Making the decision to make the change...

It was 2014 when Daniel and I 1st decided to travel Australia. We had been trying to fall pregnant for 2 years after marrying in 2011 but due to being diagnosed with severe PCOS we were not getting there very fast. After various fertility treatments, both natural methods & modern medicine, and a shit load of needles into my belly I needed a break from it all. I hadn't given up hope but I needed to shift my focus and have a mental break especially after being advised that the only way I would fall pregnant was via IVF.

We arranged 6 months leave at our work places, told our families of our plans and bought our dream Johnnos Off Road Camper Trailer which we LOVED! We picked up the camper, a week later my Grandpa died, the following morning I woke with Grandpa in my head telling me to do a pregnancy test and well...I was pregnant! Bit spooky? for sure! But super bloody awesome. Turns out I was 8 weeks along and had no symptoms of pregnancy (at this stage of my life menstrual cycles were non existent for me so no sign there either!). Well it is safe to say that those plans were put on hold and that focus shift I needed went to growing then raising my baby. Evie was born in May 2015.

Baby number 2 was a totally different scenario with us falling pregnant the 1st month we tried and Elka was born in July 2017. The girls conception and pregnancy journeys were just as different as what they have turned out like as little people. Chalk & Cheese.

Fast forward to January 2021 and that initial seed of a thought to travel Aus was back and it was strong! We go on an annual trip to Barmera in the SA riverland for New Years Eve and the start of January and this year as we drove out the gate to head home I knew deep within me without a shadow of a doubt that it was time to make this trip a reality. We were living in a reasonably large 4 bed, 2 & 1/2 bath house with beautiful views from our balcony and only 200m walk to the beach...and I had no desire to have it any more. I was over looking after it all. I was over the kids spreading out their mess. I was over the amount of stuff we had that we really didn't need. So we made the decision to sell our camper trailer and find a caravan (difficult task since half of Aus was doing the same thing due to COVID and no international travel!).

We knew that we needed plenty of time to get organised and save so we set a departure date of 26th December 2022 giving us nearly 2 years to get organised. Step 1 was selling the camper trailer, Step 2 find a caravan which we got incredibly lucky after hours and hours online searching and found the perfect one for us that wasn't over priced (again, covid had impacted prices drastically!), Step 3 was renting out our house and moving into the van on my inlaws front lawn where we would spend the next 18 months saving our butts off!

Is it ideal imposing on the inlaws and living in a caravan for 18 months in South Australia where we get super hot summers and pretty chilly winters....No! Not at all! BUT this is a sacrifice we were more than willing to make knowing that we had the support of the inlaws to do it, knowing we were able to help a beautiful family by renting them our house, knowing that we would be able to save the most amount of money possible this way & knowing how fast time would fly by as it always does in life. Every spare $ is straight into the trip account and we are well on our way to reaching our savings goal of $50k!

How will it all go? Who knows!!! But I am very bloody glad we are giving it a go as I am 100% confident I would regret not trying

In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.

- Abraham Maslow