The camper trailer is packed. Boxes of clothes and toys and medical books have been sent north. The house is empty, ready to be filled with another family’s belongings. I’m not excited. I’m exhausted. Preparing for this trip has been an enormous task. I’m nervous. Are we right to take our children from this happy place? I’m shattered by all the goodbyes, especially David, Sophie, Hazel and Clementine, who will not be here when we come back as they head to Europe on an adventure of their own.
I’m finding it hard to remember why we are doing this so I’m going to write it down. All the growing we’re hoping to do is likely to to be painful so I can look back on this when the going gets tough:
1. I have always wanted to work in remote aboriginal health. I was fascinated by it in medical school. It seems to me to be the ultimate challenge for an Australian GP.
2. Ed needed a career change. He wants to take some time at home to study in the next 2 years. If I am going to win bread it may as well be doing something challenging and rewarding.
3. The kids are ripe for this adventure. Charlotte started school this year and is now big enough to participate fully in the adventure. Luca is still a couple of years off high school so we are’t interrupting his education too much. Zoe is in the middle so a great age for everything! It is the perfect time to do some serious bonding!
4. We are all a little too privileged. We have all the usual struggles to balance work and family. We fail to maintain a clean house and a well manicured lawn. We struggle to make the kids practice their music and do their homework. But we have amazing support from our family and friends. Surely with all that back up we should be capable of contributing something?
5. Ed has car dreams and now is the moment to fulfil them. Not the Maserati and Jaguar dreams, but the off-road 4WD dreams. We can grant his wishes on the way to granting mine and give our kids an amazing experience along the way.
So we’re off. No backing out now. We’ll keep track of our journey on a big map and you can follow along too. This will be a journal for our family and friends as well as our future selves. Ed will contribute car anecdotes and some drone footage. I’ll document the family journey and provide some medical insights as much as confidentiality allows. We hope you enjoy following along!
I'm a bit late to following the blog, but I'm excited to follow your adventures. Indigenous health (especially in the 'red centre') is something I've often thought about too! We had similar excitement & apprehension when we left for the USA, but it was honestly the best thing we've ever done -- so many amazing experiences as a family. Now back to reality...
We were sad to say goodbye too emma!
As someone (?) said, it's gonna be great! But I'm nervous too - and I'm not even there!