At this point in the planning, we have not made our plans completely public. We’re not hiding anything, but we also feel that other than the fact that we’re GOING, we don’t have a whole lot to say at this point in response to the questions we’re getting from our friends and family.

The most common question from friends is “tell me more. Where are you going?” and immediately we don’t have an answer for them. Our list is huge, we have to narrow it down, but we don’t know what to cut out, what to make “for sure”, etc. That makes the discussions a little more challenging.

We have also had mixed reactions from both family and friends. Some of them are super excited and want to hear everything. I can tell that they have wheels rolling in their heads wondering if they could (or want to) pull this off with their families. The other side has immediate reactions of negativity based (in my opinion) on fear and uncertainty and doubt. FUD. “Why in the world would you want to do that?” “You’re kidding right?” “Are you going to seriously home school them?” etc etc. The family reactions have been anywhere from nodding and thinking in their heads “yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it” to “how are you going to pay for that?” to the very positive and enthusiastic reactions. It’s a mixed board all the way around.

We have started to tell people about it slowly based on a “have to know” basis. For example, I am currently the PTA Co-President at my kids school and I have signed up for a two year commitment. While I take my role with the PTA extremely seriously, it’s not a good reason to postpone a family and life changing trip like this, so I met with my co-pres and let him know about our plans and my desire to either continue to help from the road, or to take a year off and finish my term when I get back. He was great about responding and I felt his genuine enthusiasm. It was much appreciated.

We’ve also started to tell just a few of our friends. We haven’t announced anything yet, but we have started to talk about it in close circles and have let a little of the cat out of the bag. Erin plans on teaching Yoga in Peru while we are there and has invited her students in Colorado to come join her for example. No dates yet, but we’ve put the fact that we are leaving and that we’d love to see them out there and they now know.

I think the majority of our family knows now, so that’s good.

I’m sure we will continue to tell people as the conversation allows, but I don’t think we will really reveal our true plans (mostly because we don’t know them!) until later this winter or possibly even spring. I’ve been holding off on creating our Facebook page for a little while as well in an effort to shore up some plans first before questions start to come in.