Category: Simple Living Travel

I’ve been thinking and praying about this post for a while.  And the truth is that I have so little really figured out.

I honestly love writing.  In the last 3+ years that I have been blogging my life has changed. 

I started out wanting to cut back on stuff that was crowding my life and ended up embracing minimalism, traveling internationally, and now committing to staying long term in a job I would have only dreamed of back when I started.

It has been a wild ride and writing has helped me process it.  In the pages of this blog the whole thing is documented.  From 2000 square feet and a full life of everything I thought I should be doing, to a few travel bags and a full life of what I believe in.  … and I don’t take to changes easily… so that is probably why it took so long to figure all out.

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Image: nuchylee FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Not sure how long this post will end up, but a lot has been going on in the last few months and it all seems to interconnect.  I feel like I need to tell you it all together.

So grab a copy of tea and a comfy seat.

You may like this post if you like simple living, travel, adventure, personal growth, social enterprise, entrepreneurship, photography, or just a long rambling sorry 🙂

Here it goes:

So, years ago, when I started this blog and we started making changes to our life, we were trying to move toward more intentional living.  We have never wanted less life – we have wanted more room in life for the things worth living.

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This week we are leaving China.  We arrived here in February of this year.  It has been a wild and crazy time.  In some ways it feels like it has been long and living in the US seems so long ago, but in other ways the time has felt very short.

Our week is full of a bunch of packing, testing students, and saying good-buy to friends but I wanted to write out some of the things we have learned this year.

10 months in China taught me:

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The month of August 2013 our family spent almost 4 weeks in Taipei, Taiwan.  It was pretty exciting to see the similarities and differences between China, where we live, and Taiwan.

Probably, for someone coming from the west, it would seem like they are similar but after living in China for the last 5-ish months Taiwan was another world.

I wanted to tell you a bit about Taiwan and show you some pictures.  If you get the chance some day to see it, I recommend it.  Otherwise, I will try and tell you want I can.

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Seven weeks ago today we left our little Chinese apartment for a summer of traveling.   For seven weeks we have been living with buses, trains, subways, airplanes, 2 different countries, a hotel, 2 different jobs, and my two darling kids.

Travel Needs:

1. The first month we were volunteering at Starfish doing office work and photography.  This required me to be dressed up most days looking professional enough to be in an office.  It required Bryon to bring almost all his photography gear because he was doing several different photography projects.
2. The second month we were volunteering in Taiwan at a Christian school and Bryon was doing construction and both of us were doing some teaching.
3. The kids are like most kids – now 6 (my boy) and 9 (my girl).  They change their clothes all the time and collect all their own treasures they want to carry around with them.

We were trying to combine work (a few different jobs) with vacation in a few different countries.

Travel Reality:

Traveling internationally in Asia with public transit, trying to get through crowds of people, through cities we have never been to… where we speak (basically) none of the language – all while trying to keep track of two children who are big enough to walk but not big enough to carry much.

This required the tightest packing I have ever done – our ‘simplest’ living yet.  

I am sick of the clothes I brought with me, but we made it through the summer and as we pack up to travel home this week I am so grateful we didn’t try to carry more with us.

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