With immense excitement and gratitude, I officially announce our move home to Madrid, Spain. Specifically for long-term living, we have chosen to live in Nuevo Tres Cantos, a small suburb of Madrid located only 20 minutes away from Madrid city center by car and under 30 mins to the Sol station. This area has new construction which we love and it also offers a short commute to our school, LIFE International School. We are able to be in centro and the airport all within 20 minutes and man, it feels good to be home!

So how did we decide on Madrid? Well in 2023, Madrid chose us. We had to choose Madrid if we wanted to move to Spain as the only path we had without remote work was to work for LIFE as volunteers on the student visa. We were hesitant about Madrid after having spent four weeks on the beautiful island of Tenerife, Spain. We weren’t used to big city life after having lived on a farm in the U.S. and the whole experience was a culture shock.

There were things we always loved about Madrid: the authentic Spanish culture, the beautiful sites, the wonderfully-connected airport and more, but it didn’t fully feel like home to us. I do believe that Madrid is a slow burn: at first, it may not get you but overtime, you truly fall in love.

While we always loved our Christian school here, LIFE, we decided for our boys secondary years to try somewhere a little more academic, like an IB American school. We moved to Estepona, a suburb of Malaga in the beginning of July 2025. It was a bumpy road to get there: the inability to get a moving truck the day before, doubt filling my heart, sadness from our oldest son to be leaving and a scam down south that took our money. But, we still felt like the Lord was leading us to try life down south.

Within the first two months or so, it became evident to me that our family would be better off in Madrid. The Christian school was a better fit. The change of seasons and liveliness of a big city were a better fit. The culture and the authenticity of immersing in the Spanish language and culture were a better fit in Madrid. And mainly, we missed the Christian community with LIFE that we believed was supposed to be a part of our story from the beginning.

The beauty in the move back to Madrid was that this time we chose Madrid. All four of us. We knew without doubt that not only were we moving back to Madrid, but that LIFE and this city would be our long-term plan for the boys to finish schooling and beyond.

We feel immensely grateful that we both had the opportunity to move down south to realize how good we had it in Madrid and that we were welcomed back with open arms in Madrid by our family friends and community. We are so blessed to have sets of such wonderful friends here who are our family in Spain.

So, we’re home! We are settling into our new construction long-term rental here, buying furniture from scratch, nesting and making a home. God truly is a Waymaker as wedding have a way for this to be possible for our family in 2023. Now that is 2026, we see how God provided in all areas: our finances, our happiness, our kids’ schooling: He truly cares about all of the small details.

It feels so good to be home! You know what they say: de Madrid al Cielo!