How it Began

My husband and I are turning 40 this year. We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary last Friday and during dinner finalized the idea of “cashing it in”. Selling it all, house, car, stuff. Let go of my private counseling practice, quit jobs, and take the girls out of school and head out into the world. For the last year we have talked about relocating to New Zealand. Neither of us has ever been there but it looks beautiful in movies and everyone I have ever met is super nice. It’s not crazy right? We started looking at New Zealand.gov website and posted our resumes on New Kiwis.com hoping for an employer to fall in love with us and offer to move us out there. “Hmmm, we might need to take the bull by the horns”. This was how the conversation began during our anniversary dinner. “What if we put our house on the market and use the money to travel for 3-6 months with our final destination in New Zealand”. Could this really work? Could we really make a dream of “globetrotting” become reality? Could we really do this with an 8 and 5 year old in tow?

There are so many endings happening right now in our lives. Jacob finished 5 years of a double master’s degree. Our best friends are “cashing it all in” to move and make their dream of operating a ski-cat business come true in British Columbia. My father and his siblings are selling our family home in Breckenridge so they can move onto their next chapter, retirement. Our youngest finished pre-school and is going into kindergarten this year. So many endings, so many signs pointed us to have this talk: “What do WE want for OUR lives?” “What do we want for our kids’ lives?” No doubt, this is it. A global experience; a test in non-attachment. A journey and adventure. Yes, I can close a practice I have spent the last 2 years building. No problem. If it means we get to travel the world, I’m in.

What about our daughters? I had a rough social experience growing up in school. Lots of teasing and feeling alone. My oldest is happy, making good friends. Will this be a mistake? Upsetting her sense of belonging, of stability? We are switching schools for my youngest so that she can be in the same school with her older sister. We have “talked up” this school to her over and over to make her comfortable. What will this decision do to her? These are valid questions and worries. As my therapist self would say, important to acknowledge those fears. But that is all they are. Fears. This experience will shape them in ways I might never know. This will give our family a chance to bond in ways I can’t imagine and may even provide a better chance to survive adolescence for the girls and for us. Nope, screw the fear, I’m all in.

So today we are chatting nonstop about ideas and plans. Reading blogs of other families who have done this. Looking at “round the world” tickets (apparently they have been given the acronym of RTW). Talking about destinations. Today they are:

Costa Rica (at least a month in that region to learn Spanish), Portugal/Spain, Greece and Turkey, Thailand and Indonesia, Australia and then finally to New Zealand. These RTW tickets force you to return to your country of origin. If we love New Zealand and want to give living there a shot, we will be able to visit family and friends one more time before moving to “the end of the world”. Literally. Ok. So what is step one? Find out how much we can get for our house. Without that, we don’t go. Ok. Housing market in Denver is CRAZY right now. It is in our best interest to find out now. Ok, made the call to a realtor. Nothing like ripping off the Band-Aid. … and panic ensues… only to change to pure excitement!