Solutions October 2017 | Page 53

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.! Solutions 53