined the same school as my boys and if I knew her.

I very soon found out who Tanya was and a close friendship arose. We not only share a mutual background in Germany but also in Eastern Europe, so we got along very quickly.

Tanya’s first “new life”

Tanya was basically living an expat life, depending on how you define it, even before she heard of that terminology. As she spent the first half of her life in the Ukraine, she finally left her job in her home country to follow her then still boyfriend, to Germany in 2009. 

He, being from the Ukraine as well, had been working in Germany for quite some time by then, but she had also already been in touch with her new home country. Whilst studying at university, she decided for a one-year break to be an au pair in Germany to deepen her school German language skills.

When she joined her boyfriend in 2009 to start a new life in Bremen, at least she knew the language and was dreaming of finding a job in Bremen as well.

At first, she was living from savings and was trying to get used to her new life, but she was also planning for their wedding to happen in the Ukraine very soon. Then, as life has it, they had to relocate to another city in Germany, so she was planning for the move. 

When they arrived as newlyweds in a tiny city called Emlichheim, she was already pregnant with their first son and soon Tanya started motherhood. She really enjoyed having a baby, so they didn’t wait long to have another child, and not much later their second son was born. 

It turned out that having two little children at once was rather tough with no family around so Tanya postponed her plans to work and fully concentrated on her family.

When both boys started nursery, Tanya was ready to work again, but the nursery was only open from 8-12 and without a job to go back to, it was rather impossible to find a part-time employment.

Since they had two lovely boys already, Tanya was still dreaming of a girl…and so in 2015 they had…yet another boy!!!

With the two older ones perfectly settled in nursery, Tanya enjoyed her days with her new baby at home. She always loved being a full-time mum and taking care of her children. Trying out new recipes for some lovely lunches or baking yummy treats, that was her thing!

With the arrival of her next son in 2017, Tanya gave up on dreaming about a daughter and announced her family to be complete with a total of four boys!!! (very brave mummy!)

Ready for a second “new life”

Before Tanya was able to properly get used to being a mum of four children, her husband came home with a proposal to leave everything behind again and move to Norway!!

They were all happy and settled in Emlichheim, with a lovely house and a great neighbourhood. The two older boys already being in school, the younger one in nursery and the youngest one at home, they had a perfect life!

But as everyone around her was always talking so positive about Norway, and her husband was keen for a while now on going abroad anyway, Stavanger as a destination seemed to be a good offer and Tanya being adventurous enough quickly agreed!

Not without keeping in mind a million of uprising problems though, e.g. to convince the older boys that changing school to an English one (without speaking a word of English) would be “fun”, that it might be tricky to move with a little baby, that it wasn’t problematic at all to ORGANIZE a move to another country with a baby, that it wasn’t a problem that she already had learned another language (German) and had to get going on English now….!!!

In January 2018, Tanya’s husband left for Stavanger, leaving her behind in Emlichheim with four children and the daily organization of school runs and afternoon clubs, so that the older ones could at least finish the school year…If it hadn’t been for the help of au pairs, Tanya would have struggled a lot! 

Living a great life (most of the time)

In summer 2018, Tanya and the boys followed her husband to a life in Stavanger. 

Since then, a lot has changed in their lives! Coming from tiny Emlichheim, Stavanger felt very big in the beginning, but also offered more possibilities for the whole family!

After all 4 children had settled in the new school, nursery and new environment (you have to keep in mind that it’s not only hard for grown-ups to leave behind what you know with all the friendships and security), after Tanya got used to the fact that she is not always able to reply to nursery teachers as she wants to (simply because her language skills do not allow), for the first time since having children, Tanya started to really enjoy herself!

She loves the expat life and is very happy that her husband earns enough so that she does not have to work and is able to explore Stavanger and surroundings whilst the children are in school. She is happy about the possibility to get to know another country with its culture, but also about the possibility, as an expat in Stavanger, to get to know so many more cultures and their people!

Tanya joined lessons to improve her English, she also very much enjoys her hiking group and loves the nature surrounding us here in Stavanger. We go for runs along the fjord together and she appreciates the open swimming pools although it barely gets warm around here.

More recently, Tanya started to learn Norwegian too and sometimes I wonder when she sleeps because of course the children come back from school every day and need to be fed and get to their after school activities and play dates, but she has all of it perfectly under control too!

She is also happy and thankful that her children are in an international school learning in a different way to what they were used to and that they are getting open minded and open to the world.

Of course, Tanya’s thoughts sometimes circle around the question about her future and how it will continue workwise for her at some point. But for now, she is living the moment and enjoys it as long as it lasts!

The diverse community with expats from all over the world and all of their stories also gives Tanya a lot of insight for her own life what on the other side makes it tricky sometimes to get along with old friends who do not always understand her new view on life. Nevertheless she is very happy about that experience which she will keep in her heart forever, when they move back to Germany in probably about a year’s time.

Tanya is such a positive mummy, always seeing the bright side of things and always keen to keep the negative side small without allowing it to grow. She barely ever moans or complains and is simply happy about the possibilities life has given her.