For the Lobes, the less traveled road lead them to China: Stop Saying and DO!

"Stop Saying and DO!" I say this to my students and to our sons all the time. It is a statement to move forward. our sons and our students will talk about going to college or going to open a business or start a career. It goes on and on but no action to back up those statements. We have been saying, "one of these days, we will teach overseas". We will do it when the boys are little". That came and went. then we said "we will do it when they go off to college". Our son's decided to go a different path than what we expected. We have talked with one teacher we knew in our district that have taught overseas to give us her perspective. She said it was the best decision she has ever made. So, will we have the same experience? We believe we will.

Last summer we did some soul searching while traveling through Italy. We spent a month and had discussions of where, what, when and how (of course over a great bottle of house wine.). Then, it hit us. It was an AHA moment on the way home on the train from Vancouver, BC to Olympia, WA. We met a teacher coming home from her summer vacation and it turned out she teaches in the same district as us AND is planning on teaching overseas AND has started the process. With her nudging us to go for it, I went online and started the application process right there on the train!

A leap of faith is all I can say what happened to us on that day and the days to come. It is a calling that we are willing and able to answer. Our sons, Josh and Kyle are very supportive and gave us the green light to stop talking about it and just go for it. I do worry but then again, I am a Mom and I do have the right to worry. However they are in a good place right now in their lives compared to 5 years ago. Josh will be going off to culinary school and Kyle will be starting his career as a police officer. It is time and Randy (my husband) and I are ready to jump right in.