Our trip is now here…

In Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice,” Elizabeth Bennet asks Mr. Darcy when he fell in love with her. He answers “I cannot fix on the hour…I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun .” That is exactly how I felt during our preparation for this adventure…and how I still feel today.

When had we begun? How did we get here? Are we really doing this?!!

We spent years being inspired by our world-traveling friends, thinking and daydreaming about the possibility of stumbling in to this amazing adventure. And we tested traveling with Alya by spending a month away in Costa Rica and seeing how she does on an urban tour of Mexico City.

Turns out - Alya is an amazing adventurer! And so, the daydream started to look like a possible reality. We decided to take the leap.

And once we had decided…time started running very fast! One-way tickets to London - click - bought! Giving notice to the school - done. Leaving my job of 8 years - check. Months of daily research on EVERYTHING - begun. Figuring out what to take, how to homeschool, insurance, cars, visas, weather, destinations - still a daily process! Sorting all our things, donating lots, and packing 100+ boxes - I think I’ve repressed these memories. HOW DO WE OWN SO MUCH STUFF?? Taking pictures of our condo, showing it, finding renters, finding property managers, finding storage lockers and moving - a lesson in each step.

And of course, one cannot overlook the emotional aspects of this whole process. Some days were really really hard. The last day of school at Serendipity. The last day of work at a job I’ve loved. The last dance class for Alya at her studio. The meals at our favorite restaurants and visits to places we will miss. Spending quality time with our family to stock up on their presence and love. Lots of hugs. Actually handing over the keys to our apartment and moving our “base” to my parent’s house. Saying “bye for now” to friends who are staying and also those who are moving away (see you soon JoVi). There are many people we will miss spending time with this year, and many we hope we will see along the way!

And then there were the weeks of packing. Sorting, packing, unpacking, packing again…just so much packing! We made a plan to take a suitcase and a backpack each. I know - many say the trick is to have one carry on only, but how could I leave behind my Azul?! It was tough to narrow down what we would take, and scary to not be prepared for all the unknowns. So much so, that when it came time to go to the airport, we ended up with a whole extra large suitcase (more on shedding that later..). Oops! But we were packed. Done and packed! And ready to go...

… And so we begin…