way leads on to way

When the kids were 3 and 5, we felt a strong pull to pack up their stuffed animals & stickers and fly to Colombia for three weeks of adventuring. Our idea was met with predictable trepidation by various members of our community. We thoroughly examined our own motivations for such a trip, because of course, there were risks. Afterall, this is life, right?

We booked the tickets and held our breath.

Years later, the kids still remember the taste of piranha, the unspeakable warmth and safety they felt in the presence of our new Colombian family member, Orfa, and the color of the belt worn by the man who got us safely off the Amazon River during “una gran tormenta en la Amazona”!

When Robert Frost so famously describes taking the road less traveled by, he also briefly considers saving the alternative path for another day:

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

Without initial movement, inertia cannot exist. This is the gift Colombia gave us. It was as much an unforgettable family adventure as it was the very detour that set us on our way…

and that has made all the difference.