AFTER three failed rounds of IVF, and having been told that having a child naturally just wouldn’t be possible, Kerri and her husband Joe were devastated.

Feeling unable to be around friends and family who had small children and were living the life that they believed they would never have, the couple from the New Forest decided to take the dramatic step of renting out their house and travelling the world.

“We didn’t want to have to be round everyone else having that life,” explains Kerri, now 30.

“We both felt at that point that we’d never be happy again, so we decided we had to go and make a new life, without children.”

The couple, who had gone travelling together after university, planned their trip and were about to put their house up for rent, when they discovered that Kerri had completely unexpectedly fallen pregnant.

“We had spent all our savings on IVF and I had been pretty poorly with the failures,” says Kerri.

“Our family had helped us to have a break and we’d just got back when I felt like I was having a period. It was very strange because I don’t get them due to my health condition.

“It was the night before we signed the rental agreement on our house and we were clearing it out when I found an old pregnancy test.

“I thought it would be a waste to just throw it in the bin, so I did it and we couldn’t believe that I was pregnant.”

The pregnancy was successful and the couple had their son, known affectionately as Bug.

And two years later, this was followed by another natural conception.

With their two children, Bug and his sister Mimi, now four and two, the couple felt that their life was perfect.

But the seeds of the idea of travelling the world had been sown.

And now Kerri and Joe are planning to quit their jobs as a primary school teacher and a chartered accountant and are selling their house, its contents and almost everything they own, ready to travel the world with their two small children.

“We felt that we wanted to have more family time together,” says Kerri.

“My son is due to start school in September and we aren’t ready for that routine.

“We’ve always had this wanderlust and we have realised how short time is. We feel we have this life and we have to make the most of it while the children are both young.

“We’re so lucky to have this family life and we want to spend as much time together as a family as possible.”

The family are setting out to travel the world in a completely child-friendly way. Kerri is devoting every spare moment to research at the moment, staying up late to pour over possible child-friendly hotels and excursions.

And they are sharing their findings and experiences on their blog, Big World, Little Explorers.

It already carries details of their various family adventures in the UK. The couple are aware of the need to protect their children’s identities online, so don’t use their surname and use nicknames for the children.

As well as having an amazing experience, Kerri hopes to encourage other parents to be more adventurous with their own children.

That said, both she and Joe have had their moments of doubt about the project, which should see them leaving their New Forest home in spring 2018.

“We’ve both had our wobbles.We’re very close to my family and we both love our house and our jobs, so that does make it harder, but nothing’s going to stop us. “The most important thing is the time together that it’s going to give us. We can get another house and new jobs in the future,” she says.

“We will have our last Christmas in this house and then will be going to stay with my mum for a bit.

“It’s good because it’s forcing us to get rid of everything except a box that we’re leaving here and a bag that we’re taking travelling.

“We have so many children’s toys. I actually feel really excited about the thought of clearing everything out and getting back to the bare essentials.”

And Kerri adds that the children understand why they’ll be saying goodbye to so many of their things.

“We’ve explained that we’re going on a really big holiday and we’re selling things so that we can go on a longer holiday. We’ve also said that there are children without much stuff, so we’ll be giving some of it away.

“We have a huge wall map and we have taught them about the countries and every night we make up a story about them in one of the places we’re planning on going to.”

The children have never even been on a long haul flight before, let alone slept in a different bed every few nights.

But thanks to her research and preparation, Kerri is confident that, while there will certainly be some tantrums along the way, the trip will be a success.

“I’m an obsessive researcher. I’ve been looking into all sorts of things, like how to deal with jet lag and toddler carriers to put them in for some hikes we want to go on. Everywhere we stay will be completely appropriate for young children.

“Airbnb will play a big part too as we can’t just go from hotel to hotel having adventures. We need some domestic time too, in a normal house doing normal things.

The family is planning on travelling for at least six months, but possibly for years.

So far, their itinerary includes the west coasts of Canada and the USA, Tahiti, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, and they are hoping to visit Hawaii and Alaska, if they can find toddler-friendly ways of doing so.

“We’d like to travel for as long as possible,” says Kerri.

“I’d happily spend everything we have so that we can travel for longer, but my husband has made sure we’ve got our ‘safe fund’ so that we have the money to rent for an extended period or to pay for the deposit on a house when we’re ready, wherever we choose for our new home to be.

“Our main aim is to explore the world in a child friendly way, so we can all have lots of family time together and incredible experiences travelling the world,” she adds.

“We feel the trip will be beneficial for the children in so many ways.We want to break the nine to five for as long as possible and develop and grow as a family.”