After 5.5 years living in the US on a spouse visa, navigating a career change, and welcoming my first child, I know exactly what it takes to rebuild a life from scratch in a foreign country without any support system. I know the struggle of raising a little human while you’re still fighting to rediscover your own identity.
What began as a temporary adventure with my husband (“let’s go for your MBA and live abroad for a few years before putting down roots”) evolved into our long-term reality.
When we moved, I was in my early 30s and just learning to navigate adulthood: building a marriage, reshaping a career, and forging relationships in a different country, language, and culture—all during a global pandemic.
But if life abroad already seemed challenging in itself, nothing could have prepared me for the challenge I was about to face: becoming a mom far from home.
My world suddenly turned upside down. And, as supportive as my husband had always been, there was only so much he could understand.
I struggled a lot in the process, cried many times, and felt as lonely and hopeless as you can imagine. Motherhood was a whole new level of identity rebirth and not even my therapist, speaking from the comfort of her own “village”, seemed to get it. “What exactly is so hard?” she once asked me.
That was when I realized I was looking for help in the wrong places and began searching for voices that resonated with me. Eventually, I was able to find content on motherhood and on expat life. Rarely the two combined. Still, those few glimpses of shared experience were truly inspiring.
Now, a few years down the road—2 of those as a proud mom of the sweetest little girl—I finally feel less lost. And I’m ready to start giving back.
Newly Native exists to help women navigate a culture and systems they didn’t grow up in, and to rebuild the village they left behind, so no one has to face this process alone.
This is the space I wish I had found when I first arrived.
Let’s crack this code together until nobody believes we aren’t (newly) native.