Imagine packing up your life, leaving behind routine, and embarking on a year-long adventure around the globe with your family. That’s what we’ve done and it’s feeling like one of the best decisions of our lives. We did not do it on a whim. We’ve been planning for many years. But it still feels fresh and vibrant and new.

I’m sitting here sipping a vanilla macadamia nut coffee, listening to birds cooing just outside the window. The temperature is perfect—both the coffee and the air around me. In the early morning, the scents of the ocean and the jungle drift in, pure and uncorrupted. It’s truly amazing to be back in Hawaii.

As the new year draws ever nearer, I am asked more and more often if the family is getting more excited. I hesitate to answer every time. The first emotion that rises to the surface, literally every time, is anxiety. “We don’t have plane tickets booked, we don’t have renters for the house, we don’t have enough X, Y, or Z, we’ll still have to do A, B, and C…” All those thoughts float to the surface…

Looking ahead to February 2026, our Eldest Son will embark on his next significant chapter of life by attending YWAM New Zealand’s Discipleship Training School (DTS). He will be attending a DTS that is separate from the rest of the family and will truly be his first time apart from us for any extended period of time (although we will only be a 40-minute drive away)…

As we gear up for our year abroad in 2026, our family of seven is buzzing with excitement and a touch of uncertainty. January’s destination is set for Hawaii, a place that holds deep significance for us, but planning this leg of the journey (the first leg!) is proving to be our toughest challenge yet…

It’s been years in the making but the time to begin the journey is fast approaching. On January 1, 2026, we will be leaving Canada for one full calendar year. Some of the kids have never been on an airplane and only one of them had been outside of the country…when he was two years old…