The Countdown to Everything Changing Begins Now!
I have been planning this for years! When we moved from Nashville, we were headed to Portugal. That was two years ago. My dad was sick, and in need of a kidney and care, so we changed our plans. He had a ton of friends, but no consistent and reliable support to care for him and I knew if we didn't show up for him, no-one would. I tried to keep the shop in Nashville while caring for him and Atlas along side Joey - but after a year we had to close the shop. It just wasn't sustainable or fair to commit to both. Our lives weren't ours for two years because two beings needed us to get through the day. It was a hard two years, and it's been a harder two months since my dad has passed. We feel like we are floating and misplaced amongst the pieces of his old life. Florida has never been home to us. It's always been a place to visit, never a place to plant roots.
I don't view it as time lost, but more time gained with my dad. I am so grateful we carved time out of our lives to spend with him and to have him and Atlas grow a bond that was sweet and kind. Our lives were put on hold, but their lives were made better. Now it's time to move on and pick up where we left when we sold our Nashville homes.
We are traveling full time, and we have no plan to stop.
We leave for Portugal this week in hopes of finding a home to eventually go back to, but also we changed things completely from the plan two years ago. We are traveling full time, and we have no plan to stop. We have a one way ticket and huge plan to document it all. We leave for full time travel this summer and are almost completely set. Here is how it's going to go down:
We each get a suitcase and a carry on, and that's it!
We will be homeschooling with support of our current co-op.
Some stuff is super planned, some stuff is not.
We are now doing videos and will be posing a new one every Wednesday!
The Rich Hippies House will remain with our awesome team and our management.
I am freaking out every day as I research which elephant rehab camps we plan to visit, or cooking classes we will take, which immersion programs exist, and new languages we will learn. For the first time in a very long time I feel like there is nothing holding me back from turning the "I wish" into "I will".
We certainly face challenges. Especially Atlas's needs. We are still careful daily with overstimulation, sensory processing, low muscle tone, and communication barriers. We had to agree early on, we may run home and get right back into the routine of OT and speech therapy 4X a week. But we need to try. We need to see if we can do things the way we have been planning for years. We need to know if we can see the world as a family and show our kid the diversity of it all.
I can't believe we leave in just a few months. On an unrelated note, we finally got some new family pics from! Last time we did this Atlas had a man bun. I can't believe how fast time goes, and how much he has grown from then. He's so excited about all the airplane rides in his future!
all photos courtesy of Kenneth Smith Photography
Have a good one friends!
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