Preparing for a Year Abroad

Of course there is the romantic idea of spending a year abroad and then there’s the crazy-ass reality of actually making it happen.  Not to mention the time crunch we had given ourselves.  Not intentionally but it just so happened that by the time we put all the pieces together to make the decision it was mid-July and in order for us to get there in time for the girls to start school it meant we had about 6 weeks to put the entire plan into action.  There were many times when I wasn’t so sure we could do it. Here's how we did it.

Step 1 – Tell Our Jobs

I'm not sure that I've ever seen Marc as anxious as when the moment finally arrived for him to tell his boss.  We both knew that we had to be ready for our bosses to let us go.  We had to take the leap. Most people are not afforded the luxury of taking a year sabbatical and then returning as if they had never left.  Imagine our surprise, and relief, when both Marc's boss and mine informed us that they would allow the leave of absence and would hold our jobs for us until next summer!  That certainly takes some of the financial pressure off of the question what happens when we come back. Step 1 was a success! 

Step 2 – Change Our Flights

We had already decided that we were going to go to France this summer for our vacation.  At the time though that was only a 2 week vacation and we were scheduled to leave on August 1st.  Well as much as 6 weeks was a stretch to get everything in order, 3 weeks would have never worked.  So we had to call Swiss Air and change the flight.  $1700 later we had a new leave and return date.  Ouch!! But I guess we can count that as a success.

Step 3 – Get Our Visas

This was one of the most stressful tasks of all. I've decided to give it it's very own post.  To be continued......

Step 4 – Find A Renter

Next, we had to find a renter for our cottage and inform the renter of our house that we were going to have to raise the rent in order to cover the mortgage, insurance, and property taxes while we are away.  Thankfully he was willing to absorb the increased rent and we were fortunate to find a renter within a week of alerting our friends that we were looking for someone.  We were especially excited to find someone who wanted to come out to the Valley in order to have their kindergartner go to our amazing Open Classroom.  Win-Win.  Step 4 definitely a success.

Step 5 – Minimize Our Expenses

Here's where the rubber meets the road.  We are heading to France with minimal savings and non-paid leaves from our jobs.  The plan is for me to continue my online nutrition counseling practice so I can make some money while we're away but the need to streamline our expenses is critical.  First, we decided to sell one of the cars.  This would reduce our car payments to just one and lower our insurance.  Then we had to go through bill by bill to decide which ones we could cancel while we're away.  One of the biggest expenses in France would have been lodging.  This would have been cost prohibitive for us if it wasn't for Marc's brother and sister-in-law offering us a home to stay in for the year free of charge!!  We will also need to buy a car at some point but for now will go by foot, bike, or bus.  Thankfully we will be within walking/biking distance of the girls school.  We also had to find someone to manage our home while we're away.  A property management company would have been somewhat costly so instead we "bribed" one of our dear friends and gracious neighbors to be our go-to person on the ground with the promise of French wine and other treats when we return.

Step 6 – Pack Up The Entire House

In order to avoid the cost of a monthly storage fee we've decided to streamline all of our belongings to fit everything in our 10 x 12 storage shed.  This required quite a bit of cathartic purging, which hopefully we won't regret when we return home.  Let's just say that by the end we were throwing away or donating a lot.  My amazing packer of a husband actually made the rest of it fit.  It's hard to get the full effect but here's a glimpse of what the storage shed looked like when we were done.

Step 7 – Pack A Year’s Worth Of Necessities
The last and probably most emotional for the girls was deciding what to bring with us to France. At first we considered shipping some items, like winter clothes and toys, but dismissed that idea once I discovered it would be roughly $150 per box.  So that left us with 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, and 4 backpacks/bags.  Tears were shed and at one point my oldest daughter, Lola, declared that "she's overwhelmed and just can't take it anymore".  In the end we paid for one extra suitcase ($85) and squeezed in as much as we could into a total of 5 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, and 4 very full backpacks/bags.

At certain points the promise of an amazing adventure ahead of us was not enough to off-set the complete chaos and stress we all felt in those last couple weeks before we left.  My youngest daughter, Teah, tearfully asked at one point "do we have to go to France, I don't want to go anymore". Not to mention the roller-coaster of emotions involved in saying good-bye to all of our friends and family. But despite all of this we did it.  We packed it all up, we rented the house, we said our good-byes, and we left for France.