One day at a time

Lately I've been trying to avoid being negative, because it's good for my mental health to keep looking up.  But I can't hold it in any longer, so I'll just say it.  The Australian medical registration system is driving me nuts!  Really, as I said, we started this process in January.  Now it's mid-September and not only do I keep having to send papers and fill out forms, but we still do not really know when we're leaving.  Bless Diane at Global Medical Staffing for her patience and diligence, but on my end it's really frustrating.  Each time I feel like we're almost there, something else pops up.  Tricia has been good to point out that we in the U.S. are pretty picky about who comes here to practice medicine, thus it's okay to expect the same scrutiny from Australia.  I guess.  I mean, I've lost track so I might leave something out, but at this point I've had two phone interviews with various medical staff, a video interview/exam, and I've been registered with the AMC, ACRRM, AHPRA, and now Capricorn Coast Hospital.  Oh, and I think Medicare (Australian).  And I've taken an hours-long course on medication safety.  All of that is fine, if there would just keep being a little light at the end of the tunnel!

So, here's how we cope.
We're homeschooling the kids, which, although an insane task, has proven to have it's benefits.  I mean, I never understood why someone would choose homeschooling when we have a perfectly good public school system with excellent trained educators to do just that.  But, we're using the certified Texas Tech ISD curriculum, and it's working for us, for now.  It has allowed us to enjoy each day, forgetting the timeline of Australia and just being in the moment.  Maggie has a quote on her window that says "...today is a gift, that's why they call it the present".  That's how we cope.

 

So we take each day as it comes.  Some days we work more on school, even weekends.  Some days we work late into the evening.  And some days, we go fishing.  This is Will yesterday at Lake Graham.

 

Grace has created a habitat for the animals recovered from our pool.  Right now we're up to two lizards and two frogs.

 

Maggie reads her Social Studies using a microphone and speaker, and practices clarinet three times a day.  Needless to say, life is interesting.  And wonderful.

So if you ask us when we're leaving, we'll probably say "mid-October", which means we really have no idea.  But if you ask what we've done this week, you'll know we're loving our life right now.

May you enjoy each day too!

 

? days 'til departure

-Peter





House hunters

As we're told, when we arrive in Australia, a furnished house will be provided for us.  Sadly we will not get to be on house hunters international, although we've become quite big fans.
It's a show on HGTV that we have been watching faithfully, and it has been a great source of inspiration and learning for the Reed family about finding a home in Australia.  Sure, they show homes in Italy, Iceland, Germany, Bahamas, Mexico, and so on.  But it's the Australian show's we've really studied.  So I thought I'd share some pearls of wisdom we've learned from the program:

1.  It's nice to have a house that "ticks all our boxes".  For us, that means 3-4 bedrooms, clean, and safe.  Anything else is a bonus (like walking distance to the beach).  We laugh when that phrase is used on the show... and it's always used.
2.  We must have a home that's good for "entertaining".  Admittedly, that's not us.  But everyone on the show seems to value space for entertaining.  Maybe we should learn from them.
3.  Australian cities have a "CBD".  I'm not sure a small town like Yeppoon has a Central Business District, but the term is good to know. 
4.  Many rooms in Aussie homes don't have closets.  But they often have "cupboards".  Call it what you will, as long as I don't have to pile my clothes on the floor.
5.  Not all spaces have "Aircon".  We have seen a few homes with central air conditioning, but many seem to have small units in a few rooms.  Interesting.  Maybe we could catch an ocean breeze to cool us off!
6.   I'd love to have a decent sized "garden".  Now that doesn't mean corn, tomatoes, and huge watermelon like my dad has, but what we'd call our yard.  Grass.  Green space.  Something Will definitely needs.
7.  There's always some form of compromise on the show.  Either a couple can't agree, or the homes are too small for the price, or locations aren't ideal.  It's really a good little life lesson.  For us, I think it will be "here's your space", and we'll just run with it. 
8.  Finally, we've learned that there are other nuts out there just like us.  I mean, people leaving the comforts of what they know to travel across the globe in search of something new.  Some have supportive families, some are following a job, some are going for adventure, some are looking for the "laid back Aussie lifestyle".  For the Reed family, it's all of that.  And we'll learn some new Aussie terms to boot.  So let's go, we're ready.

? days 'til departure
-Peter

We needed a change!
We've been in the small town of Graham for the past 10 years.  Our kids have grown up here.  Will has no memory of living anywhere else.  We have friends, coworkers, acquaintances, a church family, reputations, and friends we'd call family here.  But really, we had to try something new.

{I don't expect every post to be this lengthy, but there's a lot of story here that deserves at least an introduction}

So Tricia and I both grew up in West Texas (capitalized intentionally), and we've never lived anywhere else.  This is the furthest east we've ever lived.  Tricia started life in a small dusty town of cotton fields and pump jacks.  Her father was a Methodist preacher, so they moved around a lot, but most of her growing up was in Lubbock.  I was born in Lubbock, but grew up in Midland in a time between oil booms.  Both of us being good Methodists, we went off to college at McMurry University in Abilene.  We met there (between the education building and Gold Star dorm), and a year later started dating.  We got married the summer after Tricia graduated, and just before my senior year.  With Tricia's help, I applied to, interviewed at, and ultimately was accepted to medical school at Texas Tech, back in familiar Lubbock.

After the move to Lubbock, Tricia started teaching elementary school while I attended med school.  During my third year, we had beautiful baby Grace... and Tricia retired.  I've always joked about her "retiring", but the better word is probably a "promotion" to a job with more responsibility, more hours, and less pay.  I finished medical school and started the family practice residency training in Lubbock, and just after my first year, Maggie Lee was born.  Another promotion for Tricia.  I finished residency in 2004, and at that point we had arrangements to move to Graham, had a house and a job, and 10 days before we moved, William was born.  So we loaded our U-Haul truck, Honda minivan, three kids, two dogs, and left for Graham to start our storybook life in a small Texas town.

Jump ahead ten years, and we're ready for something new.  There's a lot that led to our decision to uproot our family and go.  Just know that it was made with many hours of thought, discussion, and prayer.  I won't explain it all now, although I have a feeling that if we keep writing and you keep reading, you'll get a clue of what led to the decision to move.  But where, you ask?   Australia, of course!

You heard me right.  I guess we had gone too far east, so it was time to move west.  8,536 miles west, to be exact.  We started our searching in December 2013, and by January had found a job opening in the small town of Yeppoon, QLD, Australia.  In the area they call the Capricorn Coast.  And so, the paperwork and application process started, and still continues to this day.  Yep, from January to September, we've been waiting and planning on a move around the world.  And we're still waiting.  The latest estimate is maybe early October we'll be in the air, but I won't believe it until I have my shoes off in the security line at the airport, holding my boarding pass for a flight to Oz.  But I might not even believe it then...

So welcome to our family's blog.  We hope to thrill you with stories about our crazy adventures as five Texas natives cross the globe to live on the beach in Australia.  It may actually be really boring, and I apologize in advance if it is.  But I doubt it.  After all, as most of  the town of Graham has told us, we are "crazy".
-Peter