Moving
[av_one_full first]
[av_video src=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0Eb_SYpaw’ format=’16-9′ width=’16’ height=’9′]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
STOP TRAVELING, START MOVING
Stephanie and I started our year of travel with no clue where we would end up. That is the way we wanted it, which is why we sold our businesses, house, cars and gave away all of our furniture, most of our clothes and a ton of our “stuff” we all have no clue how we accumulate. For a year of living in foreign countries and other states we would have to depend on each other.
We realized that growth always comes from living outside your comfort zone, which is why we decided to leave everything which was familiar to us. We learned more about ourselves in one year, than any one decade of being married, rearing children or raising a business.
In the end, we are so happy and blessed to do what we got to do. From learning a new language to supporting needs at an orphanage in South America, from learning about different cultures to seeing history up close, it was exhilarating and fatiguing. If you’ve ever had that feeling of needing a vacation from only a week vacation, it is crazy how we feel after traveling for almost 12 months.
BORN IN THE USA
We cannot tell you how lucky we all are to live in the United States of America… It almost makes me cry as I’m writing this. Steph and I have traveled extensively for the last 15 years, and people around the globe love and respect Americans more than the media will ever admit. Regardless of your own personal situation, you already have advantages people in other countries only can dream of. We were so glad that we took the last leg of our trip to hang out in States, cities and places around the US to remind us of how blessed we are.
We started to think about relocating about 4 years ago, and our long list of possibilities which even included international destinations, got dwindled down to two final ones: Madison, WI and Phoenix, AZ… which seem to be a little different weather wise. In July of 2015 we were driving aimlessly around the desert, and stumbled upon this little city on the outskirts of Phoenix which was like a green oasis of a close knit community: Anthem, AZ (doesn’t it just sound American!).
Steph and I went back out there in February and again as a family in April of this year, and looked at other places to make sure “this” was the place. Stephanie put her first resume in there, got an immediate interview (which I said she would crush, and did) and about 16 hours later was offered the job (that’s my girl!). We took the boys up to Anthem again in April, as that would be the school they would be attending, and after another visit, both were excited and on board.
GOING BACK TO WHAT I LEFT
For me, this year has been rough career wise. With 20 years of teaching self-defense, I was burnt out a little. Ok, a lot. I went from working around 70 hours a week and loving it to about 10 hours and wondering how people don’t go insane only working 8 hours a day. That will fry your brain just a little, and it caused me to do a lot of soul searching.
About half way through traveling Steph could sense something was missing from my life, that other things just couldn’t fill… and believe me, she tried everything. 😉 In all seriousness, she was an incredible partner who saw what I needed, and even though it scared her a bit, knew that I needed to go back to running classes.
Therefore, to add another sign that we should move to Anthem, AZ, the first gym I contacted and stopped in at was ecstatic to offer my classes. A couple hours later we found the house we would be moving into after searching for months. The cool thing is that our house, Steph’s/boys’ school and the new gym are all under 10 minutes of each other.
OUR BEST BLESSING: FRIENDS
I have no clue what will happen next. Maybe we’ll stay for one year, or ten… maybe for the rest of our lives. All I know is that we are blessed to move because we choose to, not because we’re forced to. We’re so blessed, not just by Steph’s job. Not just by my new opportunities. Not just by the kid’s school. Not just by Anthem. We know we are blessed because of how much our friends supported us regardless of where we were.
We would randomly get notes, social media posts, emails, texts and calls from friends at seemly the perfect time we’d need them. People we hardly knew became some of our biggest fans, while students we had (from the martial arts academy or Steph’s last school) cheered us on which almost brought us to tears too many times to count. We made friends across the globe, and in broken English they would offer us love and inspiring words. Long time friends did exactly what long time friends do… which is why they are long term friends. They are there regardless of what we do, and where we were.
So, as we start this new adventure in our lives and move to Anthem on May 31st, we want to say thank you to those people to supported us. We hope our craziness inspired you in some little way to reach outside of your comfort zone, because that is where all growth occurs. Not sure we can ever repay you, but you’ll always have a little place in our hearts. If anything, this trip has taught us that experiences always trump material things, and the quality of your relationships is what life is all about. If you can have incredible experiences with quality people, you’ve more than won at this thing called life.
Test all assumptions, go on the offense against your fears, rejoice in your heartbreaks, get stronger by making yourself vulnerable and be grateful for the things you use to be blind to… these are just some of the lessons we’ve learned this last year which we’ll continue to try to live out daily.
Love,
The Numrichs
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]