He wrote this at the gate

Tonight I leave on a flight to join my wife in Auckland.

I felt that today was a perfect time to post something about the journey as a real help for others.

I was inspired by a post that Tara made recently discussing the realities of the journey and in particular the timeline.

Thanksgiving, 2024.

I find myself sitting in a parking lot outside of my parents' assisted living community.

And my wife suddenly says, remember how we wanted to just sell everything and go across the world Start fresh.

We have joked about this concept for as long as I've known her.

I looked her in the eye and said, yes.

She asked me, why don't we? Now for most people that would have been replied with a chuckle and a million reasons why we couldn't, it couldn't be done.

We're too old.

The kids are in school.

We have extended family.

What about our career? But no, I said, why don't we? And I looked her straight in the eye and I said, if you are not 1000% committed to this, don't even toss out that idea.

You know what you're suggesting and what it means and how hard it'll be.

I still wonder if I would have said the same thing if I were really did know how hard it would be.

She said, yes, I am serious.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner and all the ideas were in my head.

I got home and immediately got to work and within 48 hours, I had done enough research to set up an appointment with an Australian immigration firm.

A week later, we had our first consult and things were encouraging.

We learned our options.

He gave us a list of things we needed to do.

And a week later, I got an email apologizing that he had done the math incorrectly and that we didn't have enough points to be competitive in the lottery.

I almost gave up.

I wasn't as invested as I would become.

We could take our chances, do all the work, pay all the money, and hope.