Well??

Wild kangaroos

So, one last blog from me, mainly to say Thankyou for taking the time to read our website posts and either comment on them, or message us privately to chat about about the things we have done and seen. When we decided to do a blog, it was genuinely more about keeping a diary for us and something that school could actively see; we have been overwhelmed by the amount of people who have taken an interest in what we've been up to during our little mid life crisis'!!

Kids went back to school this morning, and J went back to work yesterday somehow, and this big old house feels very empty and hollow right now. We have spend the best part of 6 weeks living mostly in one room, together 24/7 for the first time ever, which has been bloody hard at times, but we have had so much fun along the way, learnt so much about what our kids need right now at this stage of their lives, and also how much they are capable of doing for themselves, and how much independence to give them. They have missed their friends, especially Frey, and they have missed their toys at home a few times, but mostly they have been happy to just be. We have dragged them through every time zone going, on 11 45 minute-11hour flights, about 3000km of driving, and god knows how many buses, taxis, trains and tuktuks and they have taken all of it in their stride, I honestly couldn't be prouder of them.

Stinger suits haha!!

Some people have implied that by taking them on this trip we have been spoiling them, I'm not convinced we have. We have hopefully given them the gift of wanderlust, and inspired them to see that the world is bigger than the tiny little space that they inhabit.

Hopefully they will now see that it doesn't matter if they don't have the biggest labels and best of everything, as long as they like what they do have and are warm and dry with full bellies. Hopefully they will see now that it doesn't matter if you can't see someone or speak to someone instantly on FaceTime, then it's not the end of the world, it can wait, and those people will still be there waiting for you when you do get to see them if they do really care. Hopefully they have learnt that the most important thing is to do what makes you happy, not just what pleases everyone else, life is too short.

They have had their most meagre Christmas ever, just a few stocking fillers each, but have not complained once, just been really happy that Santa managed to find them. They have no concept that to an adult, Fiji on the beach for Christmas is a huge treat; they just know it's very, very different to normal, and still took it in their stride and gave it a go. So, if giving them a whole heap of memories is spoiling them then yes, maybe we have.

Panning for gold at Gympie

What have I learnt? I have thought for a long time that I hide behind my kids, but it turns out I don't, I put them up in front of me because I want to let them see things for themselves, to chose their own interpretation of what they see before them, to see things through their eyes, and to try and boost their growing, but still tiny, confidences a little every day.

We know how lucky we are not to have to struggle every day; we have seen many people on this trip that do struggle, I mean really struggle, every single day to feed their kids and keep a roof over their heads; we are so thankful that we have so much more than that. I also know though that to have enabled us to do this trip, J has had to go through losing both his beloved Mum and Nan, I know that he would give anything to have them back with him, but hopefully they would have enjoyed watching all our crazy ups and downs gallivanting the globe with our 3 inquisitive adventurers.

Honestly, you only had to say if you wanted a new mummy...

So, nothing really changes day to day, it's not been a life changing epiphany moment, school runs are back on, back to work soon, but it's been an eye opener... the only question now is...where next J??!?