The Gallivanting Gardiners

It's 20:14pm and I'm not tired so thought I might as well write a blog post. I've been wanting to document our move from South Africa to Ireland and have done so to an extent, but thought it would be good to keep this blog as a digital journal.

So here it goes!

My husband Cheslyn and I are a young (and fun!) couple from Cape Town, South Africa currently living in Dublin, Ireland. How did we get here? Well, let me tell you!

Firstly, we were not planning on leaving SA when the opportunity came our way. Despite loadshedding and the rising cost of living, we were very content with the life we were building in Cape Town. But, as we believe, God had other plans.

Shortly after Cheslyn completed his part-time master's degree, he received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter in Ireland asking whether he was interested in moving to Ireland. As we had nothing to lose, he went ahead with the process. Fast forward one month and two interviews later, and he had received two job offers. After much prayer and contemplation, he decided to accept the offer. We booked our flights to Dublin in January, and had exactly 7 weeks to get everything in order before moving.

One thing to note about me is that I am an overthinker. This has, of course, led to me also getting stressed very quickly. However, I never once felt stressed throughout this move. I had so much peace about it, which only solidified my belief that Ireland was where God wanted Ches and me to go.

And now, 3 months later, we can happily say that living in Ireland has been blissful. While I am not the biggest fan of the weather (this country experiences all four seasons in one day, it's super annoying), Ireland is beautiful and the people are lovely. I never had the desire to live in Europe, but now that I'm here, I am very, very grateful.

The Gen Z thing would be to create content around our move—a couple of Instagram reels (not TikToks, I cannot stand that app) and maybe even a YouTube video—but we'll see.

For now, this will have to do.

But watch this space! The Gardiners have exciting things planned—places to see, experiences to try—and we'll definitely want to capture and record these memories.

While the world is focused on what you do and what you know, His Spirit equips us with strength to learn as we go and trust that He will give us all the grace and knowledge we need to step with Spirit-led confidence into every unknown.

- Morgan Harper Nichols