We came.

There are six or seven weeks of school left now. It's the first school year since I was 4 that I didn't have a classroom to belong to. It's been a school year for my kids only. I've switched identities in so many ways this year.

Tonight I met a Korean woman who just might hire me to tutor her daughter English. The man who introduced us had told her that I was an American, but reassured her that during the Olympics I was wearing a Canada sweatshirt. She asked me why I came to Canada. Of course, I answered that it was because my husband's family lives here.

I think I also came because Josh and I never quite felt like we belonged in the US. That's not just about our political leanings. Being a Canadian is about more than not arguing about socialized medicine or not starting wars. And it's more than pronunciation and French immersion schools.

It's been more than 10 months that we've lived here as a family now. In just over three weeks we're actually going to buy a house. Am I glad that we came?

While we lived in the States it was a choice we always thought about. Will we ever move to Canada? When? How? Is it worth it? Now that I'm here, it doesn't feel like choice. I feel so Genesis about it. I feel like I married a Canadian so I live in Canada. It's just where we are. That makes it sound like I don't like it here, which is false. I do like it. But deeper than that, I just think, 'I'm here.' If I needed to spell that out a little more, I'd be forced into a phrase like, 'I feel like I'm supposed to be here.' But that wouldn't be quite the right phrase. Nor would, 'I like living in X country better than living in Y country.' come close to summing it up. I live here. That's just what it is. In general, I could definitely say, I'm opposed to the switching part of all this. The switching part sucks.

Life is good. The various ways to improve life at this point have nothing to do with which country I live in. I have friends. I have community. I have places where I fit. I smile. I laugh. I get too much sun. I drink more wine. And if I do degrade into comparisons, I do think I have more of all that here than in Minnesota. I had deeper friendships in Minnesota, but I also had more time there. Life here will be just fine. I can be a Canadian. In just a few more years.