The Power of Co-creating Vision

From 2002 to 2006, Martha and I spent four wonderful years living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with two of our three children. In the spring of 2006, our expatriate assignment was drawing to a close and it was time for us to return home to the United States. We wanted to live in the Boston area where we had family and, of course, where the Red Sox played baseball. We sat down one afternoon and together envisioned the kind of home we were looking for. We also had decided to rent instead of buy. We gave this information to our real estate agent to get a head start on finding us a home. We booked flights a month before our return home to sign a rental contract and finalize our moving arrangements.

During that trip home, we were full of all kinds of emotions – excitement, sadness anticipation, and some anxiety. We booked rooms for a week at the Park Plaza in Boston. That first morning home, we called our real estate agency. At first, we could not get through. When we finally reached someone at the agency, we asked for our real estate agent and were told that she had been fired the week before. We were flabbergasted. We asked about our home tour that day and were told, “What home tour?” We asked if they knew of our plans for getting assistance in finding a home from their agency while we were in Boston that week. There was silence and then, “No, we didn’t know you were coming.” Unbeknownst to us, “our agent” had failed to notify anyone of our arrival in Boston. She had been fired and failed to notify us to boot!

We thought, “Some welcome home!” Martha and I went into overdrive. We demanded their best real agent be put on the case and, after several very tense hours, we got a call from an agent who guaranteed satisfaction. When we met with our new agent two days later, he had several homes for us to see. As we arrived at the first house on the list in Brookline, just west of Boston, Martha and I got out of the car and found ourselves standing in front of a home that was EXACTLY what we had envisioned in Amsterdam two months before. And our new home was just a 25-minute walk from Fenway Park!

One final note: The home didn’t have a large driveway for two cars.  That was the one thing we failed to envision for the home we were looking for!

Posted in Cross-cultural Adjustment, Partnership Marriage