Love Love Love

I'm not sure if this post is directly related to the topic of this blog, but I'm going to write it anyway because I want to remember it.

JT came home last night and immediately wanted to hold Elyanna. He took her out of her swing where she was happily napping and cuddled and cooed with her. I gave him her bottle and they settled into the chaise for a feeding.

He is smitten. He told her how much he loved her and how proud he was of her, even though she hasn't accomplished too much in the four months she's been alive. He called her the most beautiful girl in the world.

I feel the emotions welling up just remembering the scene.

His tears welled up too. He told me that he feels his love for Elyanna is dangerous. Dangerous because he knows that he will give her whatever her heart desires. I assured him that it is not dangerous because his love will ensure that he will always have her best interests at heart.

I love that our daughter already has her father wrapped around his little finger.

We miss her everyday we have to go to work. We can't wait until we can make this dream come true so we can share more of our lives together.

Information From Ting

Over the summer, we were fortunate enough to have many visitors to see Baby Elyanna. We even had my Tita Chit and Tito Fred, my father's older brother, come down from the Philippines. Over dinner in Myrtle Beach, JT and I told them about our plans. Tita Chit offered up a contact - her neice Ting - who happened to be a diver. Ting and I exchanged a couple of emails, but this one was really valuable:

Hi, Kate.

Nice to meet you.

I wouldn't call myself an expert on Philippine diving. I just like to dive a lot and have been to some of our most popular diving destinations in the Philippines. But this was some years ago. Ever since leaving the country to work and study overseas, I am afraid I haven't been updated about where the best diving is to be had these days. But I'll share with you briefly anyways my recommendation based on my stock knowledge about the industry.

The most popular sites that most foreigners go to would be Puerto Galera, Northern Palawan, Cebu and Bohol. In these places, you can definitely find somewhere to build a resort, or perhaps, purchase an old one. I'm not sure about the land/lease prices though. As these places are popular, they might of course be a bit more expensive. And you'll have lots of competition.

Based on what I have been hearing from diver friends over the years, if I was to look for a place to put up a resort, I would try either Leyte - this is a new diving destination that is gaining popularity these days. A quick search on Google tells me only a few resorts are currently operating here.

The other location would be Southern Palawan. I attended a travel seminar about the government's plan to build a new airport in the souther tip of the island. The north is already a very popular diving destination (El Nido, Coron, etc.). But the south remains largely unexplored due to accessibility issues. But I would bet this is a more interesting place to build precisely because of that. With the new planned airport, things will definitely pick up.

I might also want to consider the island of Camiguin (ridiculously affordable diving, though not too many dive sites). Or if you have the resources, fund an exploration on the Pacific side of the Philippines. My dive instructor and some friends are currently doing exploration dives on that side of the country (particularly in the north of Luzon - Cagayan, Tugegarao, Ilocos). If you want, I can put you in touch with him and he can most likely give you better recommendations and even be available as a consultant for your planned diving business.

I hope the above information helped. If you have any more questions, please feel free to email back.

Cheers,

Ting

So there you go! I've been doing research on those places that she mentioned and have narrowed down which ones we will investigate further. More to come...

Homeschool vs. IB School

I graduated high school from St. Mary's in Calgary, Canada. I'd say that I probably had one of the more positive high school experiences, at least compared to most of my friends and acquaintances who have described scenarios of fights, gossip, cliques, sex, drugs and rock and roll. We were relatively sheltered at St. Mary's, a public Catholic High School with an International Baccalaureat program. Don't get the wrong picture. This isn't your typical Catholic school. Yes, we did have Religion classes, but my senior year, we were tasked with learning about Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism...perhaps to compare and constrast how awesome Jesus was compared to those others, but nonetheless....

Anyway, given that there was an IB program there, most of my friends were "smarty-pants." Not really nerds, though some were, but just regular folks like me - precocious, a little above average and motivated to learn as compared to other high school students. It was really the first time that I felt like I was part of the majority.

When I think about my daughter, I always imagined that I would send her to an IB school as well. This is assuming that she'll be book smart like her father and myself. JT and I definitely share a love for reading - a love that we hope to pass on to Elyanna. Between the two of us, we have hundreds of books, so many that we had to fill a whole wall of our formal living room with shelves and now call it The Library. We try very hard to read to Elyanna everyday.

So yes, her education is very important to me.

That extended preamble brings us to the topic at hand - what is going to happen with Elyanna's education once we move to the Philippines?

The first option that we thought of was homeschooling. Given that we will have more time to spend with our daughter, why wouldn't we spend that time teaching her Math, Science, English and History? There are benefits - learning would be very different for her. It would be hands-on, self-motivated and not at all like the regimented structure that her father and I grew up with. We can be very creative with our lessons - going out to tidepools to look at creatures for biology class, counting out a cash drawer at the front desk to learn arithmetic, reading a book together, book-club style as a family and reporting on it later. Those activities sound idyllic. In addition, school could happen anywhere - whether we're on the resort on a remote island, visiting family/friends back in North America, or touring the world on the off-season.

But it seems such a huge responsibility. Instead of relying on the village that is a school system, we would be solely responsible for Elyanna's education, a large influencer on her future. That is a large burden to take on! Could we do it?

I've told JT that I'm comfortable with that option until Elyanna get to 6th grade. After that, I'm not so sure.

We've talked about hiring a tutor. Someone who could be a caregiver and also be more qualified (someone with training in education) to teach our daughter. But how much would that cost? And the search for someone like that seems daunting.

I've had discussions with my Tita C about American Schools in the Philippines. There are IB schools in Manila, of course, but the only one that was even close to where we might be is in Cebu City. A couple hours away are the resorts, so perhaps we could send her to a school there. That would mean that she would commute or maybe I could get an apartment in the city and stay there with her during the week. Not the best option to be separated from her father, but it is an option.

So yes, this does weigh on my mind. I ultimately believe that Elyanna's life will be far richer on a resort with her parents than the traditional suburban lifestyle. We love her enough to ensure that becomes true.

Introduction

Sounds cliche, but it is starting with a dream. His dream is made up of independence, autonomy and the great outdoors. My dream is made up of my baby (babies), seascapes and writing with freedom. Our dreams coincide. We're going to live them together.

Our five year plan is to move from Charlotte, North Carolina where we live very comfy suburban lives and open a resort on a Philippine island. This includes selling all (most) of our worldly possessions, including two rental properties, the house we live in now, our two vehicles, cashing in any retirement savings and putting all that into this venture. We would also take our daughter Elyanna, currently four and a half months old, along with us.

The implications make my head spin!

Where did we get this silly idea?

JT's background is in hotel management. He's been in the hospitality business for over ten years. The idea came to him when living in the Florida Keys where he started his career. He has said that that time in his life made him feel like he was constantly on vacation. Though he was working hard - fifty to sixty hours a week were typical - his downtime was spent basking in the Florida sunshine, exploring the Everglades and fishing on the reef. So he wants to live somewhere tropical. He likes the work too. Though a little shy, he is whip smart, a guru with numbers and passionate about the business. What he doesn't like is answering to a boss.

JT is also an outdoorsman. He loves to hike, rockclimb, mountain bike and ski, but most of all, he loves the ocean. Basking at the beach, surfing the waves, snorkeling and diving. He wants to live where he can open the door and the ocean is right there to greet him good morning.

Combine all this and the plan begins to form - move somewhere tropical, open a small resort to make some cash and the work might not seem so hard.

And then Kate comes along.

We met in January 2009, in the haze of Barack Obama's election. (More on that later) Since meeting, we have moved in together, traveled to Calgary, Canada to meet my family, traveled to Rochester, Minnesota to meet his family, adopted a dog, gotten pregnant, birthed our beautiful baby girl, bought a bigger house and created a pretty complicated life for ourselves. We get up at the crack of dawn, feed our child, get her to the babysitters, take the dog out to potty, fight traffic to go to the office, work 8 - 12 hours, commute back, pick up the baby, play with her for all of an hour until her bedtime, make a healthy dinner, every now and then fit in some exercise, go to sleep and repeat. Weekends are spent catching up on what we didn't do during the week. It's an exhausting routine. We want to break that.

What about me? Am I just going along for the ride? Or is there more?

I've lived in Charlotte, North Carolina for ten years. I work for one of the biggest banks in the US. I've survived the economic crisis and though I consider myself lucky to have a job, I'm hoping that the rest of my life will not include sitting in a cubicle for eight hours a day. I love to write. I've been published. I have a novel written that has been sitting on my hard drive collecting dust for nine years.

Right this moment, my world revolves around a beautiful little baby named Elyanna. For three glorious months, we spent every waking moment together and then the harsh reality of going back to work set in. I barely see my baby during the week. I pick her up from the babysitter's and she's in bed an hour and a half later. On the weekends, we are so busy, I don't usually have dedicated time to play with her. Is this how I want her to grow up?

On the resort, we would live, work and play in the same place. We'd hire a staff to do most of the labor, leaving our family free to surf, explore, play, learn, read, write, whatever. Our daughter would be with us and we as her parents will be her primary caregivers. That is a beautiful possibility.

That is the sunshine happy potential. I do realize that there is more to this - there are consequences too.

This adventure has enormous risk. We're talking about taking whatever wealth we have built up in twenty combined years in the workforce and risking it all on a business venture that may not succeed. What if we choose the wrong location? What if the constrution is shoddy? What if we can't overcome the language barrier? What if we can't find competent staff? What if we can't attract guests? These are all business risks that we have to work through and mitigate.

In addition, we are moving to the other side of the world. Yes, I have some family in the Philippines. But I haven't been back there for almost fifteen years. We won't have the support system that we have in Charlotte. My mother is only thirty minutes away. On a remote island, who would we trust?

The fear is there. But the hope is so much stronger.