When we first entertained the thought to sell off all of our stuff and travel, we had many questions and concerns we needed answers and assurances for before we could commit to the idea. We read a lot of books, magazine articles and blog posts searching for answers to our long list of questions.
Most of the questions we had centered around expat life itself; would it be as great as we thought? What would be the biggest challenges? How long and hard would the adjustment be? What would the costs be both personally and monetarily? Each time we considered a new challenge we would set out to find answers and opinions to help make decisions.
Making the Decision to Travel or Move Abroad is a Difficult
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The uncertainty you experience can feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders.
We wanted to learn from a variety of experiences so we combed the web and sent a lot of time searching libraries and bookstores to learn as much as we could. One of the blogs we read for quite some time before we set the ball in motion was The Gringos Abroad. The blog is the Haines family’s personal account of moving from their home in small town Nova Scotia to a big city in Ecuador.
Brian and Dena Haines left their life in Eastern Canada to move to Ecuador with their daughter Drew in 2009. We followed their journey on their blog and learned a lot about moving abroad, dealing with challenges of long-term travel and expat life in general.
In June of this year, two months after we began traveling Dena contacted us for an interview to contribute to a resource book they were creating called The Expat Family Handbook. The book offers solutions to eight challenges expat families commonly experience. We were happy to contribute and it is our pleasure to share details of our experience to help other families considering a life abroad.
A lot of Helpful Advice All in one Place
The book offers solutions to eight challenges expat families face: Dealing with the negativity and misconceptions of others, how to involve the whole family in the planning, ideas on planning a successful scouting trip, preparation for goodbyes, dealing with bad days, language immersion, school and socialization for the kids and laying the groundwork for a smooth transition.
The true benefit of this book if you are considering taking your family on the road traveling or moving abroad to another country is it includes the opinions and experience of 16 different traveling families plus the Haines family’s story. All families have excerpts of input throughout the book with each expat family’s full interview included at the end.
The Real Value is in the Different Situations, Opinions and Advice.
Each family shares how they personally manage challenges and offers sage advice for families considering a life abroad. All families are different; some have young children, some have kids that have grown up living abroad. Each family has a different situation, from different parts of the world residing or traveling through different countries across the globe. There is a wide variety of opinion and experience in this book.
The Expat Family Handbook details the challenges expat families face and how to overcome them. Valuable information if you are planning to travel for an extended period or make a move abroad.
You can buy the book here:
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