Though her practice and her family and remodeling their 100 year old Victorian home were fulfilling, Michelle always felt like she wanted to have new and challenging experiences to make those barriers in the brain tingle and melt away. She began writing short fiction three years ago as a way to tap into her creativity (and won a contest juried by John Grisham), and has been working towards taking a year to live in another country since before having children. After years of living simply in order to put aside enough income, and months of laborious visa wrangles, Michelle and her family arrived in Italy in July of 2012. Michelle writes about the challenges, the growth, the increasing awareness, and the discoveries of living abroad in her blog, Il Bel Centro (see listing here)