After years of laying the groundwork, we finally decided it was the right time to make our dream of living at our island home, a reality. Over the years I’ve written about buying and renovating our home, and originally, it seemed just owning a slice of paradise was all the dream entailed, but the idea of living on island for a longer period of time was one that neither Tom nor I could shake. The more time we spent on island, the more we wanted to be there. We’ve met wonderful people making it feel like more of a home and less of a place to vacation. We’ve watched our kids flourish when put in situations they never get to encounter in the States, and we found ourselves wanting to give them the opportunity to fully immerse in a different way of life, even if only for one semester.

I’ve said it before, but island life, while glorious, is also challenging. The power supply is erratic, water can be scarce and finding what you need, when you need it, is never a guarantee. The tradeoff? Living on island is a constant reminder of all the little things we take for granted on a daily basis, but shouldn’t. It’s a slower and quieter way of a life; one with less noise, fewer distractions and more time to focus on each other.

With Luci in the last semester of her 7th grade year, we felt like it was literally now, or never. We know she will not want to miss her eighth grade year, and once she’s in high school, it’s not likely that we’ll be able to up and move without a lot more pushback. So about a year ago, Tom and I decided we were going to do whatever we could to finally make this dream a reality. We quietly began putting the pieces in place. We shipped a vehicle onto the island, built a garage, notified our team (thank GOD we have an amazing team) and tried to prepare the kids and our businesses for the change. We also started researching schools and ultimately, we landed on a private online school. Oh my goodness, I had no idea how many online schools there are, it was a little overwhelming to sift through all the options, but with both of us still working, homeschooling was not possible (well, it wasn’t possible for many reasons, but that’s the main one). ;)

Finally, after so much planning, on January 7th (2 days after we got 10” of snow at home) we hopped on a plane and headed for our home away from home. For those of you who have asked me to document our time, I promise I will try and do my best to post quick weekly recaps. I find living in, and enjoying each moment, while also trying to remember each moment a bit of a challenge. Right now I just want to live in each moment, but I know one day I’m going to want to remember each moment, and the best way to do that is by writing this time down. So, thank you to everyone that has encouraged me to do so.

One thing is for sure, it has been nothing shy of an adventure since we arrived and if I’m being completely honest, the weeks leading up to us leaving weren’t all that boring either, but more to come on all of that later…