How do people move to countries like the USA and create the life they dream of? in today's episode, you are going to discover why you should make a straight line to the stories of expat women immigrating abroad. Listen to their challenges, their choices, and their victories before you make a decision. Welcome to starting over in the USA, the Expat Woman's Guide to overcoming homesickness, embracing cultural differences, and creating a new home away from home. On this podcast, we talk about leaving behind the familiar, you know, the pangs of homesickness and culture shock to the journeys of reinventing yourself. I'm Yolanda Reshemah. And after relocating six times, I know firsthand what it's like to start from scratch, feeling like both a foreign child and a foreign adult in a new world. it is Friday. On Friday episodes we find tips and strategies to help you, expat woman, have a healthy immigrant experience. Have you ever felt like you are the only one going through this? Like there's only a handful of people who could possibly understand what it's like to move to a new country, create a life based on dreams and ambition, And succeed at it. What if I told you that the answers you are chasing have already been lived spoken aloud? Keep listening to the end. I read this thing ages ago in, um, a book I picked up browsing another bookshop. It's called Wisdom From Above. I dunno who the author is, I can't see right now. But it's daily words of encouragement and affirmations, and there's one in particular that has stayed with me. It's so beautiful. I want to share it with you because it's, relevant to what this podcast is about. I'll just read a little bit for you. It says, this bit, we should not throw away the wisdom of those who have raised us. While our understanding falls short in some ways, we can learn important lessons through experience. Instead of starting fresh, we should allow the insight of others to weigh in on our choices and guide us in decision making. The fruit of wisdom can be found anywhere. We simply need to know how to spot its characteristics. Don't let the faults of others overshadow what they get, right? Every person is a mixture of mistakes and successes, so let's give grace to where it is required and respect to where it is due. I love that. Here's why I love it so much. In all my years, I have learned that the people who have gone before us have experienced the very thing that are working on, that we are struggling with, that we intend to overcome and triumph. They've experienced all the emotions and there's nothing new that hasn't been covered before. And I think about these lovely ladies and the men who have shared their stories with us on this podcast. I want to say thank you right here, right now to every single one of them. I am eternally grateful. Because their experiences and wisdom means that I continually get to grow and understand. It means that you expect women find new ideas, perspective strategies, and tips for any issue that you are facing. As an expat woman living in a land that is not your country of origin, you are not the first, you are never going to be the last. You too have a story to tell, and so I just wanted to encourage you to dip in to these episodes, to extract from my guests all of their experiences even their mistakes, and use that to make your life's journey rich and safe, to help you make the good decisions, wise decisions, and to help you achieve the life that caused you to move here in the first place. There's no better teacher than somebody who's walked before you and experienced the joy and the pain and everything that you are likely to go through. You don't know what's up ahead, both positive and negative. It's not all bad. It's not all trials. But we need to know how to manage it. We need to know how to save up all the good and great things to keep as fuel for the difficulties and challenges that's bound to come around the corner, because that's just how life is. This is what I want you to take away. Three things. First, you are not alone on this journey. Wisdom is everywhere, especially in the stories of people who have lived it and who are experiencing what you are going through right now. So make a straight line for the lessons of other immigrant women listen to their challenges and their choices and their victories. This is going to help you shortcut the trial and error phase. The intending result is for you to feel less alone, but more grounded in your new environment. The second takeaway is figuring out how to use the experiences that other expert women are sharing with you free of charge on this platform. How are we going to turn these entertaining stories of real life lessons into strategies that we can begin to implement right now to help us in our decision making. So we are not starting from scratch. You can listen through these episodes and find what I've missed. The third takeaway, if I'm honest. It probably sounds a little bit woo woo up the mountainside, but please hear me out. Apply some respect to the fact that you've gotten this far. Apply a big drop of empathy and grace to yourself when you get it wrong because you are going to get it wrong. Oh boy. I made a pig's ear of it. So here's your invitation. Go back and listen to guest episode that moved you extract one lesson, one strategy, one moment of truth, and then share it. Share it with a friend or fellow expat woman, or even share it with me. If you have an authentic story to tell about moving from your home country to live in the USA, send me an email at guests at the places we call home.com. We'll chat about your journey, the things you love about living in the USA, the challenges you've overcome and tips that you might want to share with other expat women listening. Oh, that book I read from Wisdom From Above, it's by an author by the name of Brian Simmons. And this is not a sponsorship issue or anything. It's from my stash of Jesus follower daily reading collection. That's it from me and my cold turmeric in ginger tea. We'll meet up on the next episode.