When asked “Where are you from?” My son proudly replies “France” It will often provoke a quick smirk from my British husband, but he is right. He is from France; that’s his ‘home’.
It’s about this point where my husband interjects with “I’m British and my wife is Dutch,” offering an explanation as to why our son flips seamlessly between French, English and Dutch without even pausing for breath and just to keep things interesting, I add that we’ll soon live in Jordan.
It’s a complex answer to a simple question but answering the ‘where are you from’ question is not an easy task for us. My husband considers England home, I will always consider Holland home; it’s where we grew up and is a big part of our family identity.
But life changes once you go from a couple, to a family and our entire family life up until a few weeks ago took place in France. Alexander was born here, and only visited England and Holland on vacation. He speaks French at school and when he invites friends from school he speaks French with them.
We’ve known for a while that Jordan would be the next stop for us. We hope it will feel like ‘home’ even though none of us were born here.
Where will our next ‘home’ be after Jordan? Who knows?! But in this modern global world more and more people understand that ‘where are you from’ can be difficult to answer. Sometimes when you arrive at your next destination people ask, ‘where are you coming from’ instead. As in, where did you last live?
Alexander is still quite young and all I know is that wherever we end up next, our answer isn’t getting any easier.
I’m from Holland, my husband is British, Alexander is from France, and now we live in Jordan….If nothing else, he will have remarkable geography skills by the time this adventure is done.
Photo’s taken by Evelyne Photography at The Pier in Scheveningen, Holland.
Alexander is wearing a knitted jumper by the Icelandic brand Iglo Indi, a shirt by Ralph Lauren and shoes by Timberland via Alexandalexa.com and shorts by I Dig Denim.
