Secrecy

We had an interesting discussion about secrecy and in particular about keeping this plan secret. We agreed that the only right way to go about this would be to let our parents/grandparents know first and only after that start to freely talk about it. We have no idea how people would take it, we expect the whole range of reactions possible, but especially in the case of our families we would expect a lot of questions. So we have to let them know in person and this will happen during our winter vacation in Romania.

Considering the nature of my work I will let my director know first as soon as possible and then we will work together toward a plan for my replacement. The sooner people know the better, but I think that 6 months should be enough. After that all our friends would be informed. I hope they will all understand that we had to keep this secret for a while.

The children asked various questions about this topic but in the end we think that they understood. So far they've been really good about this, it doesn't even seem to be much effort and this is a very impressive sign of their maturity.
A couple of months ago at the church, Father Daniel asked us "Are you still going on the trip?" My answer was: "Of course, we will let you know when, we don't know for sure yet!" Maria witnessed this and asked when we got in the car: "How come we have to keep it secret and the Father knows?" We explained that almost a year ago, just a couple of days after Ileana and I talked about this and decided to do it, Ileana mentioned it to him. Then we agreed that it's too early to really talk about it and never mentioned it again to anybody outside our house. But then in September 2009,  Ioana, my cousin, asked about our round the world trip. We were shocked "How could she know?" It turns out that we talked about it five years ago! We answered in a similar manner... Are there other people that we talked with about this?

It will be exciting to break the news to everybody but for now it remains our secret.

Five Months Closer

Another five months passed. I am working three jobs and trying my best to keep the pace. Several significant developments happened:

1. We decided when to go.
2. We determined an eastern route.
3. We found the money to do it.

Where should we go?

Sometime in January, at dinner we asked the children when do they think we should go. They answered one after another, in a surprising show of unity: 2012. They gave their reasons, Ileana saying she would be old enough to remember most of it, Maria that it will be after she's done with the high school and before she goes to college, and Ioan explained that he still needs some time to play his computer games and he's not ready yet, but he will be by 2012! Then we played a game at the big map on the wall everyone showing how they would like to go around the world and through which countries. We will need to repeat this at various times. 

Spending most of my free time learning about this world - I had a hard time figuring out how we could go east instead of west. I finally got it, but this is just a part of hundreds of possible itineraries and will be left for later. We have no particular reason to go east, it would be an extra night to pay for, it's just good to have options.

Even more important, we have been saving as much money as possible and we are starting to see a serious improvement in our finances. A significant decrease in our debt will be soon followed by learning how to keep and manage our savings. Also just realizing that I can afford to pay interest for one year on a hundred thousands, that I can get a home equity loan and a loan against my 401 and cash another retirement plan - we can have the money and leave in two months if we want to...

Thank you Christine (from a dissapeared blog almost fearless), your book really helped, just that tip alone made a huge difference for us: 30-ways-in-30-days-to-redesign-your-life-and-travel-the-world/