When we heard that there was a potential job for my husband in Dublin, Ireland – we jumped at it.  We’d always wanted to live overseas somewhere so were excited about Ireland.  Then the fear and doubts started to sink in.  “Would we be accepted?” “Doesn’t everyone hate Americans?” “Will we find a good school” “Will the rain drive us nuts?” (that one makes me laugh coming from Seattle!), “Where will we live?” “How will we live without Ben and Jerry’s?” etc.

On top of the fears, there were heaps of loose ends like finding someone to rent our house, getting rid of household things, deciding what to take, what to keep but not take and what to take but not keep – it was like a rubrics cube of details.  Make one change here, how does that affect us?   In other words, it weren’t no picnic… For about 6 months!

Was it all worth it?!!  One huge emphatic ABSOLUTELY!

I can’t even count the many ways I personally benefited from living in Ireland let alone the changes for my husband and girls.  This one adventure has now changed the course of our lives forever.  One of the biggest ways this has played out is this willingness to really live our lives and try new things.  Ben has left the security of his steady job to pursue a bigger dream as well as help me grow my business.     This business, we hope, will be a way for us to travel more and explore this great big world with camera in hand!

I feel like blogging about this today because I’m passed the excited beginning of the adventure stage to the doubt stage where I longingly look at people working at say Pottery Barn and admire the simplicity of their life and being not self-employed.   It’s good to put this down so I can remind myself that I’m following my dream and that I’m following what I love and through that, it will make my life richer.  I have a feeling I’ll need to remind myself of this along the way from time to time.

This photo is a of my daughter running in Northern Ireland.  This is the image that comes to mind when I focus on pursuing my dreams.  To me she looks like she is chasing something with joy.  But she also has Ben’s sweater on which reminds me that as I chase, it’s good to have a piece of home, family with me.