…And Now For the BIG NEWS!

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Drum roll please….

Gina and I made the decision that we will return with the kids to the U.S. sometime in September!

What this means is not exactly clear…the decision was really more of a “what next” moment than a long thought out plan of our next steps.

Gigi and Dad in the Salt Museum

Gina’s mother and step father are visiting us in Buenos Aires in August…we have know about this trip for a long time and had a general plan to meet them in Argentina while they were here and then continue our travels after they left. Actually, at this point we are still planning on continuing our travels…just in the South Eastern U.S. not in South America.

We are both getting comfortable with the philosophy of just “going with what feels right”, not from a pop psychology or material gratification sense, but from a spiritual perspective or from the point of view of “listening” to what our hearts and minds are telling us.

It was time to leave South America for now…

September 2nd 2009 will be one year since we left and what looks like a 12 month, 8 country adventure that was the most incredible experience for all of us and one that we will cherish in our thoughts for years and years to come.

The plans at this point are to fly to Florida and spend a couple of months exploring the S.E., Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and a little of the S.W. before making our way to Phoenix for Thanksgiving with family.

The kids are excited to be going back, I am ready for a good breakfast, and Gina is excited to see her family. I think the change of scenery will be good for all of us and it doesn’t hurt that we will be able to talk to people for the first time in 12 months (3 out of 4 of us anyway).

Many of our friends and family are aware of our decision, and many of them have already asked us questions about our experience. Many of the questions were really good and definitely made us reflect on what this experience has meant to us. We asked the kids for their answers to the questions as well, it was fun to reflect on what the experience meant to each of us individually and as a family.

I thought it might be appropriate to share some of the questions we received and our answers. If there are other questions/comments that people want to share with us just send us an email.

Q: Did you find what you were hoping to find?
A: We do not have all of the answers…that would take the fun out of it – but we did accomplish much of what we set out to do; simplify our lives, focus on what is important, spend time together as a family, prove to ourselves that we could do this and that we were not crazy, and to begin the process of reassessing our values and aligning them with our lifestyle.

Q: After one year, where do you see your family in the next year?
A: We do not have plans past Thanksgiving. We have lots of ideas…but nothing is calling us at this point. Both Gina and I are leaning towards “doing it again”, whether in Asia, Australia, Mexico or some other locale…we are even kicking around the idea of bouncing around the U.S. or a while. It is unlikely that we will “settle down”…but we will just see where life leads us.

Growing Up to Quick

Q: Was the experience different than you anticipated?
A: Tough question to answer. For the most part it worked out as we had planned. I mean we sold everything we owned, packed up 4 suitcases and hit the road not expecting to return for a while.

I expected there to be a more difficult times than there were, in fact, I expected that we would experience some significant lows 6 months or so into the journey. Everyone was homesick at one point or another, but there were not many awful moments and the kids were/are just amazing.

I do not travel with pre-conceived ideas or expectations of the experience and therefore did not anticipate anything different.

Q: Would you do it again?
A: For Gina and I the answer is unequivocally, YES we would do it again! Heck, we have no plans to stop at this point!!

I mean the traveling is a no brainer right?  Who would not want to do what we did?

The question in our case is really, would you quit high paying jobs, sell everything you own, move out of your beautiful house, take your kids out of school, and leave family and friends.

For Gina and I the answer is unequivocally, YES we would do it again

Look, I am of the mind that there is a terrible epidemic going on in our country…actually in all the western, capitalistic societies and it is just destroying individuals, families, and communities and unless we WAKE UP it will be too late. This viewpoint has only been cemented during the past year as I have had a chance to read more about what is going on in the world from publications outside of mainstream media, have personal experience from the changes we have made in our lives, and in learning and participating in the lives of indigenous peoples that have lived for thousands and thousands of years in concert with nature and their environment…not waging war as we are.

We are awake! We don’t have it figured out! But our family needed this and I believe we are stronger and healthier because of it!

Q: What would you change or do differently?
A: Here is the “mistake” we made and one of the few things we would do differently (although we are not sure how).

First, the way we travel is difficult for the kids in that they are not with kids their ages (we would change this so that they could spend time with kids their age). We are rarely on the “tourist trail”, we travel in the “off season” and when we stop we live in places that locals live not expats.

Part of the problem for us is that we don’t like the touristy/expat kind of places, as well as, we are not on vacation…this is our life, and need to be mindful of our expenses. So, there is a better chance of finding kids in touristy/expat places but we can’t afford them…nor do we particularly like them.

So - not sure how i would solve this issue. But would try and get kids together with groups there own ages. This is probably less of an issue for your kids, but a boy & girl 5 years apart (one now a teenager) is difficult.

Second, we did not do a good job with the whole homeschool thing, or at least it did not go anything like we had though it would. The kids essentially “degraded” into unschooling from starting out with a set curriculum. Homeschooling became a point of contention and stress and the kids did not have fun. So we want to improve this aspect somehow.

There you go, some great questions and hopefully some answers that are helpful.

It will be fun to see where next year leads us.  For the past 1 1/2 years we have had a general plan, sell everything and travel, but at this point we don’t have plans for most of next year.  For now we will enjoy our remaining time in Argentina.

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