Well, it is official! We have booked our one-way tickets out of Salt Lake City to San Jose, Costa Rica. From San Jose we will find some sort of transportation, probably bus, to the city of Granada Nicaragua.
Starting about a month ago we put many of our belongings online to sell. We sold a good amount of our stuff for two reasons: First, we wanted to de-clutter our lives and have less “stuff” to store while we’re gone. Second, instead of using our savings, we wanted to raise enough money to purchase our plane tickets down to Nicaragua. We haven’t sold everything quite yet but we sold enough to buy our tickets!
Why?
We are going because we want to learn a new culture and language. We really want to help those less fortunate than us. And have an adventure. Growing up my parents moved us out of the country a couple of times. Once when I was 8 to Panama for a year. Again when I was 13 to Chile for about 8 months. So the idea of living out of the country is not a foreign one. We all grew so much as a family and individually during these experiences that I want the same thing to happen with my family now. Back in December of 2012 Angelina and I decided that we were supposed to move, we just didn’t know where.
After researching and praying we decided on Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a very poor but beautiful country and we are excited to go explore it. Our main deciding factor in choosing Nicaragua is that we feel that it is where our family is supposed to go!
When?
We will be leaving July 10th and we plan on living there six months to a year!
How?
We have been very blessed to work with a great organization called YUDA Bands. YUDA Bands are Guatemalan handmade leather and coconut bracelets that we sell in high schools and jr. highs nationwide. Part of the money from the sales of these bands goes to sponsor students in developing countries with years of education and also gives work to the jobless. I am lucky enough to train student leaders on how to host a successful project. A HUGE blessing is that I do all of my trainings and communicating via the Internet. Which means what? That we can live anywhere in the world as long as we have Internet. So for me working with YUDA Bands has been the best thing. I get to work from home and now we get to live anywhere we want! Learn more about YUDA Bands
I also do a bit of web-design on the side. Mostly for friends, family, and some small businesses as well.
We also have several rental properties that we have invested in over the years. This is also provided us a great way to be flexible in our life decisions. All in all, we are not going down for a job opportunity. We just want to live life while “finding joy in the journey”.