We didn’t set out to be one of those weird, full-time RV families. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. For years, I poured over Pinterest posts and articles about families who had been brave enough to take the leap. I fantasized about traveling with my husband and daughters across the country, hiking amazing mountains and surfing on remote beaches. But, I thought, that was for truly crazy people. Unhinged. Not grounded to anything.

And then, COVID hit. My husband, a physician assistant with the Atlanta VA, got sick. Somehow the COVID virus affected his brain and he ended up in the hospital. Things were a bit crazy. We felt unhinged. And aside from a couple of truly caring friends and our precious extended families, we felt like we were grounded to very little but ourselves and God.

And so, we did the thing. We sold the house. We bought the trailer. We hit the road.

We took our girls hiking through Yellowstone and boogie boarding in Ventura, California. Now, almost 7 months into this adventure, we are looking to settle down again. But for the love of all things good and true, I will never regret taking this time, spending this money and making these memories.

Traveling as a family just hits different.

We thought we already lived small in our 2 bedroom, one bathroom house. Now we live smaller.

I’ve seen my girls ache and long for space to create. In some ways, I also long for more tables to cover with paper and paint, clear floors to build block towers and counters on which to bake. But in other ways, I’m so grateful that we replaced our one dining table with the Christmas tree and that we have to go outside to embroider and paint and create.

Gratitude isn’t created in the midst of having all we want. It’s grown in the places where we have just enough.

I know we’ll have a house again soon. Maybe it will be bigger than our last one. Probably not. But now that we’ve lived this way for almost a year, I hope to remember all the ways it has shaped how we view what we think we need.

What have you always wanted to try as a family? What would it take for you to take the steps towards that dream?