our children grow and develop in a new country .
Our daughter is totally fluent and when she started high school the teachers thought she was Italian . It was in English class – after putting her hand up with all the right answers – that her classmates finally let the teacher know that she is Australian .
Our son Luca , who is now 12 , has high-functioning autism ; he has a helping teacher with him at high school to help with the language .
One of the most moving moments of my life was hearing my 12-year-old son sounding out words and reading a full sentence . A whole new world is opening up for him ; he has been unable to read at all until last year and even though he is reading in Italian and has a limited understanding of the meaning , he ’ s finally reading !
HW : What ‘ rules ’ and / or cultural expectations have you ignored or thrown off in order to be where you are ? Having a child on the spectrum and then taking him out of the system in Australia caused much ‘ discussion ’ with friends and family . Most gave us dire warnings ; he ’ d fall behind , he ’ d not get the same level of support , and we were doing the wrong thing for him . I don ’ t remember many positive comments about taking him out of the school system .
We totally ignored this advice . I knew in my heart that we were doing the right thing for our family . I ’ ve never been one to follow the accepted advice given to parents of kids on the spectrum ; if I had we would have stayed in the one house , never moved , always driven to school the same way , but none of this made sense to me .
I remember the vice principle at our children ’ s school in Queensland telling
me that we ’ d be back within a year , and basically that our children would suffer . I ’ m happy to say that we proved her wrong . Our children were out of school for almost a year with the transition , which gave them time to adjust to the move .
HW : What advice would you give to another woman who is 50 + and feeling a huge pull to do something outside of ordinary , whatever that looks like to them ? Many of my friends are 50 + and I see in them a longing for change . They often tell me “ oh I ’ d love to do something to change my life but I ’ m not brave like you ”. Yet I ’ m not brave – we have problems , young children , limited finances , but we never gave up on our dream . Our dream was to renovate a village in Italy , to create a community , to share what we learn , to live a simple life and leave the rat race . We still have a long way to go with our dream , but the wonderful thing is that we move towards it every day , not as a driven goal-type thing , rather as a simple love of what we hope to achieve and a passion for sharing what we discover on the way , both the ups and the downs .
Meet Lisa and her family at ‘ Renovating Italy ’. www . renovatingitaly . com
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