We are Christina and Randy. In November 2021, we sold our house, much of our belongings, and moved to Latvia.
Our trip to Latvia started almost two years ago, possibly with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can’t remember for sure. Our conversations frequently shifted to the current trajectory of our lives. Christina was working 10 to 14 hours a day in a commercial gluten-free bakery, frequently operating on 4 hours, or less, of sleep per night due to the early morning requirements of the job and the inexorable night owl that keeps her up late. It had been painfully clear for a long time that the physicality of the job coupled with the lack of sleep were unsustainable, but she is a loyal and prideful soul, and almost allowed this work to break her. I was working as an engineering technician at a very good company. I was well-compensated, the work was undemanding, and I genuinely liked my boss and colleagues. But, at heart I suppose I’m more of a creative spirit than this work could accommodate, and frequently found myself bored and uninspired; longing for the time and energy to read, spend time with my guitar, and create music.
As the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest sparked by the murder of George Floyd tested the institutions of the US government and law enforcement, and the general political situation soured, our discussions regarding potential changes to our lives intensified. Finally, after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th we resolved to create an exit strategy. After a little research it became clear that the best thing to do was for Christina to claim her Latvian citizenship, which was available by way of her paternal grandparents who fled the Soviet occupation of Latvia just after WWII.
The process of applying for citizenship using the “Latvian Exiles and their Descendants” path was fairly straightforward and painless. We had in our possession her grandfather’s compulsory civil service documents and Christina’s birth certificate, so all we needed to do was prove the connection between her father and grandfather. Since her father was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany we had to write to a rural district in Germany for her father’s original birth certificate, which they produced and mailed back to us in surprisingly short order. All told, the process of gathering documentation, submitting the citizenship application, and receiving the desired response took about 6 months. Not bad!
While it isn’t entirely untrue to say that we left the US out of fear and disgust, once the citizenship piece was in place we really just felt free to make the dramatic change we had been tossing around for almost two years. Christina could leave her job and get some much needed rest while fulfilling a dream to explore the country of her grandparents, I could take some time off to reignite my creative side, and maybe most importantly, we could indulge our favorite pastime: traveling. So, we took the plunge.
We managed to save a good chunk of money during the pandemic, but didn’t really have enough to sustain us much more than a year. Also, it was clear that we had little intention of returning to the exact life we were leaving, so we decided to rid ourselves of a truck-load of possessions and then sell our house.
Despite the almost year-long process, I think the timeline took our friends, family, and employers by surprise. I’m surprised myself! I can hardly believe that I’m looking out at a cold dreary winter day in the Latvian capital while writing this account.
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Visu labu!
Randy and Christina
