Why?

I have had so many questions about what I think, what the boys think. what the dog thinks...regarding this big change to our lives as we move down under. I made a promise to my students that I would blog about this experience, and I will commit for the next 12 months to this. I am hopeful that I can continue to educate them from the Southern Hemisphere.

First, you may ask about the name of this blog. Clearly there is a tie between the stars of the great state of Texas, which always burn bright and the fact that we are moving to Australia. Counting stars is also a reference to the OneRepublic song. We have had many sleepless nights discussing this decision, lots of prayers and thoughts given to this huge step, and we realize we are walking away from great jobs and from a great life at Texas A&M. However, we feel it's time for a bit of an adventure. We want our children to have different experiences and feel that they have had an adventurous life as well. We feel it's time to count stars and do something that on the surface seems as though it doesn't make sense but leads us to new challenges and new roads.

Second, you may wonder why now? Well- we have been married 10 years in May. We have loved our time working at Texas A&M. We never thought we would live in CStat the rest of our lives and so we thought why not now? It's a great place to live. But, Ian is 6 and Evan is 4 and we are still young enough for this adventure.

We are always Aggies at heart. I will always be a Texan. And we will always bleed maroon. We will return for a football game to see the new Kyle Field. We will still cheer for the San Antonio Spurs. I will wear my boots proudly and make sure my accent stays strong. I can't promise the boys accents won't change but I will do my best to make sure they never forget "y'all" is a real word.

I imagine I will share many thoughts over the next year, and I am not sure that they will always be positive on these many subjects. Leaving Aggieland is difficult. Leaving Texas and the US is hard. But we are heading off to count stars and embrace the adventures that lie ahead of us.