The story behind the move

You may be wondering what Tom and Chris Laing have to do with New Zealand, a good half a globe away from Homer, Alaska, where we've lived for the past 30 years. Well, we felt it was time for an adventure, and when one door shut in our lives another opened and we decided to enter into the unfamiliar.

To begin setting the stage for you, our two wonderful offspring are launched on their own career paths and will be pretty busy for at least the next couple of years which leaves us with phone contact for the most part. Abby is in her second year of medical school in Portland and Ian is now in a unique position working in Anchorage for the Commissioner of Alaska's Department of Revenue. Both are happy and busy. After working 25 years at our local community mental health center I have been feeling ready to try something new, but am not ready to sit on my laurels. Our dear friend and co partner in co-housing, Susan Arndt, died this last February from breast cancer which, among other things, took the wind out of our sails for continuing to develop co-housing. To make a long story short Tom and I decided that for some unknown reason, co-housing is not meant to happen in Homer at this time. Our journey thusfar had taken all our time and money for four years and been met with unusual difficulty. Somehow it seemed that if it was meant to be it would have fallen into place easier.

When we mentally let it go new opportunities seem to arise, or at least catch our attention. One day last summer someone posted a job announcement on a professional list serve I subscribe to for people doing DBT (Dialectic Behavior Therapy). The job posting happened to describe just what I do now, only in Takaka, New Zealand, a small coastal community with the weather of Northern California. We had visited there with Abby a couple of years ago and remembered it well. In fact we had loved NZ so much during our travels we had both said "we could live here", but immigration rules for people over 50 are too restrictive to allow us to consider it seriously. Yet here was a perfect opportunity revealing itself on my work computer without any effort on my part to seek it out. I could have pushed "delete", but instead decided to follow up and see where it led me.

To make another long story short, being offered the job was the easy part. Then came the immigration requirements which are many: FBI fingerprinting to prove we are of "good character", thorough medical evaluations to prove we are "healthy", and proof (for Tom's entry) that we are in a long term relationship, not to mention a 15 page application, and months of time etc. etc. Just last week we got word that we would be granted a three year work visa if we send in just one more bit of information. Hurray!

But then there's a little issue of closing up our lives in Homer. This involves arranging smooth transitions with our current employers, packing to sell, store, or move 30 years worth of stuff, and selling our home during the dead of Winter, not to mention trying to spend meaningful time with our friends and family. The tasks are daunting but we are moving through them day by day one step at a time.

Our launch date is January 28, 2008 when we will hop a plane from Homer and go to La Manzanilla, Mexico for a week of R&R, as was planned almost a year ago before NZ was even a thought. On our return from Mexico we'll take a detour from LA to New Zealand instead of coming back to Alaska and our adventure will begin. We bought a semi trailer (the kind you pull behind a Mac truck) which we are packing with all the household items we want to keep for starting over when we return to Alaska in 2-3 years. We'll park it on land we own near town. Our house is for sale and we'll hope just the right buyer finds us before we leave. My brother Dan, is buying out Susan's heirs' portion of the co-housing property in town and together we will design a different style subdivision for the town property where Tom and I will build a house when we come back to Homer. This detour will give us time to think and redesign our vision for that property. All in all our life is in the fast lane. Taking a tip from my nephew Michael it seemed setting up this blogspot would be the easiest way to keep family and friends who want to know, apprised of our whereabouts and thoughts, so bookmark it if you are inclined and we'll post to it from time to time. For those of you who enjoy Tom's Christmas letter style I'm hoping he and I can share the joy of writing. Watch for his humor buried in the text. Here's to making the most of life. Come visit when you can. Chris