I’m on a domestic and international travel year with my three kids. If you follow me on Facebook or like my pictures on Instagram you already know about this journey that I'm on. You've seen the pictures of my smiling, happy children. You seen the pictures of some of the amazing places we've been to. Heck, you even know what we have planned for the rest of the year regarding this travel journey. It is true we are having the most amazing time. But I have a confession. I feel I've misled you in some ways. I haven’t lied to you or anything like that. It’s just that I haven’t given you the complete and total truth. So let me clear this up right here and right now.
I keep getting told how amazing I am for doing this with my kids and how brace, and what a great mom I am but please let me be the first to tell you that it ain't easy.
What you're seeing is a lot of the good and none of the bad. You’re not seeing us camped out in the airport on a seven hour delay or me having to negotiate the price of food in a language that I barely speak. I’m not posting the pics of my kids bickering, or of me yelling about them cleaning up their mess for the bazillionth time. You're not seeing the long long driving days when we don’t see anything cool, just the open road mile after mile after mile. I haven’t shared with you how scared I was pulled over on the side of the dark, spooky highway terrified I was either going to get flattened by a semi in front of my children or eaten by a coyote that was most certainly about to jump out of the darkness at any second. I didn’t post that I was out there on the side of the highway because I had to check my oil because the check engine light came on (for the second time in the last several hours and the first time it was due to having no, and I mean zero, oil in the engine…oops!). You can't hear the phone calls I'm on dealing with issues back in Charlotte. You don't get to see us muling over our schoolwork (both the kids and I). I’m to tired to tell you about last night when I had to console a crying child who had a nightmare and let him squeeze into the already tiny bed with me causing me to get very little sleep (or the time before that or the time before that one). I’m not showing you photos of my suddenly broken generator or leaking propane line that now I can't turn on for fear of blowing us up. There's no way for you to know about the moments when I'm frustrated because I'm lost and can't turn this big RV around and nothing seems to be going right.
And all of this stuff is just as real to us as are the amazing places you see in my pictures. This is our way of life for now and we are living it. A friend recently commented that "oh you're on vacation..." And I had to kindly yet firmly explain that this is not a vacation, this is our life. Our home is on our back (either in the RV or in our backpacks) and we are living on the road and around the globe (which dredges up a whole other list of concerns) for the next however many months. There are ups and downs just like everyone has in their day-to-day lives. So I don’t want you to get the wrong impression from my pictures and posts and think that it’s all fun and games. As much as I wish it was… it is not!
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| Hour 11 of a 22 hr travel day... still smiling but not for long |
Don't get me wrong, it is utterly amazing to be on the open road, freely traveling the country and the globe but it definitely has its challenges. So let me apologize if I have made this look to easy. I'm sorry if I've made things look perfect because they're not always. The road can be tough and bumpy (literally and figuratively). We learn to adjust and keep it moving but we honestly wouldn't have it any other way right now!
Thanks for joining us on this journey so far and I hope you continue to follow.
Until I see you on the road or somewhere around the globe... Peace, love, and keep it real!
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