Hopes and dreams

Now that we're about to leave, a lot of people have been asking us why we're doing this. There are so many reasons. Here are some of the most important things we're hoping to accomplish:

1) Enjoy our kids' early years. Before we know it, they'll be too cool to give us hugs in front of their friends and they'll be wanting the keys to the car. Right now we're still their favorite people to hang out with. We want to enjoy every minute that we can. They're only young once, and we want to savor the time we have with little ones.

2) Learn to do without so much stuff. Without meaning to, we spend so much time, money, and effort on stuff. Shopping, cleaning, sorting, packing, selling....it never ends. We want to learn how to better discern our needs from our wants and keep our lives simple.

3) Travel. Before kids, we loved to travel. Once Ian was born, it became arduous, and once Rinnah was born, it became nearly impossible. We'll be working travel in by taking short trips and then spending a week or more in an area. We'll get to see the country without ever having to go through airport security, packing a suitcase, or missing naptime.

4) People. Everyone has those people that you couldn't take a trip solely to visit them, but you'd go twenty minutes out of your way to stop in and say hello. Hopefully we'll get to see almost all of those people. Most of them have never met Rinnah and several have never met Ian. We'll be reconnecting with friends from high school, college, Thailand, and online, as well as visiting family who we don't see nearly enough.

5) Simplify. Hopefully with less stuff to maintain, fewer scheduled commitments, a smaller house to keep in order, and a more fluid routine, we'll have more time to play together and enjoy our family.

6) Opportunities for our kids. Extra time with us is great for our kids, but they're also going to get all kinds of experiences. They'll see both oceans, both US mountain ranges, several national parks, an enormous variety of landscapes and terrain, and plenty of zoos and museums across the country. They'll be able to see and do a lot of things that would never be possible if we lived in one location.