Meadow Way Magic

The Starting Line

Our Home

This has been our home for the past 2.5 years, and this time has been filled with so much magic and wonder. Our kids got to experience so much here. The PNW really delivered in the nature department. The colors on the trees, the flowers, the snow, the critters we encountered all added to our experience here in Oregon. Our home was as close to a dream home as Marc and I could imagine, and while it had its challenges, it overall was a magical time period that we will hold onto forever.

We will miss this house, but we will miss our neighbors most. We were lucky enough to live on a court with the best neighbors we have ever had. The kind of neighbors that would come by after school and play until it was dark out. The kind of neighbors where we would get together on weekends from sun up to sun down. The kind of neighbors that you could trust with anything, and rely on for everything. We were beyond lucky to get to live on Meadow Way with them. They made this time the best of our lives.

If you were one of the lucky MANY that came to visit us in Oregon, then you are fully aware of just how special this place was.

Timeline

November 5th, 2024: election day. This changed our lives completely. Under the proposed policies of the new president elect, it will no longer be safe for us to live in America. We are an LGBTQ family, with a critical phase coming up in just a couple of years, so for us the stakes couldn’t be higher… it’s time to make a move, but where?

We had talked about what to do in the event this happens, so we were somewhat prepared, but we knew we had only 75 days until inauguration, and we don’t want to be here when that happens. We quickly moved from shock/anger/sadness into action mode. House goes up for sale November 6th. Accepted offer November 10th. Sell or give away 99% of our belongings. Cancel all of our utilities, subscriptions, classes, extra-curricular activities. House closes November 22. Marc quits his job at Nike and sells his car. Our moving day ends up being December 5th, just one month after election day.

The Plan

We decided that we didn’t just want to pick a country at random and move there, we wanted to take this crappy thing that happened and turn it into a grand adventure. So we are going to travel the WORLD for a year in search of our new home. We’d wanted to do something similar before the pandemic, so our passports were ready to go. We’d done a few month-long excursions during the pandemic, so we know how it feels to try out a new place. This was the kick in the pants we needed to take the plunge into the unknown.

Up until moving day, we had solely been focused on our exit strategy. It isn’t simple to cancel your entire life, purge a 5,000 sqft house, and so many years of stuff. It took a lot of planning, organizing, cleaning, Facebook Marketplace, and tons of trips to Goodwill. But once we left Meadow Way, we could start focusing on the Adventure Planning! The harder parts are in the rearview mirror, and we can start looking forward to the adventure ahead.

We are going to start in Sacramento, CA at Rachel’s parents’ house. We will visit with family for a month, while we plan the year ahead.

The Kids

You might be asking, how the kids have been taking all of this?

I am happy to report that they have been handling it all in stride. They are excited for the grand adventure, and were all individually willing to do anything necessary to protect their family. There have been hard goodbyes, and tears for sure, but they are mostly excited about the adventure ahead. They have been able to make a lot of their friends and family happy with gifted toys, stuffed animals, books, art supplies, and furniture. They are definitely looking forward to the planning and adventure phase. They are helping research the possible destinations we’re considering.

Reflections

This period of our lives has been hard on us all, but we are all excited to start the biggest adventure of our lives. It’s been a ton of work, mixed with so much uncertainty, but we’ve gotten so much support from family, friends, and strangers. And it’s amazing how easy it is to give up creature comforts and material possessions when what’s truly important is on the line. There is a lot of comfort that we all feel in knowing that home is not the things we surround ourselves with, home is our family.