Assurance

How our final decision to travel for 1 year actually came about is quite interesting.  I have always held a desire to travel for an extended amount of time or what I really like to say is just take off and fly by the seat of my pants somewhere and leave everything behind to see what’s out there and what the world’s all about.  I had put the seed in Jenny’s head several times, but never really tried to convince her or sell her on the idea cause as I mentioned earlier – it was still a dream and something that I didn’t think I’d truly be able to pull off.  

It was now April, 2009 and we were planning to marry in July.  We both lived in separate houses and wanted to buy a new home after we were married to help start our new life together.  We started looking and believe it or not we only looked at about 7 houses when we realized the neighborhood and house we already knew we wanted was actually the very first house we looked at!  The house was awesome!  It had a wonderful backyard for the 4 dogs that would also be living there – that’s right four – absolutely nuts I know!  There were several large, mature trees in the backyard along with several nice bushes, shrubs, plants, and flowers – most of which would have been most likely ruined with four dogs.  The main thing though was that there were numerous large trees and lots of bigger shrubbery for the dogs to be able to have some fun chasing squirrels and rabbits and also so we could have a relaxing and peaceful yard to retreat to after a long day at work.  It also had 2 areas to reach the backyard from the house – one little deck area and then a nice brick patio area with a trellis where the grill and an outside reading / eating area would be. 

The rest of the house was great as well with 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 fireplaces, a large kitchen and a nice finished basement with a small kitchenette.  I mean the house was fantastic for us and especially that it was only TWO of us!  I mean geez, obviously we needed that amount of space and especially FOUR bathrooms!  Ask me on that opinion now...  We let our realtor know we wanted this house and came to find out it was a short-sale (the stage before foreclosure).  Our realtor informed us these can tend to take awhile and we figured no problem since we had a few months until our wedding anyway.  We made an offer and began the waiting game. 

In this time of waiting I began saying little things to Jenny here and there like, “man, we should just take our money and travel.” I wasn’t totally serious when saying this, but I more or less wanted to see what her reaction was.  If she was to agree to it I would have dropped everything in a heart-beat.  Well after waiting nearly 3 months waiting for this perfect house we saw ourselves raising kids in we got an answer.  Our realtor called us and told us the house has been removed from a short-sale – this happened to be a Friday (June 26, 2009).  The banks found out the sellers had other assets they hadn’t disclosed.  Therefore, knowing they could still get their money owed (from the sellers) the house was taken off the short-sale status. 

Jen and I were pretty bummed to say the least.  So the next day Saturday I mentioned to her as we were driving down the road that we should seriously take our down payment money and travel the world for a year.  I told her, when else are we going to be able to do this?  When we retire and are much older and don’t have the energy or fearlessness to try numerous adventures or visit several areas and regions?  I also sold her on the fact that we don’t have kids yet and that surely when we have kids it would be a long time before we’d be able to make it happen.  Also on how awesome it would be to be able to do this together as lovers, best friends, and partners.  Every valid point that could have possibly been said was just flowing freely out of my mouth as if this was a destiny!  We had saved enough money for the last 2 ½ years that even if we used all our down payment money we would still come back to a good cushion. 

I couldn’t believe all the points I was making and how easily they were coming to my mind.  The main thing I was shocked by (and which must have kept fueling my sales pitch) was that she had no strong rebuttals or objections and the ones she did have were easily overcome.  I think she might have been experiencing a certain amount of fear or confusion in trying to accept the reality of just up and leaving our careers, house, dogs, family, friends, etc for a year.  I can understand as that is one of the toughest obstacles in making a decision like this.  It didn’t at all stop me from busting out laughing with the realization and happiness that I had sold her on the idea!  She must have known exactly what I was thinking because she just looked at me and smiled speechlessly acknowledging the fact that I had several valid points and there really was no reason not to do this.  I was pumped – success for the first time in truly trying to sell her on leaving and traveling for a year.  The door had just been slightly opened. 

The next morning we did our normal Sunday morning routine.  I left my house a little before 9:00am to pick her up, grab some coffee and a bagel, and then head to church – little did we know how impacting this service would turn out to be for us and the next year of our lives.  The entire sermon was about the sabbatical year, pushing pause on life, and filling up on God.  Our pastor was encouraging everyone, if possible, to take every seventh year off of work, use the time to reflect, focus, and deepen our Spiritual journey.  Basically, (and I love the way he put it) just 'push pause on life!'  Right in the middle of this sermon and as he was mentioning everything, the reasoning and taking off a year, Jenny and I simultaneously turned and looked at each other with huge smiles and just laughed... the door was now definitely open! 

I don’t believe we could have ever had any better direction for doing what we were considering doing.  It was absolutely incredible.  I can’t even describe the feeling and emotion we had during and after that service.  How could we possibly not go on this journey now?!  We felt we had just gotten the assurance and "ok" from the Lord Himself.  Ironically, it was our seventh year of work coming up as we had both graduated in 2003.  It was June 28, 2009 and that’s the day we decided “Yes” we will go for it.  We will take a year off, push pause on life to see what it’s all about, and most of all -  fill up on God as much as we know how or at least try and put him first in all we do. 

What a feeling it is when you finally and actually decide that you’re going to do this for sure.  Suddenly, everything around you seems so much lighter as your perception changes and is now something it’s never been.  It's almost as if you were just fitted with some new type of lens or vision.