Our family adventure begins…

Just over four years ago, Dave and I decided to join his employer’s salary deferral program.  We had our sights set on a “family adventure” of some kind.  The day has finally arrived and our adventure begins…

We chose Europe. We have four months.

I work from home and as a family we enjoy a comfortable routine of work, school, activity, a busy social life and the great outdoors.  We enjoy spending time together exploring and experiencing life.  We laugh, we cry, we share, we negotiate and we compromise.  Not every day is easy but we try to never go to bed sad or angry and we wake up to a family breakfast together in the morning.  We find time to chat.  We find time without screens.  Some days are good, and some days we could do better.  We are constantly reminded that we are lucky to be here and lucky to have each other.

So it is with great trepidation and great excitement that we embark on this next journey together.  We have much to see, much to learn, much to experience.

Tomorrow, we will lock up our home and familiar life and we will step onto a plane…followed by many more planes and trains, cars, buses and boats.

Our adventure includes an apartment in the centre of a large Spanish city, an all-inclusive resort in an African country, an apartment by the beach in a small French surfing town, a stone farm house in the French countryside and a road trip through Croatia’s old walled towns.

We say goodbye to family and friends.  We say goodbye to school and work. We will miss everyone.  We will miss our routines. We will miss home.

We take with us two suitcases and four small backpacks.  We each have a journal. And we have each other. We venture into the unknown…

Tomorrow we wake up here in an apartment in the centre of Seville, Spain. For our first month, we will immerse ourselves into Spanish life.  We will try new food, we will attempt to speak a new language, we will meet new people, we will live in a new home and we will explore a new culture… let the adventure begin!