When the World Opens A Door, Walk Through

This April our family will be packing up our things in London, selling what we can, donating what we can, and shipping the rest to a storage unit. We have a ticket to travel the world with the intention to do so for six months to a year. We are heading East with our first stops being the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. I am giddy writing this, as I always desired to fly around the world. I just didn’t picture it happening with a five year old and a toddler. Who would?

Timing is everything and we knew a change was coming. Both my husband and I could see and feel it. We had been living as expats for the past five years in London and though we loved London, we knew our time would likely end and we could begin to feel the shift as it happened. Looking back you can often see how the path became clear, but there certainly were times when it was a bit foggy. It can be difficult to know when to take the risk and when to play it safe.

In December I began to experience an intense desire to travel the world as a family with the intention to scout out the best partners and experiences for the legacy travel aspect of Purposeful Wanderings. Work was busy and growing steadily. Now was the time to make sure it was moving in the right direction. I felt this passionately but when I mentioned it to my husband for the first time, he looked at me with a look translated simply as “that is never going to happen.” A week later we took our two kids to Zagreb for the advent markets and after a number of travel mishaps with our almost two year old, I gave up the dream with ease. She was difficult and it was not an easy weekend. The timing clearly was not right and I felt good about placing the dream back on the shelf. Good decision.

Fast forward a few months and things changed yet again. My husband is now leaving his job in the oil industry after fifteen years and will work alongside me. He has some fantastic ideas and given his skill set is completely different than mine, it will be a welcome addition. It is something I would not have imagined as an option, but now it makes perfect sense. We are going to travel the world and we have a purpose in doing so. The dream is back off the shelf and now our reality. Are we crazy? Maybe. Are we excited? Absolutely.

Perhaps now is not the best time but I find you have to ask yourself when is it ever the best time? There is always an excuse and always a reason to play it safe but when the world opens a door, we plan to walk through. We plan to live life fully and to give it everything we have. The world has opened a door for us to travel and though our kids may be a bit young, it is open now and may never be again. We will walk through.

While living in London we have had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe. We have taken almost every chance to do so and even created the opportunity when it didn’t seem to be there. It is a wonderful feeling to live without regret, even amongst the failures that come from trying. It is also a wonderful feeling to live in gratitude. There can be much to complain about in life, but there can also be so much to be grateful for. We are beyond grateful for this opportunity.

Though we have traveled often and traveled well, something has been missing. It is that something that brought me into the travel industry in the first place. It is the desire to create exciting itineraries for beautiful destinations with a deeper relational, educational, and charitable aspect. I long to relax and enjoy the beauty of this world, but also to experience meaningful interactions that feed the soul. I long to disconnect from the screen and engage with others face to face. I long to taste, to hear, to experience and to learn. I long to spend quality time with those I love and with those I can learn so much from. I long to live intentionally with an open mind. I long to visit the work of charities who have the heart to serve those in need. We will be visiting schools, orphanages, clinics and agricultural projects to name a few. We are certain to be inspired and I know that is something many of us crave.

There will be amazing moments of beauty and there will be without doubt, moments in which we will regret doing this with two little kids (especially the toddler). We will argue and there will be tears but this would also happen at home. The time together as a family and the education that traveling the world provides will without a doubt outweigh the difficulties along the way and the uncertainty of the future. At least I hope. I will certainly be blogging about both of these so that you will see the Instagram of the gorgeous hotel but also the Instagram of the reality of life not always going smoothly. The journey is worth it we know. 

John and I will be working to source rich cultural, educational and charitable travel for our clients as we build this niche concept of legacy travel. We will be meeting with many partners around the globe whose ethos aligns well with Purposeful Wanderings. We have already been hard at work meeting with various hotel and charities in London. There is so much out there and it takes a lot of time to sift through it all. We have a passion to create and experience the best that travel has to offer, even as a young family. We are eager to find it, curate it, and share it all with you. Please join us on this journey.

Please follow us on Instagram and take a look at our Purposeful Wanderings Website. You can also reach us at sarah@purposefulwanderings.com and john@purposefulwanderings.com.