After almost 20 years of living in the United States, I finally got to live out my Dominican Dream: moving back to the Dominican Republic for a year. This has been a long-time dream of mine—returning to my home country to live here with my children. Yes, we moved to Santo Domingo as soon as the school year ended, after a lot of planning, saving, and dreaming. It’s been exactly three weeks since we arrived, and I can finally say we feel settled. WE ARE FINALLY HERE!

Of course, it wasn’t without some hurdles…

Ever since I moved to the U.S., I kept longing for my home country, and that longing only grew stronger after my children were born. We brought them here as often as possible for vacations, but it never seemed enough; there was always a feeling that we weren’t fulfilling everything my heart desired. Then, a light bulb lit up! It all started four years ago after our last month-long trip in December 2019 when my whole family came to spend the holidays together.

It had been more than 15 years since I had enjoyed la Navidad here, which, to clarify, is a whole season that kicks off in October, though we joined in December. After we left in January 2020, I thought about all the places I wanted to take my children to and the events I wanted them to experience: humpback whale watching, carnaval, festivals, concerts—the list went on. To top it all off, we all know what happened in March 2020 when the pandemic hit.

During those first few months of quarantine, I thought a lot about traveling, about the ocean (which is my ultimate happy place), and about all the things we were going to do during our vacation that year. Of course, no one was prepared for COVID to become a pandemic and to last as long as it did, but it did. Although that delayed our plans, it only strengthened my desire to make this dream a reality. All those months of uncertainty and seeing how fragile life is reinforced the importance of taking this trip to show my kids a simpler way of life. And also for my own sake—to feel whole again without having to negotiate my identity, without having to code-switch, without worrying about school shootings while my kids are in school.

The last three years became the planning stage for this dream. Those who are close to me know that I love to dream, plan, and execute. I like dreaming with my eyes open and get just as excited about the journey of getting ready as about the trip itself. Amidst all that was happening, one of the things that kept me going and hopeful was planning for this move. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of work, so I worked and worked to keep busy, but also to meet the financial goals this plan required.

In 2022, I took two trips to the Dominican Republic to scout potential schools, neighborhoods, and to get a better idea of where and how we were going to live. By March of this year, I had found the right apartment in the neighborhood I had chosen and had most of the paperwork required for my kids to get into school here. All that was left was to wait for the school year to end so we could make the move.

Things were going according to plan, but two weeks before our trip, I had a horrible bout of sciatica nerve pain—the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. It was so bad that I wasn’t sure I would be able to get on the plane. I had massages, did stretching exercises, and while these helped somewhat, I didn’t seem to get much better.

Then, three days before our trip, our flights were postponed to the next day. Although stressful, this was a relief since I needed the extra day to see an orthopedic doctor and rest before embarking on a long journey with several stops. Our flights got postponed twice after that, but it all worked out because it allowed me to recover before the trip, and we ended up with a better route: from Raleigh to Miami to Santo Domingo (the original route was crazy with very long hours).

We finally landed on June 21 and had plans to spend the weekend in Punta Cana, and so we did. We also spent a few days at my cousins’ house in La Romana and a couple of nights at my brother’s house in Santo Domingo before we officially got the keys to our apartment. On July 1st, we were finally sleeping in our new home and have been adjusting to the new rhythm of life here.

It’s summer break, so we have been spending time by the pool and have already had a weekend adventure in the town of Baní. I will be sharing the things we do and experience here as a way to create a record for my kids that they can look back on. Also, I had neglected this space for too long, and it’s time I got back to blogging, which I love.