Why we are taking this trip

About 10+ years ago, I read a book called One Year Off. The idea of traveling always appealed to me, but I was intrigued of the concept of a family taking a break for a year of everyday life to take an adventure like this. I told Keith all about it and he thought it was pretty interesting. Keep in mind this was a conversation about a book I read, not a “Let’s go do this” conversation. While we didn’t talk about it very much, it never really left the back of our minds. We both kept thinking about it.
A few years after I had read the book, I had read a few more about other families and couples that had taken a sabbatical to travel in one way or another. The idea was growing on me and seeming less abstract. I had also found blogs of people who had taken a long term trips.
The more I told Keith about what I had found, the more the idea of doing this for our family came alive. Finally, one day I started a spreadsheet to figure out, if we did this where would we go and how much would it cost. Then I began to do quite a bit of research started so I could accurately fill out the data. The more we talked about where we wanted to go, the longer the list got. First it was a year long, then it was 18 months, then it was 2 years, then it was a little more than 2 years. Through all of this, it was still not something we were really committed to, just something we were dreaming about.
Then the boys started school. Time was flying by, and as a family we were crazy busy. School, Work, Activities, Homework, Projects, etc, didn’t leave much time for us to all be together. It felt like our lives were living us instead us living our lives. Sometime after this realization, we decided this trip was something we really wanted to do. So around 5 years ago, planning began in earnest. We began seriously taking about how to save for the trip, when we would go on the trip and what we would do.
Each time we tell someone older about doing this, they tell us they wish they had done something like this when they were younger. They tell us about the things that are holding them back then and now, commitments, health, family, and money. I see and talk to so many people who have goals for when they retire or someday. I also see these people get hit with unplanned events that prevent them from living the life that they want. I don’t wait to wait for retirement or someday. You just don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we are going to live now!