Moving day

Moving day.

It has been a busy couple of weeks leading up to this big move to Kent.

We had the house packed up, as we did it slowly over the last month, cleaned it and visited all our family and friends in London before we moved.

So as we spend our last night in this flat that's been our home for 2 1/2 years, looking back in our memories, talking about it all. Was very lovely but sad. Its where we first had our home together, got married had our two babies so it will also be special but now we look to the future of a nice big house to raise Ariyah-mai.

The next day arrived, we finished the last pack and clean. Sitting in the hall together eating biscuits while we waited for people to arrive that were helping us move.

So Kate and Ben were going down early taking Ariyah-mai and Oakley with them. The plan was to drop ariyah to my mums but as traffic was bad and they were running late to collect the keys, Ben just kept her with them.

I stayed to Clean and pack the van. Our friend David and Sarah came to load there cars up and drove to ashford. To met been at the house.

Me and my dad's waited for the van. This is where is all went wrong.

So we booked a removal company, weeeks ago, paying extra to have a large Luton van with two men. I also paid extra to ensure they were to arrive betweeen 9-11 helping us all day. It was just before 11 and they were not here so I gave them aa call just to. See how long they would be.

The man who answered did not understand, he stating he be there at 1. He busy, that's all I got. So I tried to explain he was meant to be at mine by 11. He goes oh well 2 then. I was like no 11 - 12 at the lastest because I paid for extra and he was not meant to take another job on. Hee hung up.

I then tried to ring the company and got no answer. I took to there online chat with a customer service team. All o got was well I'm sorry but all I can suggest if you wait til 1. Like are you kinding me. Shee then said all she can do was take off the extra I paid that is it.

My dad then rang the van guy again to explain we needed he to turn up by 1 if he was later then the company would San it on him and he don't get paid. Now all wee could do was wait

Ben and the others were in Ashford with same bits but  ould not do anything without our larger furniture to unpack everything. So they went for lunch and me and dad went to the cafe.

1 came around still no van, so we called him and the company. We're were being told oh 10 mins then it went up to 15min. I had been ringing around other vans for backup. Finally at 1:30 these two boys turnt up. Yes boys they were younger then me did not understand anything and one guy was trinng to translate to the other.

On top of all this they had a normal sized transit estate van. Not a large removal van. We had a two bedroom house worth of stuff. My dad was trying to explain that they had to try fit what they could in. The boy goes no, 1 sofa and few items to move. We explained again that we booked a home move to ashford kent. He had no clue, trying to ring his company. So dad made them start loading whole he rang the company.

I could still not lift anything and just told them what to take that was more important like the beds and Ariyah-mai stuff. They Tring to take small things. They Did not have any idea how to pack a van up so my dad ended up doing there job and loaded the van.

We fit a lot in to be honest but there was still A lot left. The van left, while me and dad loaded a few extra bit and the cats into his car. Whilst in ashford, Kate had to leave so Ben and Sarah had ariyah at the house. Sarah was so kind and said that her and Ben would make a second trip to collect the rest of our stuff as soon as we got to ashford to hand them the keys and take ariyah.

Me and dad left about half 2 and got to ashford at half 4. Still no van despite them leaving 20/30 minutes before us. So Ben and Sarah left for London while we called the van. Dad spoke to them and they state the van was broke. Again that is all we got from them. They would not say where they were or how it was broken. Before hunging up again.

This was getting beyond a joke as you can imagine I was past the state of stress now. They had all our stuff, we then could not get hold of them nor could Ben. So we tried ringing the company again, still had not got through to anyone since 11am. I spoke to the person on the chat again and stated we were calling the police unless a manager called me. It took over half hour but finally dad got to speak to the manager. Who actually was very helpful. She got hold of the guys and the vans location. She also stated to us she did not understand them or trust them even though they were her employees.

In the mean time Sarah had rang 101, who were not much help at all. She then rang the men with the van pretending to be police. Conveniently they spoke better and told her where they were. So she got a friend with his van to go hunt them down.

The manager told us a recovery was out to go get the van and take them to a service station but could take over an hour. By this point it was 7pm. We had no stuff, no microwave for ariyah's bottles. Luckly we took the kettle in the car so we at least had that. The manager said she would send another van from London to met them and transfer our stuff and bring it to us however this could take until half 9 at night. I told her that we are not paying for this and are claiming compensation for our troubles.

We of course no longer trust this company so Sarah friends managed to find the van on the hard shoulder. They waited for recovery and followed them to the service station. Ben and Sarah who were on there way back from London managed to also catch up with them and followed too. They were literally 10 mins away from thhe house at the service station just outside of Ashford.

They then moved our stuff between the vans to the other one. After Sarah's friend followed Sarah with all our stuff to our new house. Finally at half 8 we had all our stuff moved in. It was too late to do much or unpack. I had been cleaning the kitchen and trying to do a few bits while we waited but also had Ariyah-mai to look after.

She was actually very calm and good playing on her play mat clueless to the stress going on around her. Which we are  thankful about with her still being so young.

So after everything was in and everyone who helped had got to also finally go home we order take away and got into bed. Well the matress on the floor because we had no time to unpack or sort anything.

The next day we got up early and started unpacking the main bits like the rest of the kitchen and bathroom stuff.

My mum and alan come over to help. They brought us some shopping and bits for ariyah. Alan helped us put the bigger furniture upstairs. Then put the Bed and cot together with us. While mum sent time with Ariyah-mai. It was lovely we had so many people to help us.

My family have been amazing and we could not be lucky enough with my dad and our friend on Saturday I don't think we would have got all our stuff moved. I would have stressed and not known what to do. So thank you to anyone that helped and is reading this we appreciate it soo much. Love you all.

Two weeks later, we are all settled. Mostly unpacked just waiting to be paid to buy wardrobes and other furniture we need. Lots going on in the world right now so taken about longer. I will talk about that in another post.

Il post some photos. Now we are all settled in.

New adventures

Our adventures.

Ariyah-mai is more sociable then

me and Ben, everywhere we go everyone fulls in love with her and she gets all the attention. We always get stopped by people saying how cute she is and asking all about her. They normally surprise when we say her age, because they think she older where she so alert andd strong.

She is a famous baby that we waited for not only by us but many others. Our family and close friends obviously but also hospital staff, specialist, people we met online during our pregnancy journey. Both mine and Ben's work. Then all of you lot supporting andd cheering us on. Who follow our journey on here and on Instagram we thank you. 

But yes Ariyah has had many visits from people and has also traveled around to visit others. We have taken her to the hospital to met all the staff, who helped us throughout the pregnancy, even nurses and cleaner. Mainly our specialist who without them she would not have been here safe, in our arms. Then there other like doctors and staff at our GP, as well as A&E staff. The amount of times we were in and out.

Ariyah met everyone and the children at my school where I work. Ben also took her to met people at his work place too. The ones who supported him. Others like Ben's old youth workers, old friends and simply as our local shop keepers, old hair dressers ect... Just anyone and everyone who know us and all we went through to have her where excited and have met her.

Today we took her to see Dr seal who is a gender expert at the Gender identity clinic, he also the endocologist who works at our hospital. He took on Ben's care throught both pregnancies on the gender identity and medical transitioning to make sure everything went well. He was so excited to met her and had a cuddle straight away. His nurse and secretary also had cuddles and paid ariyah lots of attention. Which she loves. 

This has made Ariyah-mai such a  social baby, she loves the attention and people. She happy meeting new people and calm and content when held by them. She smiles and is just happy being around people. We love and so glad she is like this because it means we can take her out and she is no hassle at all.

When I went for my top surgery, she got lots of attention,v happy ot just sit on my bed with me and was so calm. It gave me her to concentrate on which was amazing.

So Ariyah has been out and about, meeting people and exploring the world. She been to Hull, margate, whitsable, Canterbury, Ashford, bexleyheath, Rochester, gravesend, Faversham, all round London. 

Traveling by tubes, buses, taxi, trains and obviously the car. She enjoys travelling especially when she is out of the pram as she gets to look around.

She been to soft play a few times, been to the park and recently took her swimming for the first time. She love it, slashing around kicking her legs. Shee even went down the slide with us holding her, then in the bubble hot tube pool. We did put her under the water too, she seemed to not mind plus actually held her breath and smiled. Went it was time to get out shee screamed the whole time gettringg out dressed, eventually calming down when we left the whole building. Bless her so cannot wait to take her more often. Also cannot wait for the summer to play outside, go to the park more, especially taking her to the beach.

More adventures. Our big move. 

Now for the big news, our recent travels was a week that changed our lives. 

So some of you know that we were always planning to move out of London, to be honest there was never a plan to move to London it just had to happen because 3 years ago Ben had top surgery so could not work, and I had just finished uni. So we moved in with his family before getting jobs and our own place back in 2017. Read about the beginning off our lives together on my other blog. Link will be below. 

So since we had to move back to London we always said we want to move out. The original plan was to Bristol then changed to kent due to wanting to be close to family. We plannned to move however we the fell pregnant with our son and he was due in Feb so we were going to wait and move the following summer. Then after he became an angel and Ben was out of work we just could not move. A year later again Ben was pregnant and due November so again could not move. So then planned for summer 2020. 

I was going to apply for new jobs and Ben would stay home with Ariyah-mai. We were looking at Kent, like sittingbourne, Rainham, Faversham. 

Suddenly we were then in a dilemma. Our house got damp and mould due to external damage. We were having to live in just our front room. Ariyah was struggling to shift her cold. She was getting stressed in one room and so were we, especially after me having surgery. 

Hence we looked at possible moving sooner, but wasn't expecting so soon.! 

You read right we are moving!! Could not be more excited and happy. But busy and stressful. 

We went down just to get an idea, I had a few interview and we planned some house viewings but was not expecting much. However I got a email the same day offering me a job at the first interview I attented on monday. This was at a autistic boys private school in-between Canterbury and Ashford. We then went to a house viewing in Ashford two days later and loved it. So we put a offer in and by Friday we got the go ahead on the house too. So in that week we got a house and I got a new job, to start in 4 weeks. 

We now move in 2 weeks on the 14th of March. Which is why I am beind on my blogs because we have been so busy. We are packing and sorting out the house whille still trying to look after ariyah. We had abit of help from friends to pack. My family are then all going to help us move. 

Ben family unfortunately have not been too supportive. Thinking I am making ben move ect... And that we taking ariyah away which is not the case at all. We will travel back to London to see them. And our friends where they travel to see us and bother is there choice. We will see, and those who wont  be there and be apart of ours or Ariyah-mai life will make the effect as will we back. But Ariyah-mai is the most important person. We are moving to give her more space from a 2 bed flat to a three bedroom house with two living rooms and a garden. Having better life outside of London, going to better schools not be involved in the crime and discrimination that happens in London. Yes will still get that and teach her what's right but it's less dangerous in Kent. There is baby groups a sure start centre and lots off parks, shops, school that will be better for us all. Get out of a damp mouldy house

Il be paid more and our outgoings on rent, bills and general things will be cheaper. We can save money, start driving and have more money for toys and things Ariyah-mai will need. So it is all for her I hope wheen. She grows she will realise and that the family will all come around for her sake. 

We are so happy and excited that is what matters. However very busy and. Stressful moving. But not got much more to do, last minute bits and cleaning pretty much all done. 

Ready for moving day, now just waiting on clarification on times and I can hirer a van. 

I am sad to leave my job, I go back Monday since surgery where I've been off for 8 weeks. Then il have two weeks before we move. Then a week after off work before starting my new role. I've loved being at home with Ben and Ariyah and really dreading going back to work as I will miss them soo much. But have all the hoildays off so hopefully not to bad. 

Keep read and following to here all the new about our move and how ariyah is.