Why oh why?

When someone finds out we are going on  a trip around the world, the question of why is very soon a part of the conversation.  Although we love to travel as a family, we haven't always dreamed of taking a trip around the world.  Let me explain how the the whole idea kind of evolved to its present form.

A little over a year ago Rich got a new job where he works from home.  We did not have a home office, so we combined a couple of kids into the same bedroom to make room for an office.  Our house was packed with stuff and our kids were not getting any smaller so we figured it was time to move to a bigger house.  We started the search  and put offers on a few homes, but for various reasons nothing worked out.   We finally found another house we liked and our offer was accepted, but then one thing after another delayed the process and with each delay we were less certain about the house.

During this time, we hosted a Japanese foreign exchange student and had a great time with him learning about his culture and sharing ours with him.  We took him to Arches National Park and while there I talked with a few couples who were traveling around the U.S.  I mentioned to one of them that I would like to do something like that one day, but it would have to be years in the future.  She looked at me and said, “do it sooner, than later.”  I laughed and reminded her that we have 4 school aged children so extended travel would have to wait.  She once again told me to “do it sooner, than later.”

As I was taking a turn driving home later that night I started thinking about what she had said, and thought about how much fun we have as a family when we travel, and our family in general.  Our life was so hectic with soccer, piano, scouts, dance, swim, running and all the other activities we were involved in.  We had been trying to scale back our busy life without much success.  That's when I realized that maybe travel could be the answer we were looking for and we could do it “sooner.”   I remember planning it out in my head and then asking Rich if he could have an open mind while I ran an idea past him.  We would buy an RV and travel around the United States, home school the kids, Rich could still work, and then we would fly to the Philipinnes to visit my parents.  Over the next few weeks, one idea led to another until we came up with the trip around the world.  Rich talked to his employer who supported the idea, we fasted and prayed about it and both felt good about our decesion.  So we withdrew our offer on the bigger house and decided that we will live in small spaces with little possessions for a year!  What a change in direction we have made, but it feels like the right thing to do with our family at this point in our life.