Hi Janice,
Just let your family know what's in your heart and they will understand, even if it takes them a while.
Make sure they realise that you will be in touch on a regular basis and what we did was make sure that they had Skype set up so that my parents KNEW we would be in touch.
My parents knew for 3 years that we were moving but that didn't make it any easier.
Things I would have changed, looking back....
We stayed with them for 2 weeks when our house was sold and although that seemed like the sensible thing to do it made it harder for my parents since they kept thinking we were at the house - in hindsight we could have stayed at a B&B although we did have some wonderful conversations with my parents.
Things that worked....
Setting up Skype, making sure that they knew how to SMS me, setting aside times that we would talk on the phone (or Skype).
Dad took us to the coach station, and Mum said goodbye at their place. I didn't even want Dad taking us to the coach station because of the state he would be in when he drove back. We explained that me crying at the airport & on the plane just wouldn't help anyone so that's the way we did it. I even phoned home to check Dad made it back okay.
That was in July 2007. My parents have been out here twice since then (they once said that they'd NEVER come out here
for about 5 weeks each time. They enjoyed it more when they came out in March since they went back to the UK in the Spring. They can see why we moved out here and have met our friends and we've taken them to meetings (such as Rotary).
It is tough and they may treat it like a bereavement but they will get through it and so will you.
Good luck, and we're always here if you need to 'talk'.
Big hug,
Karen