It is hard for me to remember some days that just a few short weeks ago I was bed bound with second degree burns covering my lower arms and part of my face! There are still the reminders of what my body has been through. My right arm from the elbow down looks totally different than the rest of that arm…still quite pink and tender. And then there is my face that is slightly discolored in places and the singed hair is growing back ever so slowly…but healing is occurring.
The elasticity of time and memory amaze me! I remember just after the fire and similarly right after losing my parents having this feeling of extraordinary clarity. These life altering experiences cut through all the nonsense in life and what is truly important is so clear! I have tried each time to hold on to that feeling as it elevates the importance of each day and yet with time the petty annoyances and distractions of each day creep in. I have found myself both impatient with my healing and critical of my appearance at points. I have enough awareness to catch myself but I wish there was a way to hold onto that clarity without the pain that accompanies something like an injury or death! Maybe this is part of the journey?
Yesterday, for the first time since the fire, I was able to hit my yoga mat again…ever so gently! My body has been through a lot. My heart has also been through a lot these past few years but my mat never disappoints me! I marvel at not only the healing ability of my body but also at the memory that exists in my body to respond to the postures. This practice that has sustained me for some 16 years now goes well beyond the physical postures. I was, in fact, practicing while I lay in bed recovering. As with my faith, I carry my yoga practice with me wherever I go! I would say that the postures are actually the least important part of my practice. While they make my body stronger and more flexible, it is really who we are off the mat that determines how effective our practice is, no? Having said that, I am so incredibly grateful to be able to move my body into triangle and to be able to do a chataranga again. I am having to remind myself to take it slow. I want to move and be back where I was a few months ago…but I can’t go back to who I was or where I was physically. I can move forward taking all I have learned through this experience and allow that to transform me and my practice! I have missed practicing the asana’s and teaching this practice to others but the burns have taught me! I have changed. Yoga has the ability to expand us if we allow it! I hope I always am willing to allow for that change in myself and in others!
This is not where my body is right now….not even close but that’s okay. I will get there again or not…it really doesn’t matter! What matters is coming back again and again to my practice and allowing myself to grow! Be gentle with yourself as I am trying to be with myself!
This expat adventure is just another step in my practice. It is an opportunity to expand way past the point of comfort. It is an opportunity to open our hearts and our minds to new and interesting ways of looking at the world. It is constantly a reminder to live in the moment because everything is so new and different even if the language is the same. Yoga has prepared us for this! Here’s to living in the moment and making each day count!
There is a children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day that we have always loved. From the moment Alexander wakes up, things just don’t go his way and several times throughout the book he talks about escaping to Australia! The idea for this gift certificate for a flight to Australia from my friend Fred originated from this story!
While today has not been terrible or horrible, it has been rainy and clunky and fraught with irritations. It is raining here today which makes for a great sleeping day but not a great day to get up and walk to the bus stop and take public transit to school! It’s June and chilly (we still haven’t adjusted in our heads that it’s late autumn/early winter here) and we are disoriented today. Yesterday, we were late to school because we still don’t quite have the hang of the timing of the ferry headed to school so we decided Lawson and Eve would take the bus this morning. One of the challenges however is that it requires a bus change and even to experienced travelers, it is not easy to get leaving the house and the walk to the right bus stop at the right time….especially in the rain! When we are traveling one of the joys of public transit is just being able to relax and not worry about the time table With school that is just not the case. We have downloaded an app to help with the transit scheduling but have found it’s not always exactly accurate. The positive bit is that Lawson and Eve arrived at school early today! The negative bit is that Eve left her lunch and snack at home! This used to just be a minor irritation but now it is a bigger deal because of the time it takes us to get across the river and the expense so Eve had to let the school know and they gave her a voucher for a sandwich and a piece of fruit! We are thankful for that voucher! We Americans are off to a stellar start – late one day and a forgotten lunch the next! Fortunately, part of our thinking with having Eve start school with only two weeks left in the term before winter break was this very thing…..our finding our way, our bumbling along before things get serious academically for Eve! We kinda knew this wasn’t going to be easy and that there was a strong chance we were going to make a ton of mistakes! And we were right! In addition, Lawson lost his GoCard (public transit card) sometime during this adventure which then had to be canceled, a new card purchased and then the money from the first card can be transferred to the new card at some point after twenty four hours! Not horrible or terrible but annoying!
Back at home, our sweet boy Felix was having all kinds of tummy troubles! He had a rough night last night and it has continued all day today. Poor boy! It has just been that kind of day which just shows even if you are in Australia, life’s little challenges and irritations follow you! Did I mention it was raining?
It was still raining when we walked down to meet Eve at the ferry stop. In spite of lunch, she was smiling which just makes everything better! She had another good day at school. She says people really love listening to her talk. Apparently, the American accent is as interesting to others as theirs is to us!
Tonight we decided we all needed a break so we headed to our lovely local theatre not far from our home to watch Wonder Woman! Day reclaimed! We are headed to bed with dreams of channeling our inner Wonder Woman!
Sweet dreams from Australia or maybe I should say Good Morning to most everywhere else in the world!
Today, Eve began a new adventure…school Aussie style! When we first started talking about having this family adventure, one concern was school for the girls. Last year, when Lawson and I made our recon visit to check things out, we visited colleges and university for both the girls. In the past, we have tried to find just the right school for the girls. We have tried a variety of educational styles and with each there have been positives and negatives. We decided with this adventure to just allow things to unfold rather than trying to find just the right fit. One of the schools we visited last year for Eve was Lourdes Hill College. It is an all girls Catholic school. While we are not Catholic, we felt warmly received. The school draws on the practices of Benedictine spirituality and the story of the Good Samaritan which should be a really good fit for our Eve. Eve is a deeply spiritual soul who loves service! This will be an adventure for our sweet girl! We really appreciated the sign hanging on one of the walls at Lourdes Hill that is pictured below – Always Keep (your mind) Open! Open heart, Open mind! Here are a few pics from day one!
Since uniforms are a required part of school for every student in Australia (unless you attend a Waldorf school), it was really not too big of a deal for Eve. Today, she looked like every other 15 year old girl here! Our tibetan terrier Felix was not quite sure what to make of Eve at first. First he barked, then he wanted to make sure this was really his big sis!
This is a photo of Eve’s new school from the side of the river we currently live on.
As we were walking down to meet Eve at the ferry stop this afternoon, this wonderful rainbow appeared on the south side of the Brisbane River right near Eve’s school! We decided this was a good sign for her first day! Sure enough, Eve walked off the City Cat smiling! This whole adventure is about learning and stretching and growing. We are so impressed with our girls willingness to embrace this opportunity to not only learn about another culture but to learn about themselves as they open their mind to new and interesting ways of seeing the world! No matter where we live, we are all connected….Somewhere over the Rainbow…..
Week two has been full of baby steps toward getting some structure! There has also been lots of emotion as we realize this is kinda a big deal and that we are all pretty exhausted emotionally from months upon months of steps simply to get to week two in Australia! And, there’s some homesickness that has crept in as well. We miss our Florida home and friends so very much!
We began the week by visiting Sophie’s new university – the University of Queensland or UQ as it is often called here. Even though we are living here, Sophie is still considered an international student so we were given a tour of the school by another international student named Angel who was from China. She was lovely and helpful in giving us a sense of the layout and some tips for maximizing the experience. One of the most interesting parts was being introduced to the napping chairs that are available at one of the many libraries on campus! Many of the buildings are made of sandstone and are simply gorgeous. Next, Sophie was able to meet with one of the history professors, who went above and beyond to spend time getting to know her and also spent time with us explaining a few things. One of the biggest shocks for us when we first began exploring universities in the US while Sophie was in high school was how little we as parents were factored in even though we paid the bill. It was nice for a professor to take the time to chat with us! Another big difference here in Australia is that even though there is a stellar sport centre on campus (far better than where Sophie was), there is an absence of college sports teams. While I used to love college sports, I appreciate as a parent that here it is about academics. Our daughter went to a small liberal arts college in the states and made the Presidents list every semester yet the scholarships went to the international sports students of a college that really wasn’t known for its sports, so my enthusiasm for college sports has waned just a bit now that I am a parent!
On Tuesday, we went to the council to have our dogs registered. All went well with that process but then we got a call on Thursday that there was a problem with where we lived and the number of dogs we have. They will be sending us a letter in the mail next week and we will register an appeal and see what happens next. Keep your fingers crossed for us that our appeal works! What we do know for sure is that we will probably be needing to find another place to live at the end of our 7 month lease due to the animals. And on that note, we had a skype call with House Hunters International last weekend and they are interested in our family’s adventure but they only work with those who have at least a one year lease or who buy so lots for us to figure out in the coming weeks! We have been having fun visiting open houses (called inspections here) and just learning about the different neighborhoods as we do this! We love getting to see inside the architecture of the Queenslander homes! We will let you know if it works out with House Hunters International!
Midweek, we did a trial run of the route Eve will be taking to her school Lourdes Hill which is on the other side of the river from us. We were initially going to wait for Eve to start school until the next term started in mid July but we decided to go ahead and let her ease into things before winter break starts in two weeks. She will be ready to go come next term and hopefully make some friends in the process of getting used to her new school! In Australia, kids take the city buses like everyone else. Public transit is a normal part of life here and since we don’t have a car yet, we are keen on getting the hang of things so we aren’t limited to walking! On this trial run, we caught a bus at the top of our street and rode down to the ferry stop and caught the ferry across the river then walked to Eve’s new school to purchase her uniforms! It actually ended up being lots of fun and we so appreciate Eve’s awesome attitude about uniforms! Our girl rocks everything she wears! It helps that every kid in Australia wears one. Our favorite part are the hats…such a uniquely Aussie thing! Eve’s first day of school is on Monday so I will, of course, be posting first day of school pics! Thanks Eve for humoring your mom and allowing me to do this! For now…here’s a pic of the hat!
Lawson and Eve trying to figure out the bus routes! There is definitely a learning curve to using the buses here!
This is one of the city ferry’s that we catch to get up and down the river! Pretty sweet way to commute!
Towards the end of the week we went down to our local branch (New Farm) of the Brisbane library and got our library cards. It’s a small thing but grounding nonetheless! Along the way, we passed this farmer painted on one of the traffic signal boxes spread across the city. New Farm used to be more of a farming community which, of course, makes me think of my dad. I think he would love this!
One of the challenges that has dogged us since our arrival has been mobile phone coverage. We initially got a prepaid card so that we would have Australian service from the get go but we then switched to another carrier and getting things transferred has been a bit frustrating. This week has been rough trying to get things worked out but I think we finally have things sorted! Thank goodness!
Living abroad is not for the faint of heart! The challenges are real! The rewards are great too though! We are having to work together as a family in new and interesting ways every day! Some days are kinda rough as we bump into one another emotionally but the opportunities for personal growth are extraordinary! We are learning so much and it’s only week two!
In many ways, I am an unlikely candidate for a big move like the one we have undertaken! In addition to the incredibly stable childhood I was granted, I also inherited my dad’s shyness and love of stability! There are those who assume a quiet soul lacks courage which is just ridiculous! I have found that it is often the ones who talk the least who make the boldest moves….but often while shaking in their boots! Much of our marriage has been characterized by me jumping into the unknown with Lawson and then suffering tremendous anxiety as we are in free fall and even after our feet are safely on the ground. The past few days have found me dealing with such anxiety! Unfortunately, anxiety is a close personal friend. I share this because we want this blog to be an accurate representation of, not only this process of living abroad, but also of creating change, of taking a big risk. I want to share the fun and joys and accomplishments of this process but also the challenges. It is not easy to make changes but it is worth it even on the days where I am sleep deprived because I still worry more than I should. We both want people to listen to their souls. We want people to know they are not alone in feeling anxiety, frustration…as they make changes in their life. There is much talk about vulnerability today and that is wonderful but too often we still feel we must project an image of having it all together. Full disclosure….we do not have it all together! If anything, let us inspire you to make changes in your life because “if they can, surely I can” is completely true!
Today, our fur babies were released from quarantine in Melbourne! They were picked up at quarantine, put on a plane bound for Brisbane and then picked up at the airport here and delivered to our door by Dogtainers! Yippee!!!
Joy and relief flooded over us as we saw the Dogtainers van pulling down the street! The hardest part of our reunion was seeing our 15 year old tibetan terrier Dalai so very disoriented! It has been an extremely hard two weeks for our slightly aged girl. She cried and moaned and stumbled all over the house for about an hour tonight but has finally settled down and seems to be content once again! Dani the dachallasa, Felix the tibetan terrier and Karo cat all seemed to have survived the past ten days with a bit more ease. All four babies are confused by this new house and are not letting us out of their sight but are otherwise looking and feeling good!
While we are still overwhelmed and somewhat disoriented by our new surroundings and, of course, missing our Florida home and friends in the US, having our unit all together again sure helps our hearts! Boy do we love our fur babies and hope we don’t have to go through this quarantine business again any time soon!!
We landed safely in Brisbane, AU on Wednesday 24th of May around 7 am! The flight was long but we were so thankful it was an uneventful flight.
We and our many bags breezed through immigration and customs and thanks to Lawson’s amazing engineering skills we got everything in the van! Next, we went by the offices of Calibre to pick up the keys to the home we will be renting for the next seven months and then found our way to New Farm and our home for the rest of this year! We are most definitely in the city here and it is going to be such fun! The home is lovely…more space than we need since we are just renting some furniture during this initial period but lovely and one of the few places we could find that would allow us to have all four of our animals.
Shortly after our arrival at our new home, the furniture we rented arrived. For someone so particular about her furnishings, this is a bit of a stretch but it is one less thing for us to have to think about as this adventure begins. We brought some of our own linens with us as a source of comfort but we did get out to get a few other household essentials that first night. There is so much we take for granted in our daily lives. Each time I move I am reminded of all that must be replaced. In this case, there are even more things..simple things like hangers. We are currently a bit overwhelmed and jet lagged but thankful to be here and so far there have been no major problems other than our fatigue and internet and phone challenges.
We have new mobile numbers but are still having difficulty with our phones and no internet connection at home. Looking forward to getting this vital detail all sorted soon!
We got word that the animal babies will be released from quarantine on 1, June! We are so excited to see them! We were initially going to fly down to pick them up in Melbourne and then fly them back to Brisbane ourselves but have decided to hire the DogTainers to pick them up and deliver them to our door end of day this coming Thursday. Yippee!
Our bodies are still adjusting to a new time zone. We have been going to bed super early and are still waking up quite early. We currently have a car rental for a few more days and then will be relying on public transit for a bit. Lawson has done a great job driving on the left hand side of the road. We have mainly just been trying to get our bearings in our new city driving around obtaining items to get us a bit organized at home. We took the free city hopper water bus a couple of evenings ago to let the girls get a feel for where a few things are from the Brisbane River. This photo was taken just a short ways from our neighborhood.
While we feel certain there will be bumps in the road as there always are no matter where you live, today both girls thanked us for moving them to such a beautiful place! Whether this is simply an adventure or becomes something permanent, this is always what a parent wants their teenager and young adult to say to them! When we came home last year from our initial visit to Brisbane, Lawson and I talked a lot about how friendly people were, how people had time to just have a short (and at times long) conversation with you. We talked about how many conversations we had during those 10 days compared to home. I think the girls thought we were exaggerating until these first days here. Our girls are blown away in the best possible way by the friendliness!
This morning we ventured to our first farmers market in our neighborhood. It was a feast for the senses and we had to drag Lawson out he was having so much fun! He is the primary cook for our family so he was in heaven!
So, we are physically here but emotionally still catching up! We miss friends, all our things that bring us comfort, and unlimited internet and texting! Thanks to all for the support! Give us a couple more weeks and we will be ready for visitors so start checking for airfare!
I remember vividly the day Lawson surprised me with our 2004 Sienna Minivan! He bought her off ebay back in the days when that seemed so incredibly progressive! It was the summer of 2005 and we had a little munchkin named Eve who was a terrible (not an understatement) traveler! She tricked us when we brought her home from India by being super chilled. What we had not thought through was that as an almost 13 mo old who was a bit delayed from having to stay in a crib for too long, once Eve actually started moving the game would change not a little, but a whole lot! You see once our girl started moving she was super, duper high energy! Carseats were the scene of meltdowns…massive meltdowns! Lawson being the wonderful problem solver he is determined early on that a minivan might assist with traveling with our tootie muffin and boy was he right! She has been such a gift all these years!
As an only child, I begged my parents for a station wagon! This was the 70’s and early 80’s and I think I secretly thought if they bought a station wagon, siblings would follow! Despite my persistent nagging, a station wagon never appeared in our driveway nor did the siblings. To this day, I would still love a station wagon, preferably one with a cool wood stripe down the middle. I remember trips with our friends the Hudgens in their station wagon. In addition to the station wagon, Miss Tommie Ann wore sunglasses which made her cool! It’s funny the things that stick with us from our childhoods isn’t it? Lawson decided the minivan was this generations equivalent of the station wagon and I think he is probably right. My children do not have the same appreciation for how fabulous this portion of their childhood has been!
I have often threatened to take her (the minivan that is) with me to Australia! This totally mortifies my family and for the past year they have been looking for ways to separate her from my grasp. They thought reaching 275,000 miles might do it, but no. She is worth so little to anyone else, Lawson has had to appeal to my frugal sense of things and explain why she is not financially worth shipping overseas…plus, we are only taking clothes with us so…. Big, heavy sigh! I understand it is kinda ridiculous. It’s back to the memories again. Every so often, a long ago cherrio that is somehow still stuck in a crevice will emerge and I am reminded again of my sweet girls laughing and playing games in her as we rolled down the road. There are memories of sweet Deano boy attached like glue to my lap in the front seat as we traveled everywhere with our poochies. There are the multitude of trips back and forth to my parents home over all these years as we all piled in. She safely transported us so many places….our three week family road trip up the eastern seaboard of the US to visit Washington, DC and other historical places, many trips between Atlanta, GA and Florida and Arkansas and all over the souther part of the US in general, concert trips with our girls, the long trip packed to the gills taking our Sophie to college, and this last long trek to California carrying bags and fur babies that would be heading to Australia soon! Driving her around Hollywood and Beverly Hills brought a certain delight to me and embarrassment to everyone else! Our old minivan smells faintly of dogs, and kids and love! She has never once broken down on us. She has helped renovate three houses and transport goodness knows how much back and forth between storage units! I am so very grateful for how well she has taken care of our family on the road all these years!
My dad was an extraordinarily frugal man who would be so proud of the long life we have gotten out of our sweet minivan. We have lived in places where what you drive kinda defines who you are. I balk at this choosing always to put more of my money into my home than my ride. But then I think ,well this kinda does define me…frugal, practical, does not give two diddly twits if you think less of me because I don’t drive a Beemer. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking so forward to a new vehicle in Australia or the US at some point. This period in our life has just not been that period. This has been a raising kids, caring for aging parents, put this vehicle to work period and we couldn’t be prouder of this old girl and the life she helped us create! So long sweet girl and thank you!
Saturday night, May 20th we put our four fur babies Dalai, Dani, Felix and Karo Kitty on a Qantas flight to Melbourne, Australia from Los Angeles, California for them to go to quarantine. We were in tears as we left them at LAX!
The process has been almost a full time job for Lawson these past few months. Australia has a very strict policy on pet importation so the US end of things has involved numerous hoops to jump through. There have been a total of at least six vet visits with our vet, Dr. Barry, in Sandestin, FL for a variety of tests over the past months. There has been communication between our vet, the US official vet in Gainesville, FL and the Australian Department of Agriculture. We had our last visit with Dr. Barry last Monday, May 15 and then overnighted our import permit to the official government vet in Gainesville and then they had to transfer it to another form and overnighted it back to our vet because it had been put on the wrong form and then that was fed exed to us here at our air bnb in LA on Friday. Our early arrival to Los Angeles was for the babies. They only give you five days between when you have your last vet visit and when your pets board their flights to Australia….no stress there!
We got word late yesterday that their Qantas flight had arrived safely in Australia and that they had been safely transferred to the quarantine facility and were under evaluation. No news is good news after the initial email they send you so we are hoping to not receive any calls before our flight leaves late tonight! Our biggest concern has been for our 15 year old tibetan terrier Dalai. She is in great health but is considered elderly so this is always a bit concerning for such a traumatic change in her routine. This is the facility where they will be in quarantine for the next 10 days in Melbourne, AU.
We are missing them terribly but so relieved we got through the process of actually getting them to Australia without some major misstep! All credit goes to my beloved Lawson for navigating a very complicated process. Most people hire companies to do this for them but Lawson saved us a huge amount of money by doing it for us. In addition, the chaos we observed by at least one of the companies who had been hired made us realize no one cares for our babies like we do! We can’t wait to be reunited as a family ten days from now!
We leave tonight around midnight! Eeeh!!!! It’s gonna be a crazy, busy day today! Happy Monday!
