Would my moving to the United States purely be in my own self-interest or would it serve as a continuation of my ancestors? In the book The Call for Divine Mothering, I've shared how I inherited a fear of water through my mother and her mother, by the behavior that we mimic (and because I almost drowned when I was 5). I also shared in my book, how I was conscious about not getting pregnant at 24 like my mother had, and certainly not take on married lovers after my parents' divorce. On a more positive note, she also loved the United States.
My grandmother Maria, had a special wooden chest that was common to have in the old days, when many Swedes emigrated to the United States by boat. I inherited that chest. And I'm pretty sure, she somehow would have been happier if it had been American soldiers liberating her from Ravensbrück.
My mother was an exchange student in Eugene, OR, through Rotary, when she was young, and to where she came back for a visit as our 50th birthday gift for her. She also came and visited me, together with my younger brother, when I was an exchange student in Ticonderoga, NY. And the year prior to that, she had been engaged to an American man, who lived with his son in Hartford, CT, that we went to see on my first trip to the United States in 1987. So, I'm fairly certain that my mother really wanted to live in the US. She became both sad and upset of not being able to go there anymore, when I went for a short trip to NYC, to do research interviews for my graduate exam paper, in 2003, and her cancer had become terminal.
My brother, has too visited the United States and also like San Francisco like I do. He, however, has his own family and became a Swiss citizen in Geneva.
On my father's side, his late live-in partner's oldest daughter, was married most of her adult life to an American journalist. My grandparents on my father's side however, weren't that fond of Americans, given their sense of nobility, and keen aesthetic collecting European and some Oriental design and antiques. We do have, however, some relatives in our family-tree, who moved to CA.
So, moving to live, work and love in the US, has always been to where my heart leads me, in the footsteps of my family, following my lineage.