The post Just You Try To Keep Up With Her: Happy 4th Birthday, Kendley!!! first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>
Mommy and I sincerely apologize that this birthday post is a little late, as we JUST only finished cleaning up after your ‘GRAN FIESTA’ last weekend. More than 75 people arrived at our little home in the campo to celebrate you on your special day. Aside from the seventeen little boys and girls from your class, it seemed as if the entire pueblo was in attendance; there were moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even a scattering of grandparents. Not that we were the least bit surprised… you are loved and admired up and down the streets of El Gastor.
But really, has another year already passed us by? It feels like yesterday that we were celebrating your 3rd birthday in Madrid and your 2nd in Bordeaux. How long we’ve been on this adventure together! And while we have been able to see so many amazingly beautiful things together, what I have enjoyed the most is watching you grow.
Every night when we pray I look into your eyes and I am reminded of just how lucky I am. I cherish the time right before you fall asleep when I put your nose to mine and we say together:






Kendley’s 4th Birthday Interview

The post Just You Try To Keep Up With Her: Happy 4th Birthday, Kendley!!! first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post The Gift of Love first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>As I sit here trying to figure out what to write you for your 35th birthday, I am truly at a loss for words. If I was as creative or intelligent as you, I would whip out a poem or a racy birthday card like you did for my 41st birthday. I am neither of these things so I thought I would stick to the basics.
WHAT IS LOVE? TO ME, LOVE IS PURE AND SIMPLY, YOU!!!!
While I have always pounded my chest and told you that I am the one that has shown you how to ‘love,’ that could not be further from the truth. The reality is that I am an insecure, 41 year old man who emotionally, at times, can act like he is 13. My parents were and still are wonderful role models about how to love and sacrifice everything for their family and for each other. Words can’t thank them enough for all they have done for me, but you are the one that has had the greatest impact on my life as you have touched me in ways that you will never know or might not understand.
Love is not boastful, proud, nor unkind. Unfortunately, I can be all of these things at times.
Love is unconditional, strong and unwavering and the reality is that I am much more conditional that you ever will be.
Love and time are the two greatest gifts any parent can give to their children and you give both freely and generously.
It was your love in early 2007 that helped get me sober and it is your constant love and support that has helped me to realize that I had to learn to ‘love’ myself so I would stop killing myself with substances, being a work-aholic, a perfectionist, and much more. For years I filled myself with things that were unhealthy and I bought into the idea that success meant happiness. After meeting you, I learned that success and happiness have nothing in common.
Today, I am learning how to just BE. I can just take a walk without my mind racing (most of the time). I can look at a waterfall or sit through an entire dinner without wondering why I did not sell a certain stock (most of the time). I can shut my eyes during the ‘call to prayer’ and reflect on God’s grace and all of my blessings (most of the time).
Recovery has helped me to gain peace and serenity, but watching you each and everyday has been a gift beyond compare. You can get lost in almost anything. In the past month you have planted a vegetable garden in your head; you have learned how to cook authentic dishes in your new Peka; you have taught yourself how to make honey, cheese and a whole slew of delicious things; you have written a novel; you have traveled in your head to places I could not possibly fathom; you have opened a restaurant and a B&B; you have learned how to weave beautiful materials and have started an on-line business to help those who are lesser fortunate; you have taught yourself how to cook hundreds of dishes and you have hatched a thousand other grand ideas.
You live. You dream. You escape. You fly. You wander. You have more creative thoughts in a day than I will in a lifetime.
For the bulk of our eight years together I have asked you to ‘show me that you love me.’ I have asked you to ‘say something nice’ thousands of times and I have always asked you to do more of the things that do not come easy for you.
I sit in awe of you and that is why I always need constant affirmation. You are everything I am not and much, much more.
While our marriage has had its shares of ups and downs, I fall more in love with you each and everyday. I was driving today and I found myself looking over at you and feeling a sense of unbelievable gratitude. While I told you I was thankful for your WCA¹, as I like to call it, I was really thinking that we are amazingly blessed for the nomadic life that we are able to share together. You are everything love is supposed to be and more. You are everything to me and more. You are everything I am not and more. You are LOVE and my greatest blessing. Pure and simple.
Words are just words. You are a woman of few words, but there has never been a day since we have been together that I did not know that you loved me and us with all of your heart. Thank you for that gift. Besides the gift of sobriety, it is what i cherish most in my life.
I asked Ollie and Kendley what they loved about Mommy two years ago and I decided to ask them the same question again this year. I also asked them what LOVE means to them? Here are their answers below:
The post The Gift of Love first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post And, Just Like That, We Have a Seven Year Old first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>E.E. Cummings

Oliver’s 7th Birthday Interview
The post And, Just Like That, We Have a Seven Year Old first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post Happy Father’s Day: 14 Reasons Why This Guy’s Absolutely Nailing It first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>Remember that article that used photographs of wonderful fathers to blast apart that age-old but annoying convention that dads are incompetent co-parenters?
Well, I went and made my own version FOR YOU.
1. DADS NEVER TAKE TIME AWAY FROM THEIR BUSY SCHEDULES TO DO ANYTHING FUN WITH THEIR KIDS.

2. DADS AREN’T ANY GOOD AT TAKING CARE OF GIRLS.
3. DADS NEVER TAKE THEIR KIDS ANYWHERE COOL.
2009-2010: Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji
2012-2014: Iceland, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Morocco…
4. DADS DON’T BOTHER TEACHING THEIR KIDS ANYTHING.
5. EVERYONE WOULD PROBABLY GO HUNGRY IF DINNER WAS LEFT UP TO DAD.
Disclaimer: You did not technically prepare this meal, nor did our kids eat it (I did!). But if you were to make dinner, it surely would include your favorite food group…ice cream.
6. DADS DON’T HAVE A CLUE AS TO WHAT MOMS REALLY WANT.
That is a sweet, sweet broom you have there, sir.
7. DADS CAN’T WATCH THE KIDS AS WELL AS MOMS CAN.
8. DADS AREN’T PATIENT BY NATURE.
9. DADS ARE NEVER AROUND TO OFFER A PICK-ME-UP WHEN YOU NEED ONE.
10. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT DADS CAN’T MULTITASK.
11. DADS DON’T KNOW HOW TO LOOK AFTER A BABY, AND THEY CERTAINLY CAN’T HEAR THEM CRY AT NIGHT.
12. DADS DON’T BOTHER WITH GETTING THE GROCERIES.
13. DADS ONLY KNOW HOW TO PLAY ROUGH.
Disclaimer: No toddlers were launched into the Atlantic Ocean at the time this photo was taken.
14. A DAD’S LOVE IS ONLY SECOND-BEST; CHILDREN DON’T REALLY NEED THEIR FATHERS.
This date marks nearly 22 months we have been full-time on the road, and it also marks the nearly eight years I have been full-time, full-on head-over-heels in love with you.
I tried to think of every sad and ridiculous public misconception people have pegged on dads just so you could see how these photos paint a pretty clear picture of how you simply do not fit in those boxes. If we’re being perfectly honest here, I believe you absolutely obliterate these clichés.
Despite the wide range of happy memories that appear here, there were still so many little things that didn’t make it in…how hard you work for us, how much you invest in each of our happiness, how you give of yourself equally to those you love and those you hardly know, how you brilliantly implement the steps to make any dream a reality, how you love the three of us unconditionally and to no end.
So I hope you got a chuckle out of this, but I also hope you see just how much we love you. Because we do, unconditionally and to no end.
Happy Father’s Day, my Love. And Happy Father’s Day to ALL the dads out there who put in the love, time and effort!
The post Happy Father’s Day: 14 Reasons Why This Guy’s Absolutely Nailing It first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post Kendley Turns 3! first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>
There’s been quite a bit of radio-silence on this blog for a while, but for good reason!!! We’ve been really, really wrapped up in our travels; visiting new places, returning to ones that we love, spending time on both coasts of the USA for an overdue friends and family tour, experiencing in-depth our first country in Africa, making lots and lots of new friends, and forming bonds with some of them that we know in our hearts will last forever. We’ve been living in every moment and savoring every second of our lives as travelers. Sure, there have been the rough spots here and there, but today certainly does not count as one of them. Today the sun was out for our first full day in Madrid, the temperature was a balmy 74˚, but most importantly, our little Kendley turned THREE!
We can still remember with great fondness the day you were born and most of the days in between. I hope you know that you and Ollie are, without question, the light of our lives. You are a constant source of joy and for that, we are eternally grateful.
I heard once that love’s greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred and you are that love in our family. Whether you are sucking your two little fingers, dragging your ‘gankie’ around, telling me I have been ‘naughty’, trying to wipe your own bottom, throwing a mini tantrum, telling Ollie to ‘be-quiet’, biting my nose, giving me long, juicy kisses, grabbing my neck and yelling ‘drop me and see what happens’, or just being you, you make everything and everyone around you feel better.
Traveling with you for the past two years has been an honor and a privilege. You and Ollie helped us make the difficult decision to leave our conventional lives and careers behind and I wanted to thank you for giving us the courage to do so as it was by far the best thing we have ever done. We have traveled pretty much full time since you were in Mommy’s belly and we want to continue to enjoy all the world has to offer with you by our side. We absolutely love our lives and we would not trade one second with you for anything.
Your Mommy and I are blessed to be able to see the world through your beautiful blue eyes as it has changed us in ways that you will never know. Sometimes I tell you that you are lucky to have your parents around all the time, but in reality, your Mom and I are truly the lucky ones. We could not imagine a life without you in it. We thank God everyday for the opportunity to be around you and to learn from you.
You have healed us when we were arguing and our marriage was in peril; you have calmed us when we were living in fear; you have made us smile when traveling felt like it might be too much and we began to doubt our decisions; you make us laugh everyday; you have made us feel loved in ways that are beyond compare; your spirit has wrapped us in its own warm ‘gankie’ and has guided us to places that we never though were possible; and, you have made us smile more than we ever dreamed imaginable.
Kendley’s 3rd Birthday Interview
Goodnight, Birthday Girl! We love you!
The post Kendley Turns 3! first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post To the Love of My Life on Her Birthday first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>Many who read about our travels have no idea that there is a story, many stories actually,that pre-date our traveling life. While I will not go into detail here, it is fair to say that you have played a vital role in shaping the man that I am today.
Since it’s your birthday, I’ve prepared some very special surprises for you…beautiful Mozarabic-styled pottery made by our good friends in Granada, a hack in the mountains on Andalusian horses, and even a child-free birthday dinner, as I miraculously arranged a baby sitter in our next port of call. But despite all of this, how strange is it for me to say that, in fact, I am the one who receives a gift each and every day that I am by your side?
As I reflect back on the nearly eight years that we have been together, a peace fills my heart and soul. Way back when, you did what everyone told you not to do. You bet your life and sacrificed your career for an unemployed alcoholic when you moved to California so we could try to start a family together. It was through your bravery, and your tremendous faith in me, that led you to see things in me that I could not see in myself. You believed in me and nursed me back to life and your support has been a cornerstone in my recovery.
Without sobriety, the life that I enjoy and cherish would never have been known to me, but without you, my greatest blessing and companion, the love that fills my life with meaning and purpose would simply not exist.
Thank you my dearest Emy for all that you have given me and for never giving up on me. Our love is truly a gift from God and below are the reasons why I Love My Wife:
1) My life is eternally better because you are by my side.
2) Every time I kiss Ollie and Kendley good night and sit on their beds and watch them sleep and listen to them breathe, I am reminded that all of the best in our children comes from you.
3) You are everything that I am not and more; my ability to multitask pales in comparison to your spirit, energy and soul.
4) You have always found happiness in the little things and you have taught me that what society tells us to value the most are usually the things that matter the least in life.
5) You are compassionate and kind and you always see the best in others.
6) You make up stories and go places in your head that I could never dream of. From the time you were a little girl and you thought you were a wolf, you have lived many lives and for that I wish the winds of your creative spirit could carry me away as well.
7) We first traveled and left the world as we know it because of you; without your firm nudge I never would have had the courage to stop working and break free of my own fears to face the great unknown.
8) Your gentleness provides me with a subtle reminder when I am too stern with our children and for that, I am thankful, as you have made me a better Father and man.
9) Everyday you help me to see things during our travels that I never knew existed as you can sit and shut your eyes and smell and feel the world around you.
10) You actually believe that Beast Master is a terrific movie.
11) You are a woman who expresses her love, not with words, but with action, loyalty, devotion and by always putting our family first.
12) Even after 15 months of traveling together 24 hours a day, I never get tired of being with you (I am not sure if you could say the same about me).
13) You are beautiful in everyway.
I asked Oliver and Kendley what they loved most about Mommy and here is what they had to say.
OLLIE:
1) I love Mommy because she is sweet;
2) I love Mommy because she reads the Hobbit to me and she sounds funny when she talks like Bilbo Baggins;
3) I love Mommy because she is my best buddy;
4) I love Mommy because she teaches me about the world, animals and plants when we travel and hike;
5) I love Mommy because she lets me wear my Ninja Halloween costume everyday (10 days and counting);
6) I love Mommy because she is beautiful;
7) I love Mommy because she makes me good food and she kisses me before I go to bed;
8) I love Mommy because I fall down a lot and she puts Angry Birds band-aids on my sores;
9) I love Mommy because she loves animals and she takes me to the zoo and aquarium a lot;
10) I love Mommy because she is always there when I need her and even when I annoy her and don’t listen, she still loves me;
11) I love Mommy because she makes me smile and happy.
I love Mommy more than anything!!!!!!!!
KENDLEY:
When I asked Kendley, ‘Why do you love Mommy?’ she said the following:
“I love Peppa Pig” (who is her favorite person in the world other than Mommy).
“I love Mommy TOO much.”
‘But no Kendley, why do you love Mommy?’
“Happy birthday Mommy; Happy birthday Mommy; Happy birthday” and she started singing and humming.
‘But no Kendley, why do you love Mommy? I am writing something for her birthday and I need to know why…’
Kendley promptly blurted out, “I have to go poopy; I need to go to the potty.”
I smiled and walked her over to the potty and she sat on the toilet and grunted like she always does and I held her hands and asked her one last time, ‘Why do you love Mommy?’
Kendley looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes and she said, “I love Mommy cuz she‘s Mommy.”
I guess that says it all, my love.
Ollie, Kendley and I love you for you. The three of us love you with all of our hearts and as crazy as we are, nothing can replace the love that we have for YOU.
The post To the Love of My Life on Her Birthday first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post Now, How On Earth Did I End Up With A Six-Year-Old? (Love, Your Mother) first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>For what it’s worth, today I still have a little boy. I still have a little boy who tells me not to go too far when it’s time to put out the lights, even though I’ve been sleeping in a bed right next to him for months. I still have a little boy who can somehow find the only muddy puddle to stomp in across all of Southern Portugal in the height of summertime. I still have a little boy whose knobby knees and two left feet have far outpaced the growth of the rest of his body. I still have a little boy whose idea of a shark-skin suit is more pretty much verbatim. I still have a little boy, but I’ll admit it… I’ve only got him by the tail.
The truth is, Oliver is slipping out of that little boy (shark) skin and trading up every day for something else; something that’s just a bit wiser, just a little more shrewd, something a little deeper, something that pushes the edge of my understanding further. His voice has grown clearer, his eyes more focused. He’s knee-deep in what one sympathetic Spanish mama informed me was the “Primer Resistencia”, the first resistance. And she was more than right. Ollie can wrangle a late bedtime better than any little kid I know, and he can stretch “five more minutes on the iPad” into twenty with the blink of an eye. It goes without saying that I have to run to keep up with him, always. But once in a while he’ll pull me close to him before he falls to sleep, hold my face in his hands and give me that look. He’ll say, “Mama, you keep on being a good mama, ok?”
Oliver is a force of nature. He hums along at a speed that has seldom been recorded in humans; he ricochets off hard surfaces as if his entire skeletal system was air force-grade. I have seen grown men begin panting with exhaustion after a semi-prolonged encounter. At three years old, he leapt over a cobra when it crawled across his path in the Bokor Mountains of Cambodia. He charms, he deconstructs, he conjures and he destroys. But just when I am sure that he must be Shiva incarnate, he bends on one knee to help the smallest child at the playground up on to the swings.
He desires an answer to all things, immediately, all the time. In fact, once it was extremely urgent that he had my opinion (which he still interprets as fact, God bless him) whether or not a hippopotamus or giant squid would win in a fight. When I told him there could never be such a chance encounter, he regarded me with deep sadness. He simply shook his head and reminded me that, “anything is possible”, followed by, “what about one orca versus six Bengal tigers? Who would win in that one, Mama?”
I suppose he’s right, anything is possible. Six years ago, a little boy with blue-green eyes was dropped right into our laps, and it just so happened that every fiber of his being was perfectly suited for adventuring. Six years ago when I was still an awestruck and somewhat petrified new mother, I would look down at that little infant again and again, recalling everything that had come to pass that had brought me to that moment, and think that, indeed, anything was possible.
The post Now, How On Earth Did I End Up With A Six-Year-Old? (Love, Your Mother) first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>The post Happy 6th Birthday, Oliver: Love, Daddy first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>Oliver, I still remember the day that Mommy called to tell me the good news that you were growing inside of her. There is no question that from that very first call, you changed everything in my life for the better.
I am quite certain that you helped to save me, as you gave me a reason to stay sober nearly seven years ago. There were times that I barely held on, but you were, without question, my saving grace.
While I strive to live a more spiritual and balanced life, the reality is that you are, by far, a better person than I will ever hope to be. Your heart and your spirit come from Mommy and all that is good in her shines daily in you. Thank you for being an amazing little boy and for filling my life with unimaginable love and happiness.
From the first phone call from Mommy, to the kicks and everything in between, the day you were born was truly a gift from God. I still remember tummy time when you were a little boy and laying you on the boppy next to me when I had to get on a conference call or actually get some ‘real’ work done. I also recall tucking you in on the 17-hour flight to Japan to start our first grand adventure roughly four years ago (when we traveled back then you were free and could fit almost anywhere).
We have now traveled for approximately three of your six years and I wanted to thank you, as it has been a great honor and privilege to be able to see many of the glorious wonders of the world through your eyes. Your innocence and loving spirit have helped me see things that I was all too blind to before. Hopefully, someday, you will be as lucky as me and will be able to travel all over the world with your little boy by your side.
We left ‘the world as we knew it’ when you had just turned two and I spent 13 months with just you and Mommy traveling through SE Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. This time we shared together are some of my fondest memories and the most cherished moments of my life.
I stood in silent awe as I watched 100 hundred little Chinese boys and girls form a circle around you in Tiananmen Square. With all of the gigging and smiling faces, you and another adorable little girl, both holding the PRC flag in your hands, were chasing each other with reckless abandon. It was a moment that touched me and it is when I knew, undeniably, that traveling together as a family was the right thing to do.
We snorkeled the Great Barrier reef with you in a tiny ‘stinger suit’; we rode camels in India, elephants in Nepal, and petted tigers in Thailand with you on our laps; we walked through the streets of Luang Nam Tha, Laos when you met your first true love, Garuda; we watched you sleep under huge mosquito nets in Cambodia and play with kids in an orphanage in Phnom Penh; we rode mopeds all over SE Asia with you asleep, tucked between Mommy and me, with a helmet that was twice your size; we bicycled with you in a basket, on my back and every which way possible; we canoed through Halong Bay, Vietnam and went swimming in Koh Rok, Thailand; we hiked in the mountains of Nepal with you on my back; we saw crystal blue waters in Esperance, Australia and we watched in horror as you tried to feed the dingoes in remote Western Australia (and we almost hit a couple of kangaroos along the way as well); we had Christmas in Fort Cochin, India and Vienna, Austria; we have been in bounce houses all over the world and water parks wherever we could find them; I fell on my face with you on my back in Tiger Leaping Gorge, China; we circumnavigated New Zealand with you in the back of a motor home with a giant bucket of toys by your side; we learned of the atrocities of Hiroshima, Nuremberg, the Vietnam War and the concentration camps in Trieste, Italy and we marveled at the heroism at Normandy; we watched you collect 15 Junior Ranger badges during our three-month trip through the US West Coast National Parks; and the list could go on and go.
Everything we have seen and experienced would not have been nearly as meaningful or as much fun without you there to share it with us.
Thank you for giving me a reason to stop working my life away and for showing me that no amount of money is worth the time that I get to spend with you.
Thank you for always kissing me on the lips and giving me big hugs and being the most affectionate and caring little boy that I know.
Thank you for ‘never listening’ to me and turning around to tell me: “Daddy, I do not know why I am so crazy; I just can’t help myself.”
Thank you for being such a loving little boy that when we pray at night and I get tears in my eyes after telling you how much I love you and how thankful I am for you, you always grab my cheeks and say: “Daddy, you don’t need to cry. I love you more than anything. You are the best Daddy in the world.”
Thank you for your faith and for always lighting a candle for those people in our lives who are suffering.
Thank you for your endless energy and beautiful smile.
Thank you for being such a wonderful BIG brother to Kendley;
Thank you for being YOUl!!!!!!!!!!!
Ollie, each day I spend with you is truly a gift from God, as you have helped to heal my soul, calm my mind and fill my heart with love and gratitude.
While you might not understand or totally grasp everything that is written above, hopefully someday I will get to return the favor and wipe the tears from your eye and hold your cheeks and say:
“Ollie, you don’t need to cry. I love you more than anything. You are the best son any Father could dream of.”
The post Happy 6th Birthday, Oliver: Love, Daddy first appeared on OliverTheWorld.
]]>