The Beginning of Our Worldschooling Adventure (& Why We Chose India First!)

At the time of writing this, we are beginning our second week in India. We’re staying 45 minutes or so outside of Rishikesh, at a beautiful place called Rishis International, and I’m sitting on a floor couch, typing away on my laptop (with no WIFI, cell service or air conditioning) while a symphony of animal sounds plays in the background. Edan is next to me learning Hindi with the Michel Thomas method (way, way better than Duolingo IMO). Ruby and Heron just got back from a long walk with Archer, complete with a dip in the creek, new animal sightings and time spent playing a new game they invented. After just one day here, I personally feel a sense of well-being and a surge of creativity that I haven’t felt in a long time. I have so much to share about our journey, but I want to start with how we got here. The big “Why India?” question.

Last year, we had talked with some friends of ours about taking a summer euro trip with all of our kids. Both of our families were renting and our leases were ending around the same time, so we figured we could put our stuff in storage and go on an adventure before finding new homes. I had been in Worldschooling groups for years (5 planets in Sagittarius here!) and I’d seen how families travel together in this way. I loved the idea! And honestly, we were just tired of the “rat race”. We were tired of dealing with high rent and expenses and feeling like we couldn’t “get ahead” enough to experience the true peace and freedom we craved. There had to be another way to live our life as a family and we felt like leaving the US for a while would give us a much-needed fresh perspective. Logistically, it seemed like an impossible feat for our family, given our life circumstances at the time, but we thought maybe, just maybe.

Well, around January/February we were at our friends’ house when they told us they wouldn’t be able to join us on a trip anymore. Since the trip was still just a seed of an idea, I didn’t feel any disappointment. I thought, “Well, I doubt we could’ve made that work anyway.” But when I got home later that night, an idea sparked in my head — What if we just go to India instead? It might sound random, but we had actually been half-joking about traveling to India for the previous two years. Now with our friends bowing out, I felt it could be a sign for us to finally take that journey!

So I did what I always do in these situations — I joined local Facebook groups and started connecting with people in the area.

In one of those groups, a local yoga community Facebook group, I posted a question about jyotish (Vedic astrology) training and in the sea of responses I felt drawn to one woman in particular. Her name was Lucy and by her profile photo, it was clear that she was a mother. As a mother myself, I valued her recommendations over anyone else’s, especially since we were considering taking our kids across the world to a country that is known for being, well… intense.

We got to talking and she told me that she had two kids (the same ages as ours!) and that her and her husband ran a Yoga and Ayurveda retreat center in the Himalayas. Even better, it was far away from the city! When most people think of India, that’s what they think of — enormously stimulating environments packed with people, sights, smells and sounds — but we wanted our India experience to be on the quieter side. We wanted to be immersed in ancient Vedic wisdom while living in harmony with nature, giving ourselves a break from the stress and distractions of modern American life. The way Lucy described her family’s life was exactly what we were looking for and it felt like an immediate yes.

Still, being an emotional authority in Human Design, I waited.

Archer and I talked and talked, going over every detail and asking ourselves, “Is this really possible?” And every time we asked that question, logistically (financially)… it wasn’t. We remained open to the possibility, though, and waited for clear signs from God/Life that it was the right direction for us. I remember going to bed praying, “If India is the right move, make it clear. Open doors, let there be flow instead of force, and if it isn’t right — block it.” Flow is always a big green light for me. I’m willing to overcome certain obstacles, but if it’s one thing after another of things just not working, I take it as a sign to slow down and reconsider. And as much as Archer and I felt excited about the prospect of this India trip, we were equally okay with being led in a different direction.

Well as our luck would have it, things kept flowing!

Even when our minds could not conceive of how, God showed us how. One opportunity after another arrived at our doorstep and we went through each of these green lights all the way to our final destination.

Funny enough, one of our very few obstacles happened to arrive on the day before our flight was scheduled to take off. It was May 28th and Archer and I were waking up, preparing to spend the entire day moving out of our house. When I turned on my phone, I found a message from Ajay, Lucy’s husband. He was letting me know that they were finishing some construction and dealing with nearby forest fires, so they weren’t quite ready for us. He suggested that we spend some time in a neighboring area for two weeks. This was a bit of a shock, because for months we had assumed we’d go straight to their property from the airport and wouldn’t have to worry about making our own plans. Suddenly, on the day before our flight, we were faced with having to create an entirely new plan for the beginning of our time in India. I wasn’t phased, though, because on some level I knew it would turn out just fine and that everything was as it should be.

In Ajay’s message, he had recommended a town further up in the mountains called Mussoorie — which I had already been quite drawn to — so we quickly shifted our focus in that direction. In between all of the chaos of move-out day (thank goodness our kids were at Grandma’s house!), I found spare moments to slowly craft a plan. By around 9PM on our final evening in Austin, I had managed to book a hotel and arrange a driver to pick us up from the airport. We were set!

Less than 24 hours later, we were boarding our first flight and it was a surreal experience to watch my three-year-old gaze out the window in fascination as the wheels lifted off the ground. Somehow, some way, life brought us here. ♡︎