Taking a Break (Sara)

About a year ago, I decided we should take a sabbatical. There were a number of factors that went into this decision, but it really boils down to this: we need a break. A break from the chaos of work and school and activities and changing light bulbs and scheduling playdates and signup genius and winter and the pile of mail that never gets opened and all the other little things that are the "should" or "have to" of each day.

A lot of people naturally get that break during the summer when they drop their kids off at summer camp for 3 to 7 weeks and recharge their life batteries. Our summers are spent on the other side of that equation, most definitely NOT recharging our batteries. But the same career and life choices that put us in the epicenter of the summer cyclone also allows us a lot of flexibility in other ways. For instance, with a little planning and adjusting, we can up and take our family to Southeast Asia for two months. And so we are.

The first plan was to get an RV and travel cross-country for 3 months. Then we realized it was winter and that would be cold. And we'd be living in a small room on wheels with 5 people. In the cold. Terrible idea. About 20 iterations of this plan later, we set our sites on the other side of the planet and landed on this:

1. Thailand (1 month)
1. Krabi
2. Phuket
3. Chiang Mai
4. Chiang Rai
2. Laos (1.5 weeks)
1. Muang La
2. Luang Prabang
3. Hong Kong (1 week)
4. Vietnam (1 week)
1. Hanoi
2. Hoi An

Yes, I know there are really great destinations that are missing from this list. Really amazing places like Angkor Wat and Indonesia and India and Africa and a billion other places that we couldn't fit into 2 months with 3 kids. Remember, the whole point was to stop sprinting and slow down to a nice leisurely walking pace. I have no idea if that's what will actually happen. Honestly, I have no idea about any of this other than where we're going, where we're staying, and a few things we want to see in each place.

What I do know is that I'm excited to not know. I'm excited to show my kids how to adapt to an unscheduled life. I'm excited to see if my brain functions better when there are less things to remember each day. I'm excited to do a lot of yoga. I'm excited to read books and learn a new culture and get back to my adventuresome self from decades ago and to light that fire in my kids so that they can choose to make slightly insane and unconventional choices for their own families one day.

We're paving our path. We're creating our own adventure. We're "Deren to Dream".