It feels so weird to type again in this editor. A thousand times I wanted to come back to this blog, but struggled to find the motivation. Yet once in a while I would get comments “offline” about how my blog was useful to people living in Finland, especially immigrants and prospect adoptive parents. It reminded me why I started doing this. I always found joy in helping others and in particular in sharing my experience to make life easier for someone else. I benefitted from the very same many times in my life. The problem with blogging is that it often feels lonely and one-sided. I hardly get feedback if my words are helping someone or not. So in time I lost motivation, wondering if someone was benefitting from this or not. However, I then discovered that despite not publishing updates, my blog was still being referred to in Facebook groups and among friends. I also checked my inbox after a long time and found some messages from people asking for help or giving me updates. This blog has also been the mean for me to create friendships that last to this day. On top of all of that, I like to write. So I faced the daunting idea of starting over after such a long time and here I am, writing this post.

I know it will take me a while to get back into the old habit of writing. Much has also changed in my life and some content will be new and different. There is also old content that needs fixing. I aim at writing a post every week, though. I hope my posts will be useful or just enjoyable as I heard people say. I wish that they will make life in Finland for newcomers and families easier. If my posts are helpful or if you have suggestions, let me know through the comments, I’d love to hear your feedback. Thank you for reading me!

Cover photo by Joni Kuusisto on Unsplash