Mother's Day

I found this week's episode of Rick Steves podcast both touching and inspiring, especially the first half. He begins with a tribute to his mother, who passed away this winter, thanking her for planting the travel seed in him. Following is an interview with Jennifer Wilson, who wrote Running Away to Home: Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters. I greatly look forward to reading (on my new e-reader, my awesome unexpected Mother's Day gift!)

Regardless of if we are able to move abroad at this point in our lives, planting the seed is certainly something that I hope to accomplish. Jennifer Wilson and her family took a break when her children were 4 and 7. If our kids end up being educated in the US, I do dream of taking a break when they are about middle school age and "home schooling" them on the road for a while, when they are an impressionable age. Rick Steves mentioned his first trip with his mother was when he was 14. I feel lucky that our son will be older than our daughter since, sorry boys, girls tend to be more mature at an earlier age.

My thinking is generally that James and our baby girl will learn the social things and become as prepared for middle and high school as elementary school does, but that a year seeing the world at that impressionable time would be very eye opening. Plus, it would hopefully be at a time when they are still young enough to be under our wing somewhat, but will be exercising independent thinking. When they return to their education, we can keep the option open for a more independent experience as a high school study abroad student, if they are interested.

I know many people baulk at the cost of such things, but I like how Jennifer Wilson talked about prioritizing family expenses in the interview mentioned above. Maybe I should mention, that I have been inspired by the '7-year sabbatical movement.' I have little faith that people of my generation will be getting social security, so I plan on working as long as I'm physically capable. But, I would like to take breaks at least every decade to enjoy, especially since that's about how often people of my generation are expected to change jobs, since working for the same company for life seems to be a thing of the past.

Ah, so many ways to actively/experientially inspire little ones to be global citizens - now if we can only nail down our more immediate shorter term plans!

Where we are today and how we got here (the short story)

James is born, January 2011

After meeting in Washington, DC where we both had our first jobs after undergraduate school, my husband and I were getting paperwork in order to Teach English as a Foreign Language in China. Before meeting, we’d both had experiences abroad. My husband had studied in Australia. I had studied in Germany, Namibia, Mexico and China. We were eager to live in China long enough to learn language and acclimate somewhat. My semester-long experienced had proved far too short. We were preparing for at least two or three years in China.

We ended up in Delaware, instead. My husband completed a Ph.D. in renewable energy technologies (solar) and I worked at the University and earned a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language. We thought we were set to live and work anywhere. Our next move brought us to upstate New York for a 2 year position that ends early this winter. Somehow our moves never turn out to be as exotic as our dreams.

Our son was born in January 2011. We are expecting a little girl this summer, July 2012. With my husband’s contract ending, we will be moving with two babies under 2-years old this winter. It’s just that at this point, we have no idea where in the world we will all be moving.