Wow, I was just skimming over my older blog posts. It is fun to pick up where we left off almost 5 years ago.
I really think traveling is an addiction. That is the only real explanation as to why we are attempting to head back to India and Nepal with our youngin's.
The two kiddies will have to toughen up in so many ways and I am already proud of them because the past few months have been transitional enough with moving cities.
Let's play catch up here and set the background...We decided in late 2011 that some things in our lives needed to change. Carmen was feeling unfulfilled with his job and because both of us have toyed with the idea of how we would ever contribute professionally to the "greater global good," he decided to resign from his position as an EIT and take some sanitation courses for developing countries. I wanted to make some changes too, namely add a new member to our family of three. Both of us decided it was time to see the world again from the wanderer's perspective. So, simultaneously we agreed to the proposed changes and in a few months time Carmen had quit his job, I was pregnant and we were planning for our grand adventure of 2013.
We roughly decided that since I was due in September, we could safely commit to some oversea's "fact-finding" in sanitation in January and it would be a perfect follow-up to the courses Carm was taking. A vague opportunity presented itself in Kolkata and we started to envision a trip that included India and Nepal.
I am a mantra person, so I started a prayer in my head that would hum along as I was washing dishes or throwing a blanket across the bed. My mantra was "Lord, prepare me." I know it sounds strange to use a buddhist method of praying a Judeo-Christian prayer. But I just do what works...and since the past 4 months have felt like a rigorous boot-camp in endurance, patience, sleep deprivation, and trust, I think my prayers were heard...
I wouldn't normally be so worried. We've been there before.
But maybe every parent knows how it feels when you have a dream you can't give up on, to integrate children into something out of the ordinary, well some say it is selfish, others say it's good for them. I say it's a fine art and it takes knowing yourself and your kid to work through the details. And I hope, in the end, my kids can say that along all the bumps of the dusty roads they were held tight and knew they were loved. and the worst case scenarios, those horrible moments of tantrums and projectile vomiting and so on, well, good thing they don't remember anything before the age of four. maybe there's a reason for that? so that we parents can have a few years to figure out how to parent them without doing too much damage.
So, here comes more adventure...scheduled for the end of February we will be landing in Kolkata to begin what will ultimately be a trip to India, Nepal and the Philipines...I am so excited!
I really think traveling is an addiction. That is the only real explanation as to why we are attempting to head back to India and Nepal with our youngin's.
The two kiddies will have to toughen up in so many ways and I am already proud of them because the past few months have been transitional enough with moving cities.
Let's play catch up here and set the background...We decided in late 2011 that some things in our lives needed to change. Carmen was feeling unfulfilled with his job and because both of us have toyed with the idea of how we would ever contribute professionally to the "greater global good," he decided to resign from his position as an EIT and take some sanitation courses for developing countries. I wanted to make some changes too, namely add a new member to our family of three. Both of us decided it was time to see the world again from the wanderer's perspective. So, simultaneously we agreed to the proposed changes and in a few months time Carmen had quit his job, I was pregnant and we were planning for our grand adventure of 2013.
We roughly decided that since I was due in September, we could safely commit to some oversea's "fact-finding" in sanitation in January and it would be a perfect follow-up to the courses Carm was taking. A vague opportunity presented itself in Kolkata and we started to envision a trip that included India and Nepal.
I am a mantra person, so I started a prayer in my head that would hum along as I was washing dishes or throwing a blanket across the bed. My mantra was "Lord, prepare me." I know it sounds strange to use a buddhist method of praying a Judeo-Christian prayer. But I just do what works...and since the past 4 months have felt like a rigorous boot-camp in endurance, patience, sleep deprivation, and trust, I think my prayers were heard...
I wouldn't normally be so worried. We've been there before.
But maybe every parent knows how it feels when you have a dream you can't give up on, to integrate children into something out of the ordinary, well some say it is selfish, others say it's good for them. I say it's a fine art and it takes knowing yourself and your kid to work through the details. And I hope, in the end, my kids can say that along all the bumps of the dusty roads they were held tight and knew they were loved. and the worst case scenarios, those horrible moments of tantrums and projectile vomiting and so on, well, good thing they don't remember anything before the age of four. maybe there's a reason for that? so that we parents can have a few years to figure out how to parent them without doing too much damage.
So, here comes more adventure...scheduled for the end of February we will be landing in Kolkata to begin what will ultimately be a trip to India, Nepal and the Philipines...I am so excited!
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