One Bite at a Time

The question that comes after, “Where are you going?” is almost always this: “How do you plan a trip like that?”

You really do have to take one step at a time when planning something as complex as a trip around the world; however, there are practical strategies that have proved essential for us.

• Disclaimer: We have never eaten elephant. Additionally, we are opposed to the whole concept of eating elephants.

First, start from your “WHY” — the vision and purpose for the trip. 

We embark on our world edventure fulfill the dream of giving our girls a truly world-class education and slow down time during these precious years we have all three daughters home with us.

God has given us the gift of three wonderful daughters. When they were infants, friends and even perfect strangers would say, “Treasure each moment; they grow up so fast.” We have certainly found that statement to be true. And while we can’t stop time, one of our goals is to slow…it… down. We know that we will never get these years back with our girls.

Another goal is to expose our girls to the people and cultures of the world and educate them through hands-on, in-person experiences, rather than simply through textbooks.

Thankfully, Ryan was granted an “Extended Planned Leave of Absence” from my employment at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. We are so appreciative of the leaders and people of Good Shepherd to extend us this time. This enables us to take this time to worldschool our girls.

Second, to thine own self be true.

Some worldschooling or modern nomadic families shun making reservations and plans ahead of time so their families can avail themselves of any opportunities that may come up. They find lodging as they go, spending time searching online or asking locals. That works for them.

We know ourselves well enough to know we have a fairly low tolerance for uncertainty. Ironically, we are planning to travel in foreign countries and cultures for 13 months straight. We acknowledge and accept this will involve gigantic amounts of uncertainty. As an intentional coping mechanism, we are what you might call “planners.”

We like knowing ahead of time that we have reservations so that our family can crash into comfy beds at the end of long days of edventuring. We would rather spend time wandering with our family than trying to secure good enough wi-fi to cruise the internet for a couple hours to look for our next accomodations. We know this might mean we miss out on an occasional great opportunity or last minute deal. But we know ourselves well enough to know we will be present to more fully experience each day when we don’t have to worry about where the 6 of us will sleep in the next town.

Third, put the big chunks in place first.

We started by talking about all the places Nicole and I have traveled and where we would love to take our girls to, such as the Edinburgh Festival and the Iona Community in Scotland. We also have so many “bucket list” places to see and so many places that would help to educate our girls about world religions, cultures and history.

We put down the most important “must do” dates first, such as our ” Footsteps of Jesus Israel Tour”, and our “Footsteps of Paul Turkey/Greece Tour,” and then planned other items around those fixed dates.

We wrote down numerous draft itineraries and put those routes onto actual maps on the wall or onto a cork globe on our dining room table. While it would have made the most sense to keep moving around the world in one direction (you can purchase RTW tickets for just such an adventure), we had to adjust our itinerary according to the dates of certain tours and festivals. While not the most cost effective, back-tracking seemed unavoidable to us.

We also took seasons and weather into account as much as possible.  We are actually hitting most areas of the world during the most mild weather seasons – trying to avoid the brutal heat of summer and chilling cold of winter.   There are several places we know we will melt and others in which we will freeze, but we will have to pack accordingly, or purchase appropriate clothing in those areas.

We picked the brains of family and friends as “travel mentors.” For example, having never traveled to South America for example, the Zubiri family looked at our itinerary and said, “You do realize you are traveling through South America in the winter, right?”  (they said it much nicer than that)  Our response: “Oh yeah… can you help us?” They offered us fantastic suggestions about how to travel through the South America portion of our tour.

Google to the Rescue

We have used the Google search bar for more tours and research than you can imagine, opening tab after tab to compare flights/tours/hotels/attractions.

But by far, the most helpful tool has been “Google Calendar.” This has allowed us to take our draft itinerary and actually place it into an online calendar with real dates. We used color coding to delineate travel weeks. For example, we would create a blue color bar across a whole week, and once that week or tour is booked we would change the color to orange to denote confirmed plans. We also used yellow bars to indicate where all the flights or train travel would take place from one country to another.

We can see where we need to put our efforts and what we need to work on as we scroll down the monthly calendar. Our goal has been to secure our tours and lodging well ahead of time and then we can connect those dots with transportation. It gives us great peace and excitement to look at our calendar and see it filled with orange bands signifying plans made and confirmed.

One of the best things about the Google Calendar is that we can view it from any device and continue to work on it when we have time.

Fourth, enlisting the help of a trusted travel agent. 

Janet Clarke, a travel agent and member of our church, has been an essential guide for us.  She has shared our excitement for the trip, and been willing to keep her eye on both the big picture and the minute details so we don’t overlook anything. She has helped us book many of our adventures and flights, and also put us into contact with other travel agents who are experts in South East Asia, for example. She makes sure we are up to date on Visa requirements and travel advisories. We are so thankful for her expertise and assistance!

Fifth, life goes on.

Another large aspect of planning a round-the-world edventure is making plans that ensure our US life continues in important ways to make re-entry easier at the end of our travels.

Although some worldschooling families go “all in” by selling their homes, cars, etc., we are not. We love our house and community! We love it’s proximity to friends and family. We plan to come back and, specifically, we plan to come home! Instead of selling, we are hoping to rent out our home for one year which shouldn’t be too hard considering we are walking distance to 4 great Irvine Unified Schools.

We are in communication with our girls’ schools and have made plans in the hope they can flow back into their student bodies the following year.

Right now, we imagine and hope that we will simply slip back into our “normal life.” But we also recognize a trip like this is likely to change you forever — your tastes, favorites, assumptions, world-view, politics, perspective, priorities.

“We look at life from the back side of the tapestry. And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangled knots and the like. But occasionally, God’s light shines through the tapestry, and we get a glimpse of the larger design with God weaving together the darks and lights of existence.” John Piper

We started this post with the image of eating an elephant bite by bite as a picture of how to approach the monumental task of planning a round-the-world family adventure. But, since that image is frankly disgusting, I’ll close with one Nicole finds far more beautiful: a tapestry.

Our World Edventure is like a tapestry that we will weave in co-creation with God and the world community. Our prayerfully and carefully laid plans are the warp yarns, setting a framework for the trip. Warp yarns are, by necessity, held with some tension so the framework of the tapestry has structural integrity. But what about the colorful, textured, ever-changing weft yarns in a tapestry?

We recognize and anticipate the Edventure that begins when we release our tight hold on the illusion of control and live into the moments, opportunities, and relationships which will present themselves along the journey. These day to day moments of mindful presence are the beautiful, diverse, and often unexpected weft fibers which will end up being the actual images we will remember of the gorgeous tapestry that is Our World Edventure.