MEET THE ADVENTURE FAMILY

Kathy

@RTWAdventureMom

Wow I cannot believe a complete tech illiterate has started a blog. I am Kathy a wife, attorney and mother of two boys ages 7 and 9. We are going on a RTW Family Adventure. In my everyday life I work, read, play with the kids, clean the house, paint, host stupidly large family and kid parties. I love HGTV, the Food Network, and admit to liking reality TV ( hey, at least I'm not as crazy as they are). I enjoy decorating the house (mostly moving the same stuff around a lot), gardening (but hate weeding) and uber-organizing the house (if you need it there is a bin for that). Don't roll your eyes these traits may come in handy, travel life handy, very soon. I am told I also will do anything for anyone at anytime. I am loyal.

Bob

@RTWAdventureDad

Bob is the leader and moral compass of this family. We make a great team and neither could do without the other. He will take on any tough task to move us further in any direction we want to go as a family or individually. Bob is the tech guy (better than me), financial planner, go getter and kid and dog whisperer. Bob loves his family above all else. He misses, actually physically misses, the kids when away from them. As the kid whisperer, he is responsible for outdoor fun around the fire pit, entire neighborhood games of capture the flag and is the sole adult hunter in pitch dark games of manhunt. Bob is the boy's soccer and baseball coach, ski lift rider and all around best buddy. He is the first one up in the morning, and is the one to get them showered, into bed and kissed good nite. Bob is very disciplined (inside joke). He has run 6 marathons and is currently in love with hot yoga. Bob is extremely generous and ultimately very kind.

Roman

Roman has the crazy good, blonde, curly hair and blue eyes of a future charmer. He is funny, creative, hyper focused and a great speller. Yes, I ask my seven year old how to spell most words I cannot. At this age, his humor revolves around farts, gas and burps. If you ever meet him ask him what a "hot fart" is. Roman loves skiing (is super good), soccer, basketball and the 3DS. He can hear a tune once and repeat it, same with words to a song or commercial. He is an artist. I see him in ten years traveling Europe with a guitar across his back. He is smart, sensitive, sweet and knows just what to say to get his way.

Mabret

Mabret is our beautiful son inside and out. He is brave, smart and kind. He loves big families and kids of all ages. He will make sure everyone is safe and will never leave any kid behind. Mabret at 9 years old is every kids' protector. His sense of direction is keen and memory deep. He will never forget a person, house, game or location. Mabret is thoughtful and full of thoughts. He is the first to volunteer for a task and we can ALWAYS count on Mabret to be kind to others. Mabret is an athlete. He leads his team on the soccer field and will help a teammate score before himself. He loves baseball and is a snowboarder and wake boarding champ. Mabret is competitive and determined.

Zip line in Costa Rica 2011 (with crazy Tarzan swing)

Camping in Rickettes Glenn State Park, PA (home of 22 waterfall hike)

Playing in International Water Fountain, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA 2012

Whitewater rafting in Costa Rica 2011

Bob - On How It's All Possible

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I don't completely know how we are doing this but I pride myself on always delivering when it comes to being the CFO of the adventure family. The first step was moving from our house near Philadelphia to the "Adventure House" near Lake Wallenpaupack in the Poconos. The Adventure House was our vacation place that grew over the years to be the favorite place of our boys as well as Kathy and me. When Sundays came around, nobody wanted to leave. The boys made great friends there and we did as well. When we decided to pull the trigger on planning this trip, moving the boys to their favorite place was a difficult but also easy choice. Along with this move meant taking Mabret and Roman out of private school. Step one in the financial overhaul needed to travel for 8 months. Selling the house in Havertown, PA was step 1a. Btw, the boys love the Wallenpaupack Schools and we have been pleased with the education. Shout out to the Wallenpaupack Area School District and specifically Mrs. Strunk, Ms. Valerio and Mr. Kromko.

As I type it dawns on me that the financial planning to do this started long ago as we have discussed this from the time that Roman was born.  While this trip is a gift and we appreciate the good fortune that life has blessed us with, our normal days consist of very little that is extravagant.  Thanks to our boys and their sense of adventure, many a day passes when we don't spend much money.  A family hike and picnic or a day filled with baseball and soccer games is the norm for us.  The boys and their friends often spend most of a day simply playing outside together.  

While planning for our future and that of the boys is important, living in the present and living everyday to the fullest is something that we want our boys to do.  This trip will hopefully teach the boys that we practice what we preach.  In that way, the balance between making the finances work but also knowing that we cannot let this dream get away is difficult.  There is a leap of faith that in the end this will all make sense.

The Plan

Africa and Southeast Asia

We are the Adventure Family. Both our boys, ages 10 and 8, are adopted. Roman is our youngest and first. We adopted him domestically through an open adoption process from a wonderful woman and family near Dixon, Illinois. We were at the hospital hours after he was born and he has been with us since. We continue a very good relationship with Roman's extended birth family and visit when we can.

Mabret is our oldest son. Yes, we adopted out of birth order. He was born in the southern region of Ethiopia, Sidamo, and came into our family at the age of four and a half. Bob, Roman (at age 2.10) and I traveled to the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, in December 2007 to complete the adoption process and bring Mabret home. On January 5, 2008 Mabret entered the United States and our forever family.

Our plan is to leave November 2, 2013 for a period of five months and visit both sons' birth families, explore, learn and volunteer.

We will begin in Africa. The plan has always been to go back to Africa so Mabret can explore his original culture and connect with his birth family. At the time of the adoption, Mabret had two surviving brothers, one sister, a grandmother, and uncle. Bob was able to briefly meet and spend a short time visiting with the entire village. Going back, we would love to spend more time and we will see what happens from there.

We do not know what we will find when we get there. Hopefully we can find Mabret's birth family and village. Luckily, Bob had enough forethought to keep the translator's name and phone number who was able (after some effort) to find the village in late 2007. We have made contact with him and with some luck he can do it again six years later.

Our Story

Bob and Kathy

Bob was born, raised and educated in Philadelphia. He has two brothers and a younger sister adopted from South Korea. His family is loving, quirky and most are lawyers. They vacationed when he was a kid but, like most Philadelphians, it was " down the shore." Bob loved Long Port, NJ and has many great memories. This is where Bob honed the "Gaming" skills (that is gambling to normal folks) which he learned from his Dad. These skills have proven their worth in all parts of his life.

I was born and raised in small town Camp Hill in central PA. I have three sisters and we lived a typical middle class/ hard working lifestyle. My parents worked hard to provide us with a catholic school education and to send us all to college and beyond. When we vacationed, it was a two week camping trip to the same location just miles from home. When we splurged it was a camping trip to Maine or Canada. But it was those simple trips that I remember so fondly. How my mother did it with three very young kids I don't know.

When Bob and I met we were both working as criminal defense lawyers in Philadelphia. We worked hard at a sometimes difficult job, we both loved it and hated it at the same time. Bob was the gregarious, fun loving, hardworking public defender and I was the young, single, almost only private female defense lawyer in town. Our first dates were "running" dates and quick dinners to rehydrate. Bob understood me and we feel in love. Bob quit the public defenders office to open his own law office. He worked long hours to build his own business and fortunately was successful.

We soon began to talk about our life together. Marriage was the plan but how, when and where were the questions. For many reasons, we ultimately decided to elope. What followed was our "Moon-Honey"

We told no one of our ultimate plan and started our travels in London then moved on to Paris, Florence and then to Siena, Tuscany, central Italy where we were married by an Associate Mayor at Piazza del Campo in the Palazzo Pubblico. The location of the famous Palio di Siena bareback horse race. Thus we honeymooned before we were actually married, but hey we like to do things differently.

After the wedding, we traveled to Rome, Italy which immediately became one of our favorite cities (we named our youngest, but first son, Roman). Once home, we had the travel bug and continued to travel to Spain, the tip of Africa and Ethiopia and started planning for more.

Ten years and two adopted kids later (I never use the word adopted when describing our children but for our story and future travel it is meaningful), we are one year out from leaving for our own RTW Family Adventure.