The (other) Journey Begins!

Thursday night was “officially” the beginning of our journey to New Zealand. So what would possess a family of born-and-bred North Carolinians to want to move to New Zealand for a year? (Other than the obvious, of course. After all, it is Middle Earth…) Well, the idea was first proposed by my hubby a few months ago. There is a program called Locum Tenens where underserved areas recruit doctors to come fill positions. We thought it would be an amazing opportunity for our family to spend a year living in a completely different culture.

Since my husband is a psychiatrist, we decided that sticking with English speaking countries would really be a must, and we narrowed that down to either New Zealand or Australia. He had spent a semester of his undergrad at the University of Melbourne and really fell in love with that area of the world, and has always said he would love to take me there in the future, so it just seemed like the right place. The decision to go to NZ instead of Oz came because we have heard that Australian openings generally only go to doctors who have been working for a few years. We wanted to go ahead and do this immediately after he finished up his fellowship because we didn’t want him to start a job somewhere and then burn a bridge by leaving after a short time.

He’s been looking into a couple of different companies that place physicians, and we settled on one that will find housing for us. This will mean the pay is a bit less, but the housing will be free so that makes up for it. Doctors in NZ make significantly less money than American doctors (which, incidentally, is why they need doctors so much…there is a brain drain going on there), so, once we’ve sent money back to the States to pay our bills here (we would still have the mortgage and car payment) we really wouldn’t be making much different from what we make now. But, we are certain that the experience will make up for that!

So on Thursday night, hubby sent his application in via Global Medical. It could take weeks, or even months, to hear something. They may wait until after he takes his board exams to offically offer him a position. Boards will be on May 3, so they are coming up quick. Hubby has been taking a number of days off work to spend them in the library studying. Passing his exam would definately make the possibility of us going overseas much more do-able. Apparently the word out of NZ is that they really want doctors who are board certified.

So now we wait and see! How exciting!

In other news, Ian has finished reading the 4th book in HOP and we bought zucchini, jalapinos, seed potatoes, and garlic today for the garden. YAY!

I’m actually missing my boys some right now, because yesterday morning my sisters took the boys and drove to my mom’s house for the weekend. She lives three hours from us, so we don’t get to see her as often as we would like. Plus, Ian has been begging to go to Gammy’s house and play in her forest for weeks now, and I’m sure they are enjoying the beautiful weather with her and my step-dad. We’ll see them again on Sunday afternoon, so until then, hubby and I are enjoying some alone time and have treated outselves to a date lunch as well as getting to watch a couple of softball games that my sis-in-law is coaching. Fun times! But I do miss my boys!