Three years ago you and your family set off on the journey of a lifetime, leaving all possessions behind and making the decision to let go and say yes to the unknown. What drove this life change and what have been the biggest life lessons?
When studying abroad in Chile during college, I experienced 3rd world and poverty for the very first time. It was on a hiking trip to Peru with another girlfriend that my heart bursted open to see how some people live with almost nothing. I knew then that one day when I had children I wanted to raise them to see the world as global citizens knowing the diversity economically, culturally, religiously that exists. When Michael finished playing pro basketball, our oldest daughter was 2, I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest daughter Shae and we were en route to Ethiopia to adopt our middle daughter Kya who was only 9 months. We soon had a multiracial family and had settled down in northern Kentucky where I was from. We had consolidated all our “stuff” from the various homes we had while Michael played into one location. To say the least it was overwhelming. That was the very first time I looked at Michael and said one day I want to see all this “stuff” and travel the world with our girls. Michael thought I was crazy as he does with most of my ideas yet I continuously said this the next 8 years or so.
One thing I have realized when I have a strong gut or intuitive feeling, I always follow it. The greatest thing we can do when we have this intuition is not thinking much more but simply listening to the calling of heart and not the mind that traps us. 3 years ago I looked at Michael and seriously proposed lets just do it…sell it all and go! The girls were 8,9,10 a great age to begin to travel the world. Finally he agreed to sell our cars, home and everything in it! Freedom! My dream was the world would be their school…..I didn’t want to just raise my girls in comfort zone, a big house lots of stuff, schedules, with a traditional predicted school system. I wanted them to find comfort in the discomfort. I wanted to step out of all norms and pioneer a new way of living and learning as well go. I wanted freedom from the tethering to things and schedules and just wanted to take my girls hands and show them the world! Michael was all in or at least said Yes :)
So many life lessons continue to be uncovered on this world school journey we are still on. A few have been:
When we face fears, we truly become fearless! I have faced more fears the past 3 years than I ever dreamed I would do and I now feel stronger than ever.
Magic always lies outside of comfort zone. As a family we down travel to see sights but rather to seek experiences way out of comfort zone, connecting to people. and These truly have been the most incredible memories: Staying on a rice farm in the jungle of northern Thailand, hiking for days in the Sri Lankan mountains, scuba diving in the pirated waters of the Sulu sea in Borneo, or hiking 650 km to find the lost city in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Colombia meeting the Cogi mountain tribe along the way…..
Letting go creates growth we never expect and provides space for new things. It was the hardest thing to step away from my yoga studios and shed the identity of being a leader and teacher for 10 years. Letting this go allowed me to grow in new ways I could have never imagined and now has opened opportunities I never dreamed would happen!
Everyone is a teacher in life…while my girls are not in a traditional school and the idea “world school” has grown from our travels, through every experience I truly have recognized we are all teachers for one another,. Every person has a unique life experience and wisdom to share.
The greatest We are all so much more alike than different in this world. Not the outside we may look different, eat different foods, say different prayers, live in wildly different ways but love is the golden thread that weaves through us all! Also seeing our girls connect with kids throughout the world…smiling and laughter is a global language that unites all!
