"Just Around the Riverbend"

It's official!

After telling our landlord, starting the packing and moving process (thank you Craigslist!), and picking our first WWOOFing hosts, there was only 1 thing left to do- quit our jobs. ...Well, at least tell our employers about our plans.

Last week, our plans to leave our cozy home in Santa Barbara, CA, and travel the world for the next 2 years became as real as it can get when we told our bosses that our last day at work will be August 31, 2012.

'What the Billy Bob is WWOOFing, and what the heck are we thinking, leaving our stable jobs and comfortable lifestyle?' you may be wondering.  Well, it involves some curveballs and 180s, so let me explain.

My husband Austin and I have always loved traveling and experiencing different cultures-so much so, that right after graduating college at UCSB, we each went to live in Turkey, him for 2 years, me for 1, fully planning on returning after our wedding to spend many more years there. God, as so often is the case, had a slightly different trajectory for our lives in mind, and all of our plans fell through at the last minute. This left us living in Turkey, getting married in 1 1/2 months in the US, suddenly without jobs or housing. Seems right about on track for how He operates sometimes, and as always, He provided everything perfectly and right on time =)

Que curveball #2. There we were, newlyweds loving SB, when Father introduced us to Healing For The Heart (the website is currently down, I'll try to post a link next time), a counseling service for people of all kinds of backgrounds. We had tried pre marital counseling, but as consistent and effective as counseling over Skype with a Cali based pastor was with Austin and I living 5 hours apart in Turkey...yeah, not so much, try successful connection only happened once. Needless to say, we were still wanting to give our new marriage the best start possible, especially with us both coming from divorced families. While I have been walking with Jesus most of my life, and Austin has a good portion of his, there were still so many things in our hearts and relationship with Him that had never been addressed. To sum up, Healing For The Heart transformed our relationship with God, each other, family, and basically anyone else you can think of. Experiencing the unconditional fullness and depth of His love and acceptance of us-not as how we 'ought' to be, but as how we are NOW, and finding the quiet place of resting in His loving arms when all around is a veritable sh** storm, has changed us both deeply and permanently.

One of the biggest things discovered through that time was God's excitement and support of our passions and desires-that they aren't things to be ashamed of or forgotten, but celebrated in and pursued. *Enter traveling plans*

While we both have learned so much from and are exceedingly grateful for our corporate experiences accrued over the last 2 years, our hearts were feeling the pull of untasted adventures and unknown places. We were realizing that we didn't want to "settle" for anything less than living our dreams, even if we don't yet fully know or understand what our dreams are. After learning so much about ourselves and our true hearts and identities, we felt God whispering to us to come away with Him, to discover new passions, and go even deeper into our hearts with Him as only a journey into the unknown can facilitate. We were finding ourselves more excited about going on long walks through the local butterfly orchard than the most recent pop culture updates, craving raw organic nuts over fast food and restaurants, and starting to feel like we didn't belong in the places we found ourselves.

Que direction. Some of our dear friends decided to do a similar journey in Spain in Feb 2012, and introduced us to WWOOFing- World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming. It's an organization that allows hosts all over the world to find volunteers for their 'Green' ideas/farms/groups. While most of them are farms, some deal with orphanages, host sustainable energy locations, or own green luxury hotels. As a wwoofer, you pay a nominal fee for every country you want to go to, and contact the hosts you are interested in partnering with. Once you determine who you want to work with, you just get yourself there and the hosts provide room and board. So basically, you avoid all the tourist traps etc, and get right into the meat of cultures all around the world, for a pretty outrageously good price. After searching and praying, we found dear Sherry at Eagle Tree Farm: a perfect first farm for the McRobbies.

And now, here we are: just a few weeks left in SB to try and savor all of our 'last of this' experiences, while getting all of the annoying moving your life logistics handled (packing, cleaning, moving our stuff to storage with parents...oh boy!) Our last day in SB will be August 31, 2012, then we will head up the beautiful US west coast, getting to 100 Mile House in British Columbia by Sept 10, where we will stay for 3 weeks. Then it's down through BANFF, Yellowstone, and Glacier Park to make it back to California on time for a wedding in October (!!), then back on the road towards Texas for a month before coming back to Cali for the holidays.  Last stage: Western Europe and the rest of the world in January, 2013. It's all 'just around the riverbend', as Pocahontas would say, and for right now, we're loving Santa Barbara, and getting fully captivated by the Olympics.

Where will we be a year from now? Can't really say. Probably the only thing I do know for certain is this: it's going to be an unprecedented adventure, and we invite you to come away with us!

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."-Matthew 11:28-30