I want to tell you a really remarkable tale today. The narrative of my friend Heidi Wagoner, who journeys across the globe alongside her spouse and their two children. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, last year, I got to know Heidi and her family. And for the record, they're still traveling now that a year has passed.

While dining at a Mexican restaurant in Chiang Mai one evening, Heidi shared with me her life story and explained how she abandoned her career, her home, and everything else to pursue her ambitions. A Family Traveling Across The Universe When she shared her inspirational story with me, I was so affected that I nearly started crying.

I felt compelled to ask her if she would be willing to put it in writing so that I could share it on my blog and encourage even more people. I promise that this story will move you, reader, whether or not you are a parent already. Now let's get started. This is Heidi's story as she recounted it.

Tips for Traveling the Universe with Kids

Once you have children, your days of traveling are finished!

I was aware of this when I was younger, which is precisely why I took a trip right after I graduated from college. In my 20s, I lived in Mexico and traveled to nearly every state in the country.

I also spent several months visiting a small portion of Central America. This was my chance to let go and indulge my wanderlust. I got married in my twenties, and we traveled throughout much of Western Europe while residing in London.

Currently in my thirties and with two children, our family has been on the road since August 2012. Having kids doesn't mean you can't travel.

We reserve extended trips for the young and childless.

We've all been socialized to believe that you can travel after you graduate from college, when you're in your 20s, or when you're retired in your 60s. In your thirties to fifties, you should be concentrating on your profession and family; therefore, traveling during this period is frowned upon, reckless, and insane.

Put your crazy and wild days behind you now. A Family Traveling Across The Universe So that you may make your family and society pleased, you need to demonstrate that you are "successful" by having a list of accomplishments, documents, degrees, a house, and kids.

Read also: Adventure Awaits: Top 10 Family Getaways for 2024

There is no getting over the need to travel.

As frequent travelers, you are aware that travel is a process that takes time to fully process. You don't simply cross something off your bucket list and call it a day. We can't say, I want to explore the world, do it, and expect it to stay fixed. At least not for most people; it's not a goal you establish, accomplish, and then go on.

My mother didn't prioritize travel, as far as I knew, until we went to Thailand together in the late 1990s. She had never left North America and was in her 50s. It was her first taste of a wider world, and she was immediately enthralled.

The Dream of America

As previously said, I lived overseas in my thirties and traveled during my twenties. Yes, I cleared my travel history and was a good American citizen. A Family Traveling Across The Universe I prioritized starting a family and advancing my profession. Alan and I were employed; therefore, it just so happened that we had two prosperous careers.

We had two cars, two children, a dog, and our first house, which we purchased with a 30-year mortgage. We had the American dream going. We had everything we were meant to have. It took us more than a decade and a half to establish and sustain that lifestyle. We were rewarded with a new TV, granite countertops, a gardener, or a nicer family trip with every new professional achievement.

Our created lives had us as its slaves.

Our whole daily schedule was devoted to getting the children to and from employment and school. We ran errands, completed chores, mowed the yard, maintained the house, bought decorations, attended to the children's activities, did laundry, cleaned, and so on throughout the evenings and weekends.

In order to enjoy this large house, we had to take care of it and make improvements (a sign of achievement). Our beautifully displayed collection of over 900 CDs A Family Traveling Across The universe, as well as every video game console ever made, were gathering dust on our shelves. We were able to take three weeks off each year because of our careers.

We meticulously strategized and scheduled them to coincide with current weekends and holidays, in an attempt to optimize the duration and frequency of our absences. Even though it was only in short spurts of time, we were nevertheless able to satisfy our need for both home and foreign travel.

The pivotal moment

I came to see that we were overspending on things. I glanced around our 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house and realized we had packed everything into it, either for aesthetic purposes or for our own amusement. Items that gathered dust required cleaning, which took time away from my time.

We were not together as a family throughout this priceless period of life.We would frequently be dispersed throughout the home, using whatever we had purchased to "do our own thing." I saw that while many of these things were assisting our family individually, they were not doing anything for us as a unit.

Sure, sometimes we enjoyed ourselves while watching a movie, playing a game of cards, or just rocking out. But that wasn't always the case. It became clear to me how much the item needed to be maintained.

Read also: 7 Best Family Travel Blogs You Need to Read

I felt more and more empty as we bought more items.

Our house was packed with belongings, yet it wasn't overly messy or full. I started to gently tidy up our house. Dispose of items that are no longer in use, as you may know.

Since nobody seemed to notice anything missing, I kept on with the purge. Giving up some of the clothing, toys, and technology to a worthy recipient made me feel very good.

We lived in the age of easy fixes, where we could buy something to spend time together as a family, and then go on. After something caught our attention, something new and improved would come out, and we wanted it.

When I started to doubt everything,

I started to wonder why we had it all in the first place during this process. Why is it that, in order to be content and accepted by society, we must be successful?

I started to think of a strategy and got motivated by reading up on our upcoming vacation to Peru. While doing this, I came across a ton of blogs and inspirational sites, some of which featured families on the road. As my mind raced, I realized there were other trippers with kids.

I didn't have to stop traveling when I was in my 20s or 30s! More questions raced through my head. What makes us idle, hoarding our cash for the inevitable day when we'll lose our jobs? Why do we keep waiting for something so profound to happen to us?

Reducing and organizing

As a team, we started to concentrate on this new dream. Once we were in harmony, we experienced magic. The family helped us accomplish our shared objective of cleaning stuff. A Family Traveling Across The Universe We gave up buying "things and put all of our energy toward simplifying and clearing out.

As we saved more money and found it easier to do so, our savings increased. When we stopped constantly spending money, it was incredible how fast we could save it.

We gave up almost all we had.

We were informed that it would take more than a year to sell our enormous home when we sought to sell it in a horrible real estate market. After all, our house was almost next door to the 392-day-old listing. We were aware that doing this would be extremely difficult and against all odds.

We presented the house to any buyer after doing a thorough declutter. In addition to using an agent that we hired, we also threw in a dash of my wild ideas to sell the house.

We all danced and chanted in our living room the first night the house was for sale, kind of like a rain dance. We were channeling our energy toward selling the house to the ghosts. The very next day, we had a showing.

Europe, hey! Farewell to America!

Our intention was to relocate to Spain and explore the continent. For us, it was crucial that the children learn Spanish with fluency. Our goal was to go to Spain. The majority of our personal possessions and our house were sold.

The more we let go, the more liberated we felt. Everything was fitting together perfectly. In August 2012, we relocated to Spain. We decided to become nomads and spend a year traveling around Southeast Asia after almost two years of living in Spain.

We spent a month in Europe, ten months in Southeast Asia, and then a brief month in the Southwest of the United States. After that, we went back to Spain to serve as our home base.

Read also: Family Travel Expert For International Travel

Our new existence is a nomadic one.

With all of our accomplishments, we can travel the world while raising our children for a lot less money than we could ever make back in the United States. A Family Traveling Across The Universe We live in a nicely equipped house in Spain with a beautiful view of the sea. We, too, live a very simple life and have extremely affordable health insurance.

The nicest thing about it all is that our family spends a ton of wonderful time together. We've dispelled the misconception that only people who are leaving college or heading into retirement should travel. Why must we go only when requested by others and adhere to the rules? We made the travel life work for us by taking control of our fate.

How our family is able to finance long-term travel

A lot of people believe that leading a nomadic lifestyle requires wealth. They also question how we manage to survive for such a long time without working. I wouldn't argue that we're not working, though.

Running our family blog, Wanderers Abroad, is something we do full-time, although not always. Through affiliate links, sponsored material, and advertising, we are able to monetize the blog. A Family Traveling Across The Universe In addition, we have authored two well-known ebooks: Let the Kids Cook, which was created with kids for kids and is available on Amazon, and Live in Spain, which is our best-selling book for anybody who wants to walk in our footsteps.

Non-EU citizens can get assistance from Live in Spain in navigating the difficult process of acquiring a Spanish resident visa. We are frequently approached with letters of thanks after successfully assisting hundreds of people with relocation to or travel through Spain.

Would you take your children on a global tour?

Not everyone can live this life, and not everyone accepts it either. A Family Traveling Across The Universe We encounter our fair share of doubters and others who are merely ignorant of our decisions.

We share similar feelings about some of their decisions. We must each follow our own drummer, because we are all unique, and that is the beauty of it all. It is imperative that we pursue our passions and aspirations, even if they deviate from societal norms or expectations.

We are occasionally referred to as being careless since we don't own a house and we don't provide our kids with roots. Conversely, their roots are deeply ingrained and extend around the globe.

FAQ's: A Family Traveling Across The Universe

Is it possible to travel across the universe?

The distances between galaxies are approximately 100,000 times (five orders of magnitude) longer than those between stars. The technology needed to travel across galaxies is presently solely the stuff of science fiction, conjecture, and well beyond human capabilities.

How do I meet myself in the parallel universe?

1. Picture a parallel universe to visualize a different career path.
2. Imagine going back in time in order to feel like you're in the past again.
3. Meditate on ascending to the 5th dimension, the spirit realm, to see your higher self.

What is 1 light-year away?

The distance a light beam travels in an Earth year is measured in light-years, which is around 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).