The Beginning

Writing from the airport in Iceland — we are all properly jet lagged. The boys are passed out in their contorted positions at a cafe and Jeff and I are sipping coffee rather blearily. Our first leg went off without a hitch, and while our flight to London is slightly delayed, we are expecting a smooth flight there as well. These first couple days will challenge our body’s sense of time but we have planned to do a lot of walking, in hopes to fast forward the proccess of acclimating to our time zone for the next 80 days. 

Leading up to this point had been a whirlwind. All four of us packed a lot in these last couple weeks. Jeff tied up loose ends with work (no small feat given his multiple roles) and attended a Health Ed Connect board meeting in Kansas City. Brooks was also in Kansas City competing in Destination Imagination (globals!). Grayson took part in a two day chess tournament in the middle of about five school projects. And I started dozens of lists and attempted to cross off each item, all while getting our home packed up for our summer renters. Now that we are here, this trip feels real!

The highlight so far was running into an old college friend here in Iceland! She is the one that found us — and I literally took 10 seconds after she surprised me, to say, “Amy?!!!” — not quite believing my eyes. It was such a treat to see her — such an amazing reminder of how small this world really is, and simultaneously how big our lives have been. 

We decided to name our blog “Wherever We Are, We are” because while this trip is absolutely an adventure of a life time, and we will be moving around, experiencing a variety of cultures, food, and landscapes, we still want to be as present as possible. We want to notice the small moments, just as much as the jaw dropping ones. We want to notice how each place changes us a tiny bit, and how at our cores, we stay the same. We want to be at home with each other, and when we come back home, we want to continue our sense of adventure. No matter where we are in this huge world of ours, running into an old friend that we met in one of the smallest rural towns in America half-way across the world, will give us so much joy. 

 

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