A Year in Review

We cannot believe a year has already gone by since we moved to Australia! At the end of December 2012, Brian was first approached about this position in Australia.  I still remember when he first mentioned it to me and said 3 years-the first things I said was, “NO WAY!” After some discussion as a family and talking to extended family and friends, I said, “I could do a year, maybe 18 months.” We went back and forth with the company and they kept saying it had to be 3 years.  For those of you that really know me, you know that I don’t like change.  I’m perfectly happy when life seems good and I don’t see a reason to mess with anything good.  After taking an interview trip (Brian, Hallie & I) in February of 2013 and more discussion, the decision was made to jump in with both feet!

Then the crazy life began.  We had to sell our home, our 2 cars, find a new home for our kitties, sell a ton of home items, and start sorting our house into air shipment, sea shipment or storage!  I’m not quite sure how all of that happened within 2 months, but God’s hand was definitely in all of the details! We sold our home within a couple hours of being on the market for full asking price and our cars were sold in perfect timing…our van driving off while the movers were at our house!

We had a lot of going away parties and some very tearful goodbyes.  I was scared out of mind about going some place where I didn’t know anyone and starting over, and yet, was also at complete peace with our decision. The whole thing seems like a whirlwind when I look back at it and we owe our friends and family back in the States a huge THANK YOU for everything they did to help us through all of the planning and stress and making us feel loved.

After we arrived in Australia, we went straight to work researching schools and suburbs of Sydney. After a lot of meetings with principles and seeing many potential houses available for rent, we settled on Wahroonga and The Bush School. We “moved” into our house in July…just us and our load of suitcases we’d been living out of. Because we are frugal and crazy, we decided we could manage living for a few months without renting any furniture.  So, we bought a 2-seater sofa on gumtree and took a trip to Ikea for a table and chairs, a small set of dishes, silverware and utensils and a few other random things.  We borrowed air mattresses and blankets from a co-worker of Brian’s and called it good! We spent most of our evenings (since we really didn’t have any friends yet) as a family all sitting on our small sofa in front of a laptop that sat on a chair and watched movies.  Believe it or not, I actually look back at that time in fondness (maybe because I’m currently getting a good night’s sleep in my own bed), as it was a great bonding time for our family and we realized how much we could do without and appreciate the things that we had.

The girls got settled into their new schools and started making friends as did Brian and I. Everyone was so welcoming to us and we had several people invite us over to get to know us better and welcome us to Australia. After a few weeks, our air shipment arrived and it was like Christmas….toys, a couple kitchen items, more clothes, etc.! Another 6-7 weeks later, our sea shipment arrived (along with 3 different sets of visitors) and we went to work unpacking and setting up. 

Over the year, we have had 6 different sets of visitors and we are so fortunate to have had that many friends and family make the long and expensive trip to see us.  We have traveled a fair bit since living here and have so much more that we want to see and do and are looking forward to future travel and more visitors!

Port Douglas/Cairns (Great Barrier Reef)                          Tasmania                                     Brisbane/Gold Coast/Port Stephens

Throughout the year, we have grown to love the girls’ school, they’ve gotten involved in several extra curricular activities, Brian has fit well into his new role, I have picked up several new photography clients, Hallie has a weekly playgroup and is looking forward to starting preschool, we have found an amazing church and have some wonderful new friends to share all of this with! 

We just took our first trip back to the States and had an amazing and blessed visit with family and friends.  While it was still hard to say goodbye to everyone, we at least knew what we were coming back to and looked forward to catching back up with friends here as well. I am so glad that the girl that said, “only a year” went for it anyway because this has been a chance of a lifetime and such an amazing opportunity and time of growth for our entire family.  We look forward to the next couple of years with great anticipation of what’s to come and can’t wait to see what this next year brings!