How Did We Get Here?

Throughout our dating life and into our married life, a constant desire to travel, explore, and immerse ourselves in different cultures remained at the forefront of our long term goals. After college we each spent time solo traveling different parts of the world. Jesse backpacked through Europe and I spent time in Tanzania, Africa. We also traveled together within the states: Colorado, New York City and Boston, road tripping to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, etc..

In June of 2016, just months after we were married, Jesse had an incredible opportunity to work in Pune,

India for a 6 month time frame (this could be an entire post in itself, but maybe another time). I was able to join him for 2 months during his time there. This opportunity in India allowed us to “dip our toes in the water” and to experience what living abroad would truly be like for us. We had always talked about it, as so many people do and dream of, but never knew if it would be realistic. That 6 months in India was a roller coaster of highs and lows and it profoundly tested our newly married relationship. Never will I tell you it was easy, but I will always tell you it was worth it! Mostly because we now knew, without a doubt, that living abroad was absolutely something we wanted for ourselves and for our future.

We now knew, without a doubt, that living abroad was absolutely something we wanted for ourselves and for our future.

From May of 2018 to December of 2019 Jesse completed a Global MBA program through both Purdue University in the USA and TIAS in the Netherlands. With this program he traveled to numerous countries around the world and developed his business skills on a global scale.

While he was in this MBA program we started looking for opportunities abroad within Cummins. Many options came and went. I am a big believer that what is right won't have to be forced and I rely heavily on my gut for guidance (or as Jesse likes to jokingly refer to it as "Kelly's Belly"). Every opportunity that we found, we looked at intensely and discussed a multitude of factors including questions such as: Jesse's fulfillment at work and was it challenging enough for him, ease of getting Zoey to the country, language barriers and the realistic ability for us to be fluent in 2-5 years, etc.. With each of these in mind, my wonderful engineer husband created a detailed decision matrix that we completed during a 4 hour car ride to my parents house… yes, the full 4 hours.

Ultimately, none of those options were right for us and then it was March of 2020. Everyone started working from home, people were losing their jobs left and right, being furloughed, and no one was hiring. We decided to take a step back and not force anything forward until everyone, everywhere knew more. Then, the last week of March, Jesse happened to be checking the internal international job postings on Cummins site and there was an opportunity in Germany with a newly acquired hydrogen fuel cell company called Hydrogenics. After we discussed it, he did his thing and learned more about the position, asked mentors if they thought this would be a good fit for him/us, and ended up applying. One of the cool things that came out of work from home for me was that I was able to listen on the other side of the door to his interviews. It was cool for me to hear that serious business side of my typically goofy husband. It made me appreciate, love, and respect him even more.

Spoiler Alert: he got the job! Next came the planning and coordinating of when and how we would be moving to Germany. I want to explain here that this is not an "expat" position where there is a set time period abroad, pay and benefits from country of origin, etc.. This is a "permanent relocation" position meaning we are paid and have benefits same as a German resident. Also, if/when we decide to move back to the USA it will be on us to find another position and move. Covid-19 made this already atypical process a little more unknown and slow in each step, but it did give us ample time to sell or pack our belongings, sell our house, and say our goodbyes.

On October 8th, 2020 we boarded a one-way flight to Germany! We are in temporary housing for 90 days while we look for a more permanent residence in the North Rhine-Westphalia area.

I think back to 2011 and can still remember us sitting in Jesse's blue Chevy S-10 discussing our dreams to explore the world. We had slightly different ideas of what it would look like back then, but am so proud of us for keeping our hearts open to this dream. I hope if you're reading this you take a moment and think back to a dream you had for your future self. Did that dream happen? Did your dream change with time and life experience? I'd love to know how you're chasing those dreams too.

The first day we met back in October of 2011.