How We Got Here
by Jana
I had wondered if I was going to feel regret about selling our family home, but I never once second guessed the decision throughout the process leading up to the move and really haven’t looked back since. At times, I’ve thought it weird that I didn’t. I loved our home, both of our kids were born there and after living there for 14 years, it represented the most stability I’d had in my life.
Surely these things happen for a reason, right?
Six months ago, we wouldn’t have fathomed selling our home to live on a bus and travel full time. But one beautiful day in July, Grant and I were stand up paddleboarding in the middle of the Rivanna Reservoir and out of nowhere, an idea just made its way into my head: we need to sell our home at a premium price, no realtors, and move to Australia. We approached Jack and Stellie with this wild and sudden idea thinking that they would tell us we’re nuts, but they were shockingly all about it, telling us that they would love to live in Australia again. I built a website, we painted our hallway and decluttered, and two weeks later the house was sold. Everything was going beautifully, not a single hiccup. Or so we thought.
We began the hugely arduous and somewhat over-the-top process of getting our three dogs, Mackie, Paigie and Phoebe, ready for export into Australia. An hour before their scheduled rabies titer test (basically just a much more expensive version of a regular rabies test), the vet called to ask if we realized that all three dogs had tested positive for Ehrlichia at some point in the past. Our answer was: “Ehr-what?!” Apparently Ehrlichia is a tick borne disease that usually doesn’t cause any symptoms unless your dog is a German Shepard. But because our dogs had been bitten by a pesky Ehrlichia carrying tick, they have Ehrlichia antibodies in their blood. Australia won’t allow that. Turns out, Australia is the most difficult country for importing animals, including family pets.
But when the Universe speaks, we have learned to listen. Upon receiving this news, Grant and I looked at each other knowingly. We had two options; option one was to leave the dogs behind and go to Australia (which would never fly with Jack and Stellie) and option two was surely going to reveal itself to us any second. Surely, these things happen for a reason, right? We immediately headed upstairs and called a family huddle. We presented the latest information to the kids and as predicted, their instant reaction was: “We’re not going anywhere without the dogs.”
We all stood there, deflated, desperately looking to each other for answers and suddenly I blurted out: “We should live on a bus and travel for a bit.” Much like the idea of selling our home and moving to Australia, this sentence also came through me, not from me. Everyone looked at me as though I had suddenly grown an extra head, but nobody objected. Instead, after a short moment of silent contemplation, logistical questions started to flow. “Three dogs on a bus?” “What if school goes back to in-person?” “Will there be enough privacy?” and lastly: “Where will we go first?!”
We quickly figured out that we had sufficient answers to all those questions and there was pretty much nothing standing in our way. Less than a week later, we sold my car Denise, bought Thelma and began her rejuvenation.
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We are currently sailing the South Pacific to Australia.
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