We want to hire you.

I stared at those words. My jaw dropped. The email was regarding a graphic design job that I had applied for at a publishing company in the Yukon.

We want to hire you.

It didn’t seem real. If this was a Hollywood movie I would have given myself an exaggerated pinch to make sure it wasn’t a dream. As it was I just stared at those five words on the screen, eyes narrowed, unable to completely quash the suspicion that they were about disappear at any moment. They remained.

This was going to change my life.

Gradually I became aware that my computer was ringing. It was my mother on Skype. Shortly afterwards my future employer called. From there, plans began to take their shape. The idea of those five words quickly exploded into reality and fragmented into hundreds of details.

The last week has been a flurry of preparations; car shopping, apartment shopping, plane ticket purchases, daycare arrangements, road trip preparation and packing. My mother will fly out and join Oscar and I for the four-day journey on remote, snow-covered roads and Richard will drive up after his teaching practise. The more details that get ironed out, the more real it feels.

When I think back to the odd series of events that brought us to the Yukon almost a year ago I feel like fate showed us the place we belong.

We’re going home.