Our Story: #Gratitude

We are blessed to experience a year of family togetherness while globetrotting and experientially building empathy within our three littles. Having flirted with travel in 2000 when we studied abroad and trekked the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, we always knew we would spend a significant time learning from the world. Our plan was to get married (2004) and travel before we had kids, but much to our (pleasant) surprise, we had our first child, Zayan, in 2006! We made a pact then, that we would wait to travel as a family. We pushed our dream a bit farther in 2009 with the birth of our second child, Kenza, and then again with our third and last (pleasant) surprise, Kaysan, in 2011. The timeline was in view--before the oldest was in high school and when the last was able to wipe his own butt! That lead us to our current window---June 2018 to August 2019.

During this timeline, we both grew our careers (Kapil in the Civil and Environmental Engineering space, and Aila in the non-profit sector), lost Aila's mom, and built our home. We learned to live our lives in gratitude for what we have and in community for those who aren't as lucky. We do not take for granted the blessings we have had in our family village, Kapil's parents: Deepak and Vijaya; Aila's living parents: Saeed and Bhoomija; our siblings, Akshay (and Tina and the kids) and Ayesha; and Aila's late mom, Anees. It is truly because of the energy, love, treasure, and spirit of this village that we are able to embark on this global adventure.

Carrying the prayers of our parents, and the urgency to build global empathy in our children, we will spend a year+ exploring mixed identities (as immigrants, asians, Americans, spiritualists, naturalists, volunteers, students, and so much more), engaging in the "present moment" with our family, and learning from our global brothers and sisters. Please join us in community as we live in the abundance of humanity.

Kapil + Aila