What made our Family of 7 (5 kids under 9) move From Australia to Cambodia?

Nearly 6 years ago, we bought 7 one way tickets bound for Phnom Penh, Cambodia... With the intention to travel south east Asia for about a year.... We haven't been home since.

I remember coming home from work just over 6 years ago, and my wife asking if I would be willing to sell all of our possessions and take a trip for a year. I laughed and said yeah why not. In jest, thinking in a week or two she'll have her mind set on somthing different.

As weeks went on she kept asking, and each time I would entertain the idea slightly more. Where would we go, what would we do for work? What about my job?
At the time I had been working as a concretor, it was a well paying job which made it able to support such a big family. It was alot of hard work... But alot of fun.

(A photo my wife took of me laying blocks for a retaining wall, after pouring the footings.)

As time went on, Our daughters God mother ended up dying from cancer she was around our age (around 27)... She Worked as a manager 6 days a week and never had time to slow down and enjoy life, or start a family of her own.
Then one day my wife said to me
"we could try it and see what happens, or sit back when we are old and wonder what could have been“

That was it for me, those words have stayed with me ever since... So the next few weeks at work I sat there thinking it over, and eventually decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

We've always been pretty optimistic, what's the worst that could happen.... Lol

(A BBQ in front of our house with a few mates)

When we first started telling our friends, they thought exactly what I had initially thought.
"they'll change their minds"
Admittedly, we never really made plans... We were the kind of family, who late at night would call our mates, just to see if they wanted to come out fishing, and normally would end up staying a few hours away somewhere, fishing for a few days.

(even from a young age, they all loved it.)

Eventually we sold our prized possessions, once the home bar had been sold.... Our mates started to believe we were actually leaving. Not just broke and selling our stuff.

Once our lease was up, we moved back into my mums house for the final two months until our flight(I love my mum, but having 8 people living in a 3 bedroom duplex was an interesting couple of months)
I worked all week and then we would go to the flee market on the weekend and sell the remaining few items we had.

(My son Kurt aged about 8 @krazykurt learning to mow the lawn)

Eventually all we had left was my work ute and tools, which we decided not to sell(if somthing went wrong, we could fly back, and I could get straight back to work)
Plus my wife's car... As we needed the 7 seater up until we were ready to leave.
Which I happened to run up somebody's bum one Sunday while taking my kids and mother to church.... Only a couple of weeks before leaving.
Which heavily impacted the amount of travel money we had. 😧
However we were determined and brave, and fortune favors the brave.... (since then I've come to realize sometimes being brave, can just come from pure stupidity also)

We set of with about 3 thousand dollars in spending money, and left enough money with my mother for a return flight home should we need it(as a safety net).
At this stage we had no jobs waiting for us, didn't know anyone living in Cambodia, and hadn't even booked a place to stay until after we arrived. We literally had no plans what so ever!

(Our family at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap Cambodia, with our mate Nato.... Who has now come over to visit us twice)

I feel like this is starting to get a bit to long, so I'll wrap it up here. But if you enjoyed the story so far... Stay tuned there will be more to come.

(If you look closely, you'll see there are 4 of our kids on the moto with us)