For the past twelve years, the first thing I do every morning is turn on my computer and open Rightmove.co.uk, with its UK property listings.

I’m looking for a cottage.  One in, or near, the village in the Peak District of England where my parents were born, and where they lived until they left for America two weeks after their wedding.

They had me three years later, returned to Cambridge, England, then went back to America.  This made me a dual UK/US citizen, which is fantastic.  It also made me someone who is torn between two countries, both of which I love, and both of which I can’t imagine not living in.

I have my life, house, three kids, and friends in Massachusetts, on the East Coast of the US.  But I also have my life, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in England, not to mention wonderful memories of two great-grandmothers, four grandparents, and many great-aunts and -uncles as well as hundreds of years of family history. With my youngest child about to enter high school, my two oldest in college, and twelve years of searching, it’s time to find my cottage in England.

Buying a cottage not easy to do from 3,000 miles away.

But it’s not impossible, either.