Published!!!

I was very excited today to find my travel advice had been published in Outpost magazine Sept/Oct edition. It's very fun to be published...but i can't wait for the MEC giftcard.

Are you Kid Travel Ready?
""Sometimes travel with children is an overwhelming adventure for the parents. A fool proof way to make parents battle ready is the Mall Simulation Adventure. Take your kids to the mall for a shopping adventure because there is nothing like lineups, crowds, and waiting to simulate airport travel. To increase the difficulty do it over nap time. This is guaranteed to help parents problem solve, and hone their ability to distract. It is also a great way to help kids go beyond their normal limits."

Dealing with Questions

stewing on it..

There are lots of ways to make a decision. If we take the wise words of Treebeard 'don't be hasty Master Pippin, ' it seems inevitable that you will spend time stewing. Waiting for the best plan to emerge. Waiting for ideas to take shape.

Don't get me wrong this isn't a passive thing, waiting is filled with, asking questions, looking at different perspectives, looking for new doors to open. Stew just doesn't sit on a stove it 'gets married' flavors mix together, combine, become one. This is how an idea becomes a plan. Running off and just doing something legitimizes escapism where planning, reflecting, praying, turn an idea, a plan, a dramatic lifechange into something that allows you to pursue the things that God created for you to be and to do. Stewing on an idea, means you mix the idea with the other aspects of your family, of your thinking, of your dreams so they fit together.

We are in that stage now. Dreaming, fitting, piecing things together. We wish we could just...'go', just 'have something drop into our laps' but that only short changes the process.

Stew takes time.


rob

I can't even keep up with my laundry...

...It's true, I have a massive pile of clothes in the basement and you're asking me to travel the world with a five year old, a two year old who believes that running away from mommy screaming "HA HA HA" at the top of his lungs like a diabolical comic villain, and an infant is a good idea?

What about Malaria? What about Yellow Fever? What about political violence, the plague, or the seventeen hour flight to South Africa?

My mind is racing with thoughts like: "If we actually travel to Africa with our kids this will mean uprooting, having to sell everything, loosing our security and future and then I have to stop myself because all these questions are fear based and negate the purpose of ADVENTURE.

To flee the known, to see where the wind takes us. To meet the people around the globe who'se lives are worth modeling. To begin to live the life we've always wanted to. To have our children experience the globe and feel most comfortable in backpack and sleeping bag.
Adventure awaits.

Kate

A literary P.S.

"They say: sufferings are misfortunes," said Pierre. "But if at once, this minute, I was asked, would I remain what I was before I was taken prisoner, or go through it all again, I should say, for God's sake let me eat horseflesh again. We imagine that as soon as we are torn out of our habitual path all is over, but it is only the beginning of something new and good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a great deal, a great deal before us."
War & Peace

The Start of a New Adventure

At this point starting a new adventure seems a pipe dream. I don't know when that changes to being reality. It also seems to be selfish, or at least selfishness seems to be the only word we have to describe something we do because 'we want to.' I think its strange that selfish, as a word-if that means-'something for us', seems inadequate. Doing this 'because' also seems inadequate.

BUT...There is no defined reason, no circumstances that overwhelming need to be worked out, no greater ambition, or career move. At this point all we can do to make ourselves head in this direction is to say, 'k we are doing this.'

The greatest concern is what this means to others. The sense of letting go of our responsiblities, the greater impacts on our kids when mixed into the equation of 'because' seems to add a weightiness to it.

At this point Kate and I just go home at night and talk. Rework the plan, as if we are trying it on, making adjustments that help it fit better. We are making progress, but it is slow. It seems to be taking months.

rob