{"id":54083,"title":"Our Story","description":"A quick catch up on what lead us to this moment.","content":"

In early 2022, we were sitting in our living room planning out what life was going to look like. Over the previous year we had gotten married, we had a baby due, a house we thought we\u2019d grow old in, and family close by. On paper, everything felt complete. Life felt settled.<\/p>

Then along came the little one.<\/p>

\"FamilyMaternity and paternity leave began, and very quickly our priorities shifted. What truly mattered wasn\u2019t the plans we\u2019d made or the boxes we\u2019d ticked, but each other and this tiny new family we\u2019d created. It\u2019s strange how true all those clich\u00e9s about parenting can be and how just looking at this little blob of a human can completely change your outlook on life.<\/p>

We started thinking again about how we wanted things to look day to day. It didn\u2019t feel right for Leanne to return to work full time, only for most of that income to disappear into childcare and for us to spend even more time apart. So after my paternity leave ended, I went back to work and it worked. I was remote, around the house, able to take lunch together, share small moments, and actually live the kind of family life we had imagined.<\/p>

For a while, life felt aligned. We enjoyed our first year as a family like this and genuinely felt we\u2019d found our rhythm.<\/p>

But as time went on, the thing many office workers were facing around then arrived for us too. The dreaded return-to-office call. It started slowly, but gradually it took its toll. Days that involved over an hour of commuting each way left me drained. By the time I got home, there was little energy left to give. Sitting in an office full of people I rarely worked with or even really knew felt surprisingly isolating, and it pulled me away from the very life we\u2019d worked so hard to build.<\/p>

We knew something needed to change, but we didn\u2019t know what that change should look like. Dropping hours wasn\u2019t realistic financially. We had some savings and briefly considered an extended holiday to maybe reset but we knew deep down that would only ever be temporary.<\/p>

Then one night, after the little one was in bed, we were sat watching the usual YouTube travel videos when those half-joking, half-serious thoughts crept in. Could we do that? What would it take? How much would it cost? We started running the numbers. And in what was a very impulsive move on my part, we even got a few people in to value the house.<\/p>

From that point on, we had a saying:<\/p>

\u201cTake the leap.\u201d\"DrivingWe were nervous about what life might look like, but excited by the idea of creating more time together as a family. Even if it only lasted a few years, we knew we\u2019d be able to look back and say we tried. That it was an achievement, not a failure.<\/p>

And so here we are. As I write this, we\u2019re sat in the south of Portugal 17 months into our adventure, having travelled to 14 countries together, making the most of our time as a family and proving to ourselves that sometimes, taking the leap really is worth it.<\/p>

- Alex<\/p>

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