G’day Y’all

Many people have asked about the story of how we came to live in Australia.  Here’s the long-winded version.  Though it’s long-winded, it leaves a lot of details out.  This post breaks every blog rule known to man.  Mostly it is too long.  I should have written before now, but it is what it is.  Everyone has asked us to blog about our experience while we’re here, and this is the first of those posts.  As I write this, it is July 26, 2015.  We’ve been here for a few weeks now, and can finally look back and recount how we came to be here.

On March 12, 2015 I received an email from my CEO titled “Opportunity.”  I was genuinely scared to open the message.  I was out of town to meet with a client of mine.  I had been working on a deal with them for 2+ years, this was the last of a series of key meetings to determine its final state.

We were participating in a study at our church called “Experiencing God.”  It’s an older study that Brandi and I had done more than once before. The study that morning reflected on a time when the writer was leading a church that was specifically praying for God to lead them in a certain direction.  God was opening other doors, but the congregation stood firm and remained focused on what they wanted rather than where God was leading.

Leading up to the receipt of that message, I drove over to meet that client and walked out with the door firmly shut on progressing our deal any further.  I was completely deflated physically and emotionally from the “balloon pop” that comes from a professional loss like that.

My CEO’s email scared me because of the story I had just read that morning.  Where was God leading that was away from where I had been focused for so long?  The answer was in a very short email.  6 sentences.  126 words.  The summary – Ty, I want you to move to Australia with your family.  I know there’s a lot to consider.  Let me know ASAP.

I called Brandi as I got in my car for the 5 hour drive home.  I started with how terrible the meeting had gone.  Then, I said “Sit down, and don’t say ‘no’.”  Prayer, discussion, angst, excitement, fear, etc. followed.  I think most of those emotions happened in that first conversation and still remain today.

14 days later, we had told our family, friends and co-workers that we were moving to Australia, and I was on a plane.  I landed for the first time in Sydney on the 27th.  For the past 4 months I have been in a perpetual state of jet lag as I traveled back and forth from Australia to Texas, and also a trip to Canada for our annual company kickoff meeting.  I was in Oz for our 19th wedding anniversary.  Bummer.

Along the way, I found us a house to rent.  It is in the suburb of Clontarf on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.  We live in an awesome location, beautiful house, and close to some of the great things Sydney has to offer.  I’ll save the details of the house and other things like that for a future post.

We departed on the night of June 15 and landed here all together on June 17 at 6:30am.  17.5 hours in economy on an Airbus A380, and it doesn’t matter where you land, as long as you do!

It was pouring down rain.  It continued to pour down rain for the next 4 days straight.  It was (relatively) cold.  It was NOT the welcome to Australia I had hoped for my family.  The weather had been perfect every time I visited.  Of course, it is the “dead of winter” here now, and the truth is – it is quite mild.  Lows in the mid 40s and highs in the mid 60s.

My boss and good friend Dave met us at the airport and hauled our bags to our new house.  I grabbed a rental car and we drove out to the house ourselves.  …on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car.  Driving is great fun here.  It’s a new adventure to figure it all out.  Fortunately, I had driven on a previous trip, so I at least had a head start.

The house is at the top of a very steep driveway with multiple switch-backs (180 degree tight turns) on a serious incline.  More on that some other time as well.

Here we are.  22 suitcases.  Soaking wet.  A cold house with no heat.  Yep, day one in Oz – could’ve been better.

We had a real bright spot in our early days from our Air BnB host.  I got us an apartment on Balmoral Beach to stay in until we had furniture and such in the house.  Joe was awesome.  When our furniture was delayed, he accommodated us very kindly.

I took the rest of that week off to get us settled in.  I had some simple goals.  I thought they were simple at least.

1. Get furniture
2. Buy cars
3. Set up electricity, gas, and internet

We spent that week shopping to find the best deals on furniture and appliances.  IKEA turned out to be the focal point, and we spent a lot of time there.  However, by the time Monday came our furniture had not yet been delivered, but was scheduled for that day.  I went to work.

The furniture didn’t make it.  Details don’t really matter, except to remind you about our daunting driveway.  It has become a theme.

We stayed one night in the Marriott.  Then another night back in our Balmoral apartment.  Then we finally slept in our house on Wednesday night.  It was very cold, but we were “home.”

One week later, we had furniture, electricity and gas.  It would be another 2 weeks before we had 2 cars.  We finally got internet at the house last Friday, the 24th of July!  So, my goals were a little lofty.  Oh well, it turns out you don’t need internet, central heat and cable to survive!

Over the past month, we have spent a lot of time settling in.  There have been countless trips to Costco, IKEA, KMart, Big W, Target, Coles, and Woolworths (among others).  I’ve also been going to the office every day – which is a big change for our whole family.

If you read between the lines, what you’ll see is that moving is hard.  Moving to another country is immeasurably harder.  There have been some tough days.

There have been some real bright spots as well.  The real good news is that those bright spots are coming more often in the past 10 days or so as we are finally getting settled in.  Some highlights of our time here include:

• Swimming (at least the kids) at Manly Beach, Freshwater Beach, and Clontarf Beach.  Can anyone say “absolutely beautiful beaches less than a mile from our house?” Wow!
• The kids play in the park across the street (that has a beach…) on most sunny days.
• Hiking some amazing trails around our neighborhood that cover rocky shorelines, cliffs and beautiful beaches.
• A guided tour of the Sydney Opera House on Brandi’s birthday.
• 4th of July fireworks in Darling Harbour.  (They do fireworks on most Saturdays, but since the 4th was on Saturday it turned into a rather large gathering of American expats.)
• Seeing Olympic Park

We have visited 2 churches thus far in our search.  We’ve attended Hillsong Church’s Northern Beaches Extension location and an Anglican church very near our home.  We visited the Anglican church tonight for the first time and met an expat family from Atlanta who landed a week after we did.  We had a lot of the same stories to share.  We are praying for the right church to plug into while we’re here.  That answer is not 100% clear as of yet.

The kids have been going to a youth group on Friday nights, and also went to a connect group this past Tuesday.  They’ve started making friends in those groups, which makes settling in much easier.

So, 40 days into this adventure, we are finally settled in for the most part.  I sat on the balcony yesterday for more than an hour just staring at the harbour, and then 2+ hours on Freshwater Beach.  Life is good, and it is going to get much better in a hurry going forward.

Going forward, we’ll post regularly.  Everyone will take a turn.  We will tell stories from our first few weeks here to fill in the blanks as well as new stories as they develop.

Apologies again for the long post, but now you’re up to date on the highlights.  I’ve skimmed over tons of details.  More to come from the #flippinaussieadventure.