Travel has a way of distorting time like nothing else.

It’s been nearly six months since we left our home in Ottawa. In many ways, the days have flown by. In that time, we’ve travelled in six countries on two continents, lived in two apartments, and visited with many family and friends, meeting new friends on the road. I feel like I’ve blinked and we’re now in 2012.

While time has zipped by, it’s also hard to imagine we’ve been doing anything else.

Our old life feels like a distant memory: bundling the kids up in snowsuits for school, going to work at a 9-5 job, taking care of all the day-to-day stuff of owning a home and the large stack of bills that goes with it. It’s amazing how quickly the cares and worries of that lifestyle can slip away. A year ago we were recovering from a Christmas holiday that required careful planning, lots of anxiety, and at least a week’s worth of recovery. While these visits are incredibly meaningful and important, holidays always seemed to require a vacation to recover from our vacation.

Our life now has become so stripped down that taking a holiday is a pretty straightforward and stress-free affair. We took a 5-night trip to Kuala Lumpur over the Christmas break and our preparations involved a quick Internet booking and then throwing a few things together in a suitcase the morning of our departure. When you don’t have much to begin with, packing is a piece of cake. And when your life isn’t a complicated tapestry of commitments and responsibilities, leaving town isn’t much different than staying home.

That’s not to say that our life can now be characterized as easy. We still worry about the kids and their schooling, paying the bills, and taking care of the household.

What we’re grateful for is the simplicity we now enjoy.

It gives us more time together, more time to do things we love, and more time to make new discoveries in a place unlike anywhere we’ve lived before. This time may pass, but we’re enjoying it while we can.

As we have closed out 2011 and prepare for the Chinese New Year, it’s hard not to reflect on everything that has happened in the past 12 months.

A year ago, we announced to our families that we were leaving in July to travel the world. With their generous and surprisingly overwhelming support, we began from that moment on to focus all our free time and energy on setting our plans into motion, downsizing all our possessions and extricating ourselves from our life in Ottawa.

In May I gave two months’ notice at work. For me, this was one of the hardest parts about the whole process. I had worked for SRDC for 13 years and loved the work I was doing; I’ve been grateful for the chance to remain somewhat involved in their work since I left.

In May we also made the decision to sell the house. Thankfully, this part of the process went very quickly and smoothly (thanks Andy!).

With the house sold and our final plans in place, we spent most of the last two months selling and/or giving away most of our remaining possessions. Each day there was a pile of items by the door for pickup by potential buyers, and we had a steady stream of visitors carting away all the things that accumulate in 15 years of marriage.

In June we booked our round-the-world tickets. After a summer in Michigan, we would be flying Toronto-Hong Kong-Singapore-France-Toronto. The trip was on!

We held a series of events to say a formal good-bye to our Ottawa communities. We held open houses and an amazing coffeehouse where many friends gave generously of their gifts of poetry, song and dance.

On July 9 we packed our remaining things into a rented car, said good-bye to the house, and began a road trip through Southwestern Ontario. Our destination was Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, where we rented an apartment for the months of July and August to be near Alison’s sister and her family for the summer. The summer whizzed by, featuring the kids being enrolled in a day program with their cousins, trips together to Detroit’s zoo, children’s museums and play places, as well as many visits to Grosse Pointe’s amazing parks.

On September 4 we flew from Toronto to Hong Kong. This trip over was the smoothest long-distance flight we’ve had yet with the kids, thanks in big part to Nico’s blossoming independence and in-seat entertainment systems. Based on previous trips to China, we knew we HAD to book a two-bedroom flat in Hong Kong to deal with the jet lag. The apartment we rented was tiny, but with lockable bedroom doors and a TV in the living room, it gave us the space to sleep or be awake as we needed while we waited for our bodies to adjust to having our internal clocks turned upside down.

Hong Kong, with its many distractions, was a great place to get over jet lag. The city’s trams and metro are easy to navigate, and we spent time taking the Star Ferry, walking the waterfront, riding up to the Peak, and playing in the parks. Our Ottawa friends Anne and Taylor are from Hong Kong, and they gave us a very generous gift of admission to Ocean Park, one of Hong Kong’s major theme parks. We all had a blast. Each night we’d stumble home with a couple of super cranky kids and collapse into bed.

After four days in Hong Kong, we caught a much shorter flight to Singapore. While we managed to walk the waterfront and take a ride on the Singapore Flyer, our two days didn’t give us enough opportunity to really explore the city and get a sense of everything it had to offer. We’ll definitely be back.

The same could also be said for Kuala Lumpur. On our third morning in Singapore, we caught an early morning train up to KL. We weren’t really prepared for the train trip, and had assumed that we would be able to purchase snacks on board. We were very wrong. By the end, Nico’s hungry complaints were growing so loud that a very kind lady a few seats back reached over and offered him a sleeve of cookies. Thank you, kind stranger!

In KL we stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the Petronas Towers. Knowing that we would be back in the near future, we didn’t place a big emphasis on sightseeing, and spent quite a bit of time in the hotel pool as well as the KLCC park, relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. We had read about the park from Colin and Tracy Burns, and once there the kids did not want to leave!

After two nights in KL we caught our last train to Penang. We learned our lesson this time and not only brought plenty of snacks, but also upgraded our seats to first class. Unfortunately, first class on Malaysian Railways is nothing to write home about, but we were glad for the somewhat larger seats and the free bottle of water.

The Burns family very graciously hosted us for our first few days in Penang. They have two kids of similar age to Lia and Nico, and it’s been cool to see how our two families–despite being from opposite ends of the earth–share similar values and interests in both our personal and professional lives.

We relied on Tracy’s extensive knowledge of the local school scene to select a school for the kids, and checked out a number of apartments in the area around Batu Ferringhi. Within that first week, we were able to move into a lovely apartment complex with two pools, a gym, a tennis court and squash court, and the kids began attending a private, English-based preschool.

We were amazed at how easy it was to set up a new life here in Malaysia.

Malaysia offers a generous 3-month tourist visa. English is spoken everywhere and the cost of living is quite reasonable. Although it may not be as cheap as some other SE Asian countries, we figure we’re paying roughly a third of what we paid in Canada for basic necessities such as housing and food.

Our time so far in Malaysia has provided us with a wonderful opportunity to embark on a new chapter in our lives.

While both Alison and I have continued to do some of the work we were doing before we left Ottawa, we have both been exploring opportunities that hopefully will take us in new career directions in the coming years. The kids have experienced tremendous growth as well. Not only are they being pushed academically much further than they would have been in Canada, they are also getting advanced instruction in Mandarin and Bahasa (Malay). It thrills us to see Lia beginning to read and write in Chinese, and to see both of them at a school with mainly Chinese teachers and classmates.

We have been posting mini-updates, photos and videos on our Facebook page, so I won’t review everything we have done since we arrived in September. While we’ve enjoyed visits to Koh Lipe and Kuala Lumpur, as well as a bit of sightseeing around Penang, we’ve spent most of our time and energy on settling into our new lives, establishing daily routines around school and work, and building our new businesses.

We miss our family and friends from home a great deal, which has been mitigated somewhat by the new friends we’ve made here. While there is a fairly large group of expats teaching at the international schools around town, there is also a constant influx of new folks travelling through the area, some of whom we meet beforehand online, and some we meet out shopping or eating at the local food courts. We had a fun experience at one Christmas party hanging out with a group of Canadians, and it made us a bit homesick to be sharing stories about life back in Canada. I’ve also been playing Ultimate again–something I wasn’t really expecting to do, given that I didn’t even bring my cleats!

2011 was a year of tremendous transition for us as a family.

We have been so grateful for the support from family and friends as we took on this big new adventure, and it’s been great fun to connect with many of you through Facebook, email, phone and Skype. While it’s going to be hard to top what we experienced this past year in terms of both the highs and the lows, we are excited about what the new year will bring. At this point, we know for sure we’ll be leaving Malaysia in April and heading to France and Holland before returning to Canada in July. We hope to go back to China somewhere in there too, although the details of that trip are still being worked out. We also don’t know what will happen next fall. At this point we embrace the mystery.

I’ve put together a 20-minute video slideshow that provides some highlights from our journey this past year. Enjoy!

We wish all our readers the very best for 2012 and happy Year of the Dragon!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Malaysia for nearly three months!

Choosing our first visa run

Knowing that we had to step out of the country to renew our visa, we had a hard time deciding our options.

We definitely didn’t feel like getting back on an airplane just yet, especially just for a weekend getaway, but we also wanted to do more than just drive to the Thai border and do a bit of cross-border shopping for a few hours. I had done some research on the Thai islands near Langkawi, and while they seemed pretty awesome and easy enough to get to, the ferry options looked expensive.

But when we learned that our Canadian friends Rob and Lois were planning on going to Koh Lipe this week, it seemed like fate was telling us to go for it. So we booked a beachfront cabin at the same resort and bought our ferry tickets for a fun weekend away.

Koh Lipe: what’s not to like?

Koh Lipe is the southernmost Thai island in the Malacca Strait just outside the Tarutao National Marine Park. It’s very small; only about 2 kms long and half that wide, so small that it is not even marked on Google Maps. It is home to ~500 chao lei, a group of “sea gypsies” who originate from Malaysia and were apparently invited by the Thai king to settle the island and maintain the kingdom’s claim to it.

From my understanding, the island has traditionally been a bit of a hippie paradise, but has been hit by heavy development in recent years as word has spread about its amazing beaches and diving opportunities, often being referred to as the “Thai Maldives”.

Ferried to our destination

Getting to Koh Lipe from Thailand is fairly easy, but not necessarily cheap. The most popular departure point is Pak Barra in Thailand near the Malaysian border, where ferries leave for the island on a daily basis year-round, and several times per day in high season.

From Malaysia, the only option is to take a ferry from Langkawi: either the Langkawi-Phuket ferry, which leaves from Kuah pier in early morning, or the twice-daily ferry from Telaga terminal on the west side of the island.

Since we wanted to get to Koh Lipe as quickly as possible, we took an early morning ferry to Langkawi from Georgetown. After an uneventful (yet very cold–why do they crank the AC so high on buses and boats here!?) trip, we landed on Langkawi where we had to catch a 1/2 hour taxi ride across the island.

We didn’t get much of a chance to see Langkawi, but from what I can tell, Telaga is located in a very picturesque area of the island. Green mountains formed a backdrop above the beautiful harbour with arial trams climbing the lofty heights to their peaks. We’ll need to spend some time here in future.

Our ferry to Koh Lipe

The ferry from Telaga only takes an hour, but it’s on an open speedboat with very little protection from the wind and the waves. While this wasn’t a problem on calm seas, our return trip featured a very rough crossing that had everyone on the ferry cowering in the rear seats as the boat slammed down hard on wave after wave. More on that in a moment.

“This is going to be good”

The arrival at Pattaya Beach is truly breathtaking. The island is ringed by white, chalky sand that glitters emerald under the shallow water broken up by dark green patches of coral. There is no landing pier, so longboats meet the incoming ferries and transfer passengers to shore. The kids were pretty excited to climb into the wooden longboat, and then be able to jump in the water when the boat hit the sandy beach.

We were told to wait at the immigration kiosk, and the kids amused themselves by sinking their feet in the talc-like sand and feeling it squish between their toes. Definitely one of our more pleasant border crossings!

Lia getting off the longboat

Our beachfront bungalow

After we received our passports back from immigration, a moped with sidecar arrived from the resort to pick us up. No cars are allowed on Koh Lipe, [Ed. note: didn't we see a Mini go by once?] and the roads are too small for anything larger than a bike, so it was fun to pile into the sidecar with our luggage and drive the mostly sand paths to our beach on the other side of the island.

Although there are a couple of upscale resorts on the island, everything is fairly modest. We chose Lipe Power Beach Resort mostly because Lois told me they would be staying there, but when we arrived we realized it would fit our needs perfectly. It is fairly new, having opened this past summer, and offers approx. 35 cabins of varying degrees of proximity to the water. It is also one of the few mid-range resorts to feature a pool and restaurant right next to the beach.

We had booked a beachfront cabin thinking we’d splurge a bit for the few days that we would be there. It turned out that it was just a few steps from the restaurant and pool, which was handy when the kids went to bed and we could sit at the bar within earshot if anything went amiss. The kids were really happy with the pool. Although it was quite tiny, they spent hours in there almost every day, especially when Lois and Rob arrived with their two older sons, whom our kids adored.

Our cabin at the Lipe Power Beach Resort

The low-key Sunrise Beach

We were also happy to learn that our beach was much quieter than the main strip on the other side of the island. There were few restaurants and bars on our side, so the only noise was from the longboats coming to and from the local village around us.

That said, the longboats can be quite noisy, as they pretty much all feature modified truck engines that sit on open mounts on their rudder. I’m guessing that most of the local fisherman have gone deaf having a truck engine just a few feet away all day every day. I’ve read that some local entrepreneurs are exploring quieter, electric options, but I didn’t see any on the boats parked off our beach.

Our days on the island were pretty simple. The island’s walking streets featured many shops, restaurants and other services, so we enjoyed a bit of shopping and sampling local dishes and drinks. We ended up eating mostly at the resort’s restaurant, as it was easy to feed the kids a quick meal, put them to bed, and then sit by the waterfront and enjoy a meal to ourselves.

Lois and Rob (and Rob’s brother Paul) were kind to offer to care for the kids for the two afternoons we were with them, and Ali and I took the chance to snorkel and enjoy a drink alone. The kids meanwhile had a hoot playing in the pool with the older boys, who didn’t seem to mind the attention they were getting from the little ones at all. The bar down the beach also had a couple of masseuses on offer, and Ali and I enjoyed getting an hour-long Thai massage for the low price of ~$10 each.

Our favourite spot to snorkel

While there were snorkelling trips to the outer islands on offer, Ali and I were happy to snorkel right off our beach. I’ve read that Koh Lipe’s coral features 1/4 of the world’s tropical fish species, and we were certainly impressed by the variety of fish we saw just meters from shore. The water is shallow and comfortably warm, and it was easy just to float and enjoy the view (while keeping an ear out for any oncoming longboats!) for hours on end.

Lia tried snorkelling once and got a bit spooked by seeing the wildlife beneath the surface, which probably contributed to her preference for the pool. I can’t wait to take the kids back when they’re old enough to snorkel on their own.

A rough return trip

The ferry ride back to Langkawi was a lot more intense than we expected. We could see storm clouds brewing the night before, and while we missed most of the rain that passed to the east of the island, the wind was blowing pretty hard and the sea had grown choppy. As a result, our speedboat ride back was rough. Ali got soaked on her side of the boat, and it was tense to feel the boat slamming down hard on the waves.

Thank goodness the kids did just fine. They huddled down on our laps out of the wind and spray, and were mostly quiet for the whole hour. I must admit to being a bit nervous, but thankfully we were never in any real danger nor did we encounter any serious rain.

We ended up riding a much larger and more comfortable ferry back to Penang from Langkawi. The ferry was packed with locals and tourists alike, and in that situation I always find it a bit odd to be sitting next to Muslim women in burkahs shoulder-to-shoulder with western women in tank tops and cut-off jeans. What a clash of civilizations!

Our “visa run” turned out to be even better than we hoped, and now we’re discussing whether we’ll be back again in three months. It’s really cool that a place so amazing is just a few hours’ boat ride from where we live!

Here are some resources on how to travel to Koh Lipe:

Penang-Langkawi ferry (langkawi-ferry.com)

• RM115 return for adults, RM85 for children
• Leaves Penang at 8:30 and returns at 2.30pm & 5.15pm
• Tickets should be purchased in advance at either the ferry terminal or ticket sellers around the island (the ferry company’s website didn’t work for me)

Koh Lipe ferry

This website gives the most up-to-date ferry options for the various routes to the island. We couldn’t book our tickets from a local agent in Penang so we purchased them through the Telaga terminal website, which cost RM228 per adult and RM188 per child (includes a RM20/ticket rebate for pre-booking) for a return trip. They have morning and evening departures going both directions. Tigerline operates somewhat cheaper ferries from the Kuah pier, but they leave Langkawi early in the morning and arrive back late in the afternoon which wasn’t convenient for us. Pak Barra provides the cheapest options for getting to Koh Lipe, but we are not allowed to drive our rented car across the border and we would first have to go to Hat Yai in order to catch a bus to the ferry. Not terribly convenient for a weekend excursion.

Accommodations

There are lots of small resorts on the island which offer a range of accommodations from simple bamboo huts to luxurious suites. While most of the resorts are on or near Pattaya beach, we enjoyed being at Sunrise Beach which is a lot less busy (although we did enjoy Pattaya for its many restaurant options). We booked through the Thai travel site www.sawadee.com because it was a bit cheaper.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page for more pictures and to subscribe to our updates!

For the project, I was introduced to Amy Thompson, a prospective adoptive parent who lives in Athens, Georgia. Amy and her husband Chris are in the waiting process for a domestic open adoption, which can be a difficult time of anticipation and apprehension. Thanks, Amy, for answering my questions and giving us a window on your family!

Have you always wanted children or was it something you came to gradually?

I have always wanted to have children. In fact, it has been the one constant in my life that I have always been sure about – I want to be a mom! When Chris and I married, our number one priority was to start a family. We have been working at it for about six years, but our commitment to parenting has never wavered. We know that we want children even though it hasn’t come easily for us.

What was your first introduction to open adoption?

Many years ago (maybe 12 years ago) I saw a television program on adoption. One of the families that was profiled was pursuing an open adoption. The concept was completely foreign to me. I remember initially feeling intrigued by the idea and feeling like there was something very honest and loving about the family’s commitment to openness. Having the birth mother present in the adoptive family’s life seemed to benefit everyone.

What drew you to decide on open adoption as the course for your family?

When we first started researching adoption, Chris and I both felt drawn to open adoption. We intend to be open and honest with our children and feel like our children’s birth parents will always be a huge part of their lives. I want our children to know their history as much as they can and not feel any shame or confusion about their adoption.

Going through the adoption process, we have met so many adoptive families that have been able to maintain openness with their child and build solid relationships with their child’s birth parents.  I feel so encouraged by this.  I think it will be very powerful for our child to experience their birth parents’ love firsthand.

What have you learned about adoption since you embarked on this journey that you didn’t expect?

I have been surprised and encouraged by how many people’s lives have been touched by adoption. I can’t believe all of the stories people have shared with us about their cousins, nieces, parents, neighbors, etc. and their adoption experience. Even complete strangers that run across our adoption website or see our information on Facebook have reached out to us with support. I knew, of course, that there was an adoptive community out there, but didn’t really realize how deep and wide it really is.

On the flip side, I think because so many people have some experience with adoption, at least on some level, we have sometimes felt overwhelmed by all of the advice we receive.  I wasn’t expecting that people held such strong beliefs or opinions about adoption and how readily they would share them!  We have definitely received LOTS of advice.  Sometimes I have felt like I need to defend our decision to adopt, our decision to adopt domestically, our decision to adopt an infant, etc.  In the end, it has only affirmed where all of our initial research led us in the first place.  We know which path is right for us.

How are you dealing with the unknown wait time before you become parents?

I am a huge planner that loves to work off a timeline.  For me, the hardest part has not been the wait but the nebulous timeline.  My approach has been to do enough preparation so we can manage a last minute “meet us at the hospital” type of phone call.  We have a little bag packed, a pack-n-play, a car seat, and dog sitters lined up ready to go if needed.  I know our family and friends will completely come to our rescue if we need them in a pinch.

In the meantime, we are just living our lives and keeping busy.  Chris has recently returned to school to complete a nursing degree. He will be finished in May.  I work full time at the University of Georgia and volunteer as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) in our local juvenile court system.  I am currently assigned to be an advocate for a little boy that is in foster care. As his neglect case works through the juvenile court system, I work with him, his mother, his foster family, all of the different agencies and services assigned to help them and then report back to the court on his progress and try to represent his best interest . I have tried to be a consistent and constant presence in his life during a difficult and confusing time.  I find the work to be extremely challenging, but obviously very rewarding.

This may be an odd question, but do you have a sense of your family’s mission or purpose? (I’m thinking along the lines of what Simple Mom talks about in her post Create a Family Mission Statement.)

I love this idea!  At our staff retreat this summer, I lead my co-workers through a similar exercise related to our office, the way we serve students, how we support one another, our collective values, etc.  We then created an “office code” that we have hanging in our break room.  I really do love the idea of doing this type of exercise as a family and creating a family mission.  Although Chris and I haven’t formally had this conversation, we have talked a lot about our parenting values and the way we want our family to live. Some themes that I see emerging are:

1.       Communicate openly. 

Chris and I have very different approaches to life (we are opposites in many ways) and really have to remember to check in with one another and communicate effectively.  As long as we remember to TALK we have found that our differences really complement one another nicely.J  As I mentioned before, we also want to talk with our children openly about adoption and how we became a family.

2.       Live simply.

We do really value living a simple life – managing our stuff, organizing our home, reducing the clutter in our lifestyle and schedules, using resources wisely, spending time with family/friends doing the things we love. It is easy to get lost in the frantic world around us – we try to keep it simple.

3.       Respecting our planet. 

We love the outdoors and really want to expose our kids to beautiful places, fun and healthy activities, and being good stewards of the environment.

4.       Be creative. 

Having some sort of creative outlet is really important for us.  For Chris it is photography, music, cooking, and writing.  For me it is knitting, gardening, baking, and making beads/jewelry.  One of the things I look forward to the most about having kids is exploring ways to bring more creativity into our home. I love the idea that being creative helps instill the habit of being self-reliant and confident in your ideas and decisions.

All the best to you, Amy and Chris!

You can also read Amy’s interview of me on her blog, or check out over a hundred other interviews for the project, which is organized by Heather at Production Not Reproduction.

We did it.

That’s what we keep saying to ourselves as we try to let the reality of what we’ve done sink in.

In the last two months, I left my job, we said goodbye to friends, sold our house and almost all our stuff, and left our home in Ottawa where we’ve lived the past 13 years. After a brief visit with my family in the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario, we arrived in Grosse Pointe, Michigan where we’re spending July and August adjusting to our new location-independent lifestyle. The real travel begins in September when we jet off to Asia and Europe for the next year.

Ridding ourselves of most of our earthly possessions was gruelling.

Earlier in the spring we spent a Saturday unloading several truckloads of stuff at the Glebe garage sale, followed by several months selling our bigger items on classified sites like kijiji and craigslist. I finished my job at the end of June, so we had a week to focus on cleaning out the house and getting ready to leave. Halfway through the week we still had piles of stuff we couldn’t sell, so we held a Full Circles giveaway one evening, where we watched a living room full of our things disappear in 10 minutes.

The small stuff was the most challenging — things like files, keepsakes and kitchenwares. Everything required a decision and we were drained by the time we got to our last day. In the end, Alison wisely called in 1-800-Got-Junk, and they took away a pile of donated goods, recyclables and garbage the morning we left town. Expensive but highly worth it.

Keeping ourselves busy over the summer

We’ve made a pretty quick adjustment to our temporary life here in Grosse Pointe. I’m doing a short-term contract with my old employer, Alison is writing and coaching, and the kids are enrolled in an all-day preschool program three days a week. We’re living in a flat down the street from Alison’s sister Melody and her family, and enjoying the freedom of hanging out together for an extended period of time — something we’ve had little chance to do in the past few years. Mel and her husband Ben have two girls the same age as Lia and Nico, and the foursome are getting along like gangbusters. We’ve had a lot of fun sharing meals, picnicking in Grosse Pointe’s beautiful parks, shopping its markets and seeing what the area has to offer.

Enjoy Detroit

Although Detroit may not seem the most glamorous of destinations, we’re glad we made the decision to stay in North America after leaving Ottawa. Not only does this feel like an awesome opportunity to hang out with family  for an extended period of time, it’s giving us a chance to focus on settling into a new lifestyle without dealing with the jetlag and culture shock that accompanies international travel. There’s also all the nit-picky details that need to be finalized when embarking on long-term travel plans, and it’s been much easier to deal with that here than from a different time zone halfway around the world.

Plus we get Hulu.

I have to admit I was kind of in a funk after we left Ottawa. It’s painful uprooting a life we’ve spent so many years creating. No matter how committed I am to our travel goals, leaving a good job and amazing friends has not been easy. Also, I don’t do well if I don’t have commitments and obligations filling up my day.

Having a work contract to focus on has been a great help, and Ali and Mel have been great at planning a bunch of activities for our two families so we take advantage of the time we have together. Once we leave for Asia I’m going to have to get my act together so I can start working on the projects I’ve been piling up, and I welcome the challenge of working for myself for the first time in my life. Alison’s ahead of me by a few years in this department, and I take inspiration from what she has accomplished already. It’s both scary and fun to imagine what lies ahead.

Click here to subscribe to our blog updates and follow our journey.

Alison’s creativity coaching website, Design Your Art-Committed Life, is at gresik.ca.

We’re hosting a low-key, child-friendly party and open mic coffeehouse on Saturday, June 11 at 2pm so we can celebrate and visit with friends and family. We’ll serve cake and coffee, natch.

We would love to have you there, and share a song/poem/dance/tribute if you like. Just come ready to sign up on the set list.

(If you can’t make this date, we’re also doing a more adult-oriented event — read, bar evening — closer to our departure date.)

See www.churchoftheascension.ca for detailed instructions on how to find the church. It’s a little tricky, so leave yourself extra time if you’ve never visited.

It’s not necessary to RSVP, but we’d appreciate you letting us know you’re attending on Facebook.

“Penang Island” by Ke Wynn on flickr

What now?

We’re leaving the country.

That’s right, we’re taking our life on the road (or, more accurately, to the skies) and spending the next few years abroad.

We plan to explore a global (what some might call location independent) life, living in different countries for 3 to 6 months at a time.

We’re currently in the midst of selling our home and most of our stuff, as a big part of our dream is to simplify everything we own down to just a few suitcases (and the odd stored box). We don’t want a storage locker filled with things we never expect to use again. As you can imagine, this bit is hard.

Now, why would you be wantin’ to do that?

This is a question I hear you asking in a Kentucky drawl–sorry, I was a little overexposed to the excellent series, Justified, while I recovered from strep last week. Actually, the most common question for us so far has been “How?” but we’ll get to that one in a moment.

Having kids impressed upon us the old cliché that life is short. For some parents, the introduction of wee ones into their lives prompts deep-rooted nesting instincts, which are often expressed in a move to the suburbs and the purchase of a minivan or, heaven forbid, SUV. Ali and I have had much stronger impulses to raise our children in a global fashion, exposing them to geographies, cultures, and lifestyles that challenge our status quo and help them think of themselves as global citizens. So the seeds of this plan were planted long ago (even as far back as our two-week honeymoon in Newfoundland, when we fell in love with travelling as a couple). And after Nico’s arrival, we started putting the details together.

Our three-month stay in Beijing in 2009 was an experiment to see whether we enjoyed this lifestyle for longer stretches of time. We also wanted to make sure that both kids had the right temperament to handle the challenges of long-term travel. The experiment was an unqualified success, and we returned to Canada determined to put the plan into action.

How on Earth do you expect to quit your job and travel with two kids?

This question will take more time to answer fully. Our plan right now is to live a simple lifestyle in places where the cost of living is low. We will be travelling slowly, renting apartments or homes to reduce our average cost of living. Our reduced budget should minimize our need for two full-time incomes.

As for employment, Alison’s work has been location independent for over five years, so nothing is really changing for her. She will still be working with writers and artists through her coaching practice (have you seen what she’s been up to lately?) as well as writing books for kids.

My plan is to pursue a similar path to Alison and build a location-independent business, beginning with contracting for research organizations interested in my services. Beyond that, I will be spending more time indulging my passion for managing our investments, which should cover a chunk of our living expenses. If that explanation is too complicated for you, you can simply think of me as being semi-retired for the foreseeable future.

As for the kids, we’re not certain what we’ll be doing about their schooling yet. One of our big goals is to give the kids an immersive language experience, particularly in Mandarin. We still have a lot of flexibility since they are both of kindergarten age.

When is this mad adventure beginning?

My last day of work is June 30. We’ll take some time to finalize our affairs and then leave Ottawa in early July.

What are you doing with your crazy cat?

Obviously, the four humans in the family are going. The feline will not be joining us. We’re searching for a new home for our 15-year-old cat, Sam, and frankly, along with saying good-bye to so many friends and family, this is one of the hardest parts of the whole plan. Sam has been with us since she was three, and while she’s not the easiest animal to love, we do love her anyhow. If you or anyone you know has a pet-free, child-free household and would like to take in a beautiful, healthy, frisky, Jekyll-and-Hyde-type cat, do get in touch.

Where exactly are you going?

First stop . . . Detroit, Michigan!

Alison’s sister Melody and her family live in Grosse Pointe Park, and we decided to spend the North American summer in their neighbourhood so the cousins can hang out together. We’ll also visit family in southwestern Ontario and say our farewells. Not the most glamorous of destinations, but another reason for choosing this lifestyle is so we can be more flexible about spending time with family.

Then we’re off to . . . Penang, Malaysia!

We plan on spending the fall and winter in Malaysia with its warm climate, white sandy beaches, and (relatively) stable government. From our research, it looks like Malaysia has some great Mandarin schooling options due to its large Chinese population. It also has pretty easy visa requirements.

And then?

We hope to spend the spring and summer somewhere in France and Holland. Both countries are high on our list to visit with the kids, so we’re making sure we get there on this round-the-world trip. After that, we plan on returning to Canada next summer before heading back on the road. To where, we’re not sure yet. We’d love to get your suggestions!

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It’s a little surreal to be talking openly about plans we’ve been making privately for the past two years, and we keep pinching ourselves to see if we’re actually awake and doing this. If we’ve got a silly grin on our face while we’re telling you about our plans, it’s not you–we’re just having a hard time believing it ourselves. However, as each part of the plan falls into place, this trip/move/transition is feeling more real all the time.

Finally, we want to say how we’ve been amazed at how supportive friends and family have been. While no one has actually called us crazy to our faces, we can tell by your astonished reactions, looks of wonder, and endless questions that deep down you probably do. At least a little bit. Don’t worry, we won’t argue with you.

Stay tuned for more details.

* If you’re wondering about the name Hejira, our code word for this operation, it means journey in Arabic. You can read more about its significance on Ali’s site.

Location Independent Parents is a blog about living and working anywhere with children, and I’m excited to share some of our experiences, as well as learn from others in the community of digital nomads with kids.

The posts here about our fall 2009 Beijing trip start with Arrivals. We’ve also written about our two previous China trips to adopt our children in February 2007 and February 2009.

Please say hi here or drop me a line on Twitter at @AlisonGresik. Thanks!

P.S. You can also check out my writing / coaching blog at gresik.ca.