Have you ever felt God calling you to do something that seemed absolutely crazy? Or have you ever had a dream so big that other people thought you were a little crazy?
Welcome to Chris and I’s life for the past 8 months!
Last October I was able to camp with my family in the mountains of North Carolina. During that trip I couldn’t help but feel a tug on my heart that God was calling my (then future) husband and I to live that kind of lifestyle.
Now, I’m not talking about the kind of lifestyle where you backpack through the wilderness and sleep in tents at night. That’s a goal of mine (don’t tell Chris that lol), but I’m talking about living a full-time RV kind of lifestyle.
When I got back to Florida, I couldn’t wait to tell Chris all about this new full-time RV living dream of mine. Wanna know what his response was?
A big fat NO…that was his response. Chris was 100% NOT on board.
Obviously, the story doesn’t end there because of this big announcement today…so you may be wondering how we got to where we are now. Well, it didn’t take long – as a matter of fact it only took about a week – for Chris to have a change of heart and start showing me all the cool RVs he had found.
I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was…but if you can’t, this is a good example:
Before we did anything, we made sure to pray…a LOT. We wanted to make sure that this was 100% God’s plan for us and our threenager puppy, Augie. Not to mention, this is Chris and I’s first year of marriage so we definitely didn’t want to open doors that weren’t supposed to be open and make our lives a living nightmare!
I’m thankful we took the time to slow down and pray about this big change in our lives because it allowed us to feel at peace and that we were headed in the right direction. Hundreds of hours spent planning, a new truck, a new (to us) RV, and a handful of renovation supplies later, we are officially getting ready to take off next month.
It’s crazy because even as I’m typing this, I still can’t believe it!!
Now, you may be asking “how the heck are you going to do this financially?” Great question! Chris already works remote so he can work from anywhere (as long as there’s wifi, of course) and we’ve been building a savings account together for a while now. I also can’t forget to mention how blessed we are to have received such generous donations to our honeymoon/travel fund from our wedding back in March.
The next question I get from a lot of people is “Well, what are you going to do Kaitlin?” After they ask this question, they tend to continue on by saying how there are plenty of remote jobs or part-time jobs I can find nowadays.
While that is true, I should probably let you in on another part of this announcement. Around the same time I felt God was calling us to travel around the country full-time, the idea of Close to Creation was born. Over the past 8 months I’ve been developing this God-given idea into a job that I plan to take on full-time while we’re on the road!
I mean…what better way to help people get closer to God’s creation than by leading the way and getting out into it myself?
I truly believe that our full-time traveling goes hand in hand with this website and the ideas and visions I have for it.
Some people may think that this full-time RV living is “irresponsible” or “never going to work” and that’s okay! All I know is that we’re following the direction that has been placed on our hearts and we know that if God has called us to it He will see us through it.
With all that being said, I’m soaking up the last little bit of a “normal” life here in Central Florida before we hit the road in July. We’re definitely going to miss having our families and friends close by, but we can’t wait to see where God takes us on this crazy adventure.
Don’t worry, you’ll be getting plenty of updates along the way, so stay tuned!
Till next time,
Kaitlin
*At the end of every blog post I like to leave a challenge to help you get closer to creation – aka this beautiful world we live in. Find this weekend’s challenge below!*
Weekend Challenge: Explore a new outdoorsy spot in your town this weekend. Whether it’s finding a nature trail, doing a zipline adventure, or having a nice beach day, the choice is yours. Just go and do something new!