Q: Your latest book, At Home
in the World, is a memoir of
your season traveling around
the world with your husband
and three children. What
inspired you to embark on this
adventure? were old enough to all carry
their own backpacks and all
were potty-trained, but they
were young enough to not
be too rooted down yet with
relationships, commitments,
and responsibilities.
A: The main reason we
decided to travel around
the world with our family was
simple— because we wanted
to. It’s surprising how this is
a sometimes-controversial
answer; people want a deeper
answer than this! But honestly,
we simply wanted to show our
kids the world. Plus, Kyle and I both had jobs
we could do from anywhere,
and we weren’t sure how long
that would last. We wanted to
take advantage of that while
we could.
Q: How could you afford this
trip?
A: It’s imperative to remember
that this was a trip, but it
The longer answer is we had
wasn’t a vacation. Kyle and I
moved back to the U.S. rather
worked the entire time, so we
unexpectedly from our life as
continued to bring in income.
expats in Turkey, and we missed This means the only thing
having the opportunity to raise we really needed to save
our kids globally... or so I initially in advance were the things
thought. When our third child
that weren’t already in our
was a newborn, my husband,
everyday budget—so, long-
Kyle, said one evening, “Why
haul travel, like flights, and visas
can’t we still show our kids the
to some countries. Everything
world? Just because we don’t
else translated into our regular
live overseas anymore doesn’t life, like food, housing, and
mean we can’t still expose
transportation (instead of
them to all sorts of ways of life.” mortgage or rent, we paid
So, we made travel a priority
for guesthouses; instead of
in our savings, and four years
vehicle maintenance, we paid
later, we took the plunge and
for public transportation). In
strapped on backpacks.
some cases, depending on the
We left when the kids were 9,
country, traveling was even
6, and 4, taking advantage of
cheaper than our life back in
a golden window of time: they the U.S.!
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