We were at the cabin yesterday and Stacie looked at me and said “two weeks from today.” It rattled me a little to hear that we are only two weeks away from this trip we have been dreaming about for years. Sometimes hearing the words from someone else can be a slap in the face, it startled me.

We are in great shape from a planning perspective. We have some loose ends to tie up over the next couple of weeks, but the workload will not be terrible. I think the biggest challenge we will face over the next 13 days will be our emotions.

For the most part we are all in a good place and excitement is our primary emotion. However, leaving your home and all that you know for an extended time is a scary thing and we are all feeling it. The busy work of the past 5 weeks has helped to keep those fears at bay, but now they are front and center and we will be dealing with them on a daily basis. The closer it comes the more real it becomes and the fear of the unknown is becoming intense.

Fears of how we will all get along, if we have picked the right places, if we are traveling in the right way (fast vs slow), if we can educate the kids properly, if we spending too much money, if someone going to get badly hurt, if the world going to completely melt down, if we can live out of a backpack for a year, if we have packed everything I need, and a thousand more.

In the end we know we are jumping off a cliff and will just have to deal with these fears together as a family. That is one of the primary reasons we are taking the trip, to come together as a family and rely on one another without the distractions of daily life. I can’t wait.