Journey Begins

Happy New Year! 2006 was a year of soul searching, trying to figure out what was truly important to us. We made some big decisions...2007 will be a big year for us.

We met at The University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) in January 1995. We moved to Chicago in January 1999. During our time in America, we've developed some very strong friendships at UTM, at work and outside of work in Chicago. And we've been fortunate enough to have some of our family live in America. We got married in December 2001. Now, 12 years after we first met, we've taken steps to move to Australia...but before moving, we're going to take a little trip.

We were inspired to travel by our friends Elissa and Rod Dowler, who traveled around the world a few years ago. We're going to travel for about a year to:

• Houston (visit my sister Kylie and brother-in-law Jon)


• Up the east coast of America (visit Chuck and Jerelen Ohrt, parents of my college roommate Amy, who 'adopted' us when we were in college)


• Throughout western Europe (visit Klas's family and some of our friends from the UTM tennis team; meet up with Kylie and Jon in France; hopefully meet up with Stephanie and Ciaran in Ireland; two weeks with Stephany and Bart in Italy; see Mum, Kylie, Jon, Aunty Lisa and Rafe in Switzerland at Christmas)


• Some of the eastern European countries


• Thailand


• New Zealand


• Australia

We listed our 2-bedroom condo after the new year and accepted an offer about 12 days later on Monday, January 15. I couldn't sleep that night - it hit me that we were actually moving forward with our decision. We're supposed to close on February 26 (two days before my 30th birthday - don't forget!).

I shared our news with Lisa, J.J., Dell and others at work on Tuesday, January 16. It was hard to tell them because I've really enjoyed working with our team. It's nice to work at a company where I believe in what we represent and respect the people professionally and like them personally. While I know it's 'work,' I'll really miss it. My last day will be February 20.

Klas shared our news with his company this past Friday. He's also enjoyed his work the past few years. We've both been very fortunate in our careers here.

So now we're packing, booking our tickets and finalizing our travel plans. We'll keep you posted on our journey.

Melissa

(P.S. The photo is from New Year's Eve at Amy and Brian's place)