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.

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.