“The Baby Made Us Do It” (i.e., What Are We Doing + Why.)

Ok fine the baby didn’t make us give up our apartment, car, job (well, mine, anyways!), and temporarily re-home our animals just to up-and-move ourselves to southern Europe.  After all, the “baby” - now a toddler - still barely knows he has opposable thumbs.  BUT.  There’s a worthy ‘but.’  He did - in all his adorable, exciting, miniature-clothes-wearing and coo-worthy glory - completely terrify, temporarily isolate, and (we feared) ground us from doing so many other things in life that we still really wanted to do.  And as a result, he (and probably COVID, to be fair) sent us into laser-focus mode in assessing how we managed and spent our time - and how we wanted to be spending it instead.  

Before we had Luca (aka “the baby” - and he’s great - you should meet him sometime), we assumed - like most people - that we would probably have to give up our love for adventure and traveling and so much else for a hefty number of years while we figured it all out with and for him.  And for a short time, that was absolutely true.  I mean, we were COVID-bound and, even if we hadn’t been, we still had to learn to change a diaper.  (Not as easy as it looks, people.)   But as the fog of the pandemic began to lift and with it our spirits and (a little bit of) that fear of oh-my-gosh-are-we-going-to-accidentally-kill-this-baby, we realized that something sort of magical had happened.  My husband Juan called it - on a recent podcast episode that I peer pressured him into doing with me, which ended up being a really helpful exercise for us in addition to allowing us to more fully share our ideas with the world! - a call to be courageous.  He wanted to live authentically, and bravely, not only for his own sake now but to set an example for future Luca.  I called it - perhaps less gracefully - the kind of thing two semi-drunk people decide except we weren’t drunk, we were just sleep deprived which can, apparently, make you do (and commit to) even crazier things.  (See: our landing in Portugal two days ago.) 

So, in short, we decided that our time with Luca, each other, and, frankly, period now that we had him, was too short not to be thinking really carefully about how we spent it - and to be experimenting with life choices that would bring us closer to the lives we always said we wanted to live.  Which, basically, for us, means a life where we embrace curiosity, try new ways of living, and do things that simultaneously scare and excite us.  

(It also means, before you start thinking we’re too crazy, being financially mindful, planning for storms and pretty extensively thinking through and mitigating risks and downsides - we’re talking various decision trees and bank balance numbers scrawled on junk-mail and who knows what else here.  But, assuming we can make our way through the junk-mail-scrawling-risk-assessment phase, and still decide that something is ‘worth the squeeze,’ so to speak, it often means - we’re ready to try that thing!  So, here, we spent a lot of time sussing out which parts of our decision to move carried real risks, and which parts were just baseless or much-less-likely-scenario fears. And from there we decided which risks/downsides/fears could be accounted for/lived with so they did not rule the day - aka stop us - without us acknowledging that that’s what they were doing.) 

Long story short: neither of us know who came up with this particular idea.  But we ultimately settled on three criteria for whatever came next:  (1) that it was cheaper than DC; (2) that it gave us more time and space to breathe life into professional and creative pursuits that mattered to us; and (3) that it excited us. Many google searches later, we decided that applying for a digital nomad visa in Portugal - which would allow at least one of us earn money from a US-based job and live there for a year with the family in-tow - was worth a try.  And so here we are, trying the thing.  This blog, along with periodic updates on the podcast, will be a space where we share our experiences, insights, and as much humor and nitty-gritty as we (and as we think you, dear friend/family/friendly anonymous reader) can bear.  We’re excited for you to join our journey!