Our three young scholars working hard … and their morning World School teacher, selflessly grading AN ALGEBRA...

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We woke up this morning in central Morocco to the LIGHT, whole splashes of COLOR and BEAUTY outside … and inside our current residence. Glorious. At breakfast — over tea and chocolat chaud — we decided to reflect on this LIGHT during Advent. We plan to produce an Advent...

We say goodbye — for now — to Brooke and Max, our hosts and new friends in Casablanca. With them … W helped string garlands around their Christmas tree, we ate (awesome) tajine poulet, imagined Lebron James as a baby, traded movie lines, laughed and laughed at Max’s...

I just got off a Facetime call with friends, normally a Friday morning routine back home. So grateful to be able to do this with them — and so grateful for friends who are with us on this journey … who also know their way around Mac photo software …. One of these men...

The coffee shop outside our current residence in Morocco offers a wide variety of teas, an array that seems to cater to a diverse community of internationals in the city. I wanted *Moroccan* tea, but it wasn’t on the menu. I engaged in some conversational gymnastics with the waiter...

We fly to Morocco in a few minutes … but not after some school in the waiting area. We’re working through our first pangs of HOMESICKNESS. Thankful for this whole journey — to places, and through our...

Happy Thanksgiving from southern France! Through a Heavenly set of circumstances, we were introduced to Jason, Angie, Lillia, Caleb, Micah, Andrew, and Ariana just over 36 hours ago. Since then, THEY HAVE EMBRACED US and WELCOMED US IN TO THEIR LIVES. Basketball practice. Pizza. Games of...

An Open Letter to Family, Friends, and Our Thieves: We are doing fine. We are deeply grateful for your prayers, your emails, and how so many of you are sharing similar emotions of shock, anger, sadness — and hope. I want to share some of our experience from the last day and a half. I...

While eating lunch at a Barcelona rest stop, our car window was shattered and everything inside was taken. Laptops. Cameras. Clothes from weekend trip to Barcelona. Backpacks with whole trip mementos. Passports and credit cards NOT taken. These items were in our possession. Family feeling...

H and I went to an FC Barcelona soccer match together — tonight — for his 11th birthday. We were so close to the field, I could see the evening dew on the players’ cleats. Barcelona currently has one of the greatest complete soccer teams in a generation. (Ever?) One of the...

We’ve added a new option to the MAPS option above on the masthead. There’s now a COMPLETE JOURNEY map. We’ll try to keep it updated.

I write this update from a free WIFI cafe in southern France. Six time zones away, our home in VIRGINIA is full of LIFE and COMMUNITY. That’s the report from the three young men who are renting our home through next summer. There apparently have been gatherings of young adult fellowship...

Up at dawn, chocolate milk for appetizer, and opening presents on a world journey birthday. Happy Birthday,...

Up at dawn, chocolate milk for appetizer, and opening presents on a world journey birthday. Happy Birthday,...

We were on a journey today in Rome, EXPECTING to be moved by grandeur, power, and history. We were. I wonder: Why don’t we do that more? What do I HOPE for, deeply? What do I expect will come? Reflecting on these things, I shot photos of fellow travelers in Rome today … as THEY...

Our final family excursion near the Croatian village of Viganj took us past a cliffside chapel, down through a heavily vegetated ravine, along a rarely used road … to a small beach carved out under a towering wall of rock. The view was serene, the colors were perfect … and there was a...

Mladin is the handyman and mechanic in Viganj, Croatia. He lives one block off the coastal road, halfway between the church and Cafe Carmelo. I visited Mladin’s shop one day when one of our house bikes popped a tire. I was told he was called “Max” for “Mad Max,” the apocalyptic...

Gigi and Poppy’s visit to Croatia to see their daughter, their son-in-law, and their grandsons was a comic series of events: their luggage was lost on their inbound trip, Gigi broke her shoulder after braving Croatia’s bracing waters with her grandsons, Gigi relied on Croatian...

During our time in Croatia, we had the privilege of encountering some very dear people.  We lived next to them or bought bread from them or asked them a bazillion questions. Kharmen lives next door to the house we rented.  She and her young friend Ava noticed that E had trouble riding the...

We said goodbye this week to Croatia on a hulking ferry bound for Italy. Our last glimpse of the country was the one pictured above – of Split, Croatia’s harbor, as seen from the ferry’s rear deck railing. A group of Catholic pilgrims were near us at the rear of the boat,...

Gigi + Poppy + Bisquick from Raleigh + syrup from Raleigh + Croatia = birthday breakfast for W, our NEWEST...

Gigi — flanked by Favorite Bear, Puffy, and Sven — has this video update of her shoulder, how she slept last night … and how she was a handful for her Croatian...

S just texted from Dubrovnik: Gigi has a BROKEN shoulder. This is the shot from the ER, with — I think — a cast under Gigi’s sweater. Gigi, S, and Ralph are set to return to our seaside village — 2.5 hours away. (They elected not to stay in a Dubrovnik hotel.) At last...