Would You Sell A House With A 2.5% Mortgage In Our Situation?

Need an outside perspective. What would you do in our situation?

My wife and I are both in our late 20s with three young boys.

We've been going back and forth on a big financial decision and I feel like we're too close to it now. I'd love to hear what people would honestly do if they were in our shoes.

Here's our situation:

House would likely sell for around $675k–700k.

We'd walk away with roughly $450k cash after paying off the mortgage and other costs.

We have a 2.5% mortgage, which is obviously hard to give up.

We also have a small second mortgage, some credit card debt (0% promo), and an IRS payment plan. Nothing is unmanageable, totaling around (30k) but we'd love to simplify everything. (We thankfully have changed past behaviors and continuously have paid off debt.

Combined income is stable, and both of us have work we can do remotely. We also have a small business that provides additional income.

We aren't trying to retire early. We're trying to create more freedom and spend more time with our kids while they're young.

The part that makes this more complicated is that we're seriously considering moving overseas for several years. (A goal we've had as a family for a while). The lower cost of living would allow us to work less, spend more time with family, and focus on things that are more important to us than maximizing income.

The debate is really this:

Option 1: Keep the house because of the 2.5% mortgage. Rent it out while we're gone and hope it continues appreciating. All net worth is tied up in 1 asset and wouldn't have a huge savings to move abroad. Less of a buffer if things went wrong.

Option 2: Sell now, pay off every debt, invest the proceeds in a mix of index funds, CDs/HYSA, etc., and rent for a couple years while we figure out exactly where we want to settle long-term. Just more flexibility in general. Seems simpler.

Option 3: Sell, pay off debt, then buy a modest house outright (or mostly outright) before we leave so we'd always have a paid-off home to come back to.

A few thoughts that keep bouncing around in my head:

Everyone says "never give up a 2.5% mortgage," but that's also a lot of our net worth tied up in one asset.

If housing drops over the next few years, we'd be glad we sold. If it keeps climbing, we'd probably regret it.

I love our house. This isn't a financial decision only. It would genuinely be hard to let it go.

On the other hand, being completely debt-free with several hundred thousand invested sounds incredibly freeing.

Managing a rental from another country doesn't sound appealing.

If you were in our position, what would you do?

Am I missing something obvious? Is there a risk or opportunity I'm not seeing?

Edited to Add: We plan on returning for 3-4 months every summer.