Oxenreider - At home in the world: reflections on belonging while wandering the globe: an adventure across 4 continents with 3 kids, 1 husband, and 5 backpacks

To Tate, Reed, and Finnthe best travelers
I know and my greatest adventure yet.

PRAISE FOR AT HOME IN THE WORLD

Many people have the fantasy of leaving everyday life behind to travel for a year. Tsh Oxenreider and her husband actually did itwith three young children! In this candid, funny, thought-provoking account, Tsh shows that its possible to combine a love for adventure and travel with a love for family and home.

GRETCHEN RUBIN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT AND BETTER THAN BEFORE

Tsh is a remarkable example of how to balance the rooted stability of family with the winged adventure of wanderlust. This book takes you country by country and shows you how shes found the best of both worlds.

CHRIS GUILLEBEAU, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BORN FOR THIS AND THE $100 STARTUP

Possibly this book should come with a warning label, something like only read this book if you want to upend everything in the name of travel, adventure, family, and love. Because thats exactly what I want to do after reading it. Ive always found Tshs voice to be warm, practical, and inspiring, and never more so than in this wonderful book. It was a beautiful reminder of how travel shapes us, how beautiful the world is, and how parenting doesnt need to mean the end of adventuring. I loved every word.

SHAUNA NIEQUIST, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PRESENT OVER PERFECT AND BREAD AND WINE

Tsh Oxenreider is the only person I know who makes traveling around the world with her family of five sound not only normal, but downright cozy. Her beautifully written stories and intentional perspective offer clarifying reminders of what it means to belong and be well, no matter where we may go.

EMILY P. FREEMAN, AUTHOR OF SIMPLY TUESDAY AND A MILLION LITTLE WAYS

A welcome counterpoint to the burn it all down travel memoir genre, Tsh traveled the world for a year with her husband, their three young children and her job along for the ride. I couldnt put this inspiring book down, not only because of Tshs glorious and interesting travel stories, but because of the underlying permission to include our children and our significant others in what we love most about being alive.

SARAH BESSEY, AUTHOR OF JESUS FEMINIST AND OUT OF SORTS

There is a normal way of living we easily buy intograduate high school with good grades so you can go to college, get good grades so you can go to graduate school, get a job, work until you get the promotion, the house, so on and so forth. This book enlivens risk and emboldens us to find a full path, not a comfortable one. This book will make the wanderer feel right at home and have the homebody strapping on a backpack to wander.

LISA GUNGOR, RECORDING ARTIST

This book is one of a kind, and for that its a must-read. Its not a stereotypical travel memoir from a single person about finding yourself, but rather a family that adventures because they already have. It made me wrestle deeply with questions of belonging, home, family, and hospitalitywhile giving full permission to be okay with the paradox of having wanderlust and also being a homebody. Read it, then buy five copies and give to friends. Thats what Im doing, at least.

JEFFERSON BETHKE, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ITS NOT WHAT YOU THINK AND JESUS > RELIGION

Warning: This book may create wanderlust. I loved this un-put-downable take on a true global road trip, family in tow. An inspirational tale of one familys journey to find their place in the world, and one Ill treasure.

CLAIRE DIAZ-ORTIZ, ENTREPRENEUR, EARLY TWITTER EMPLOYEE, AND AUTHOR OF DESIGN YOUR DAY AND THE BETTER LIFE

As a homebody with a healthy dose of wanderlust, Ive been fascinated by Tshs around-the-world adventure since the moment I first heard about it. I so enjoyed getting to tag along on her familys global adventures, which were nothing at all like I expectedboth more strange and more familiar than I had imagined.

ANNE BOGEL, AUTHOR OF READING PEOPLE

As a devout homebody Im used to being shamed by books about travel. Not this time. In At Home in the World, Tshs words will have you longing for home even if youre sitting in your favorite chair. My view of home is forever changed for the better. I cannot stop thinking about this book.

MYQUILLYN SMITH, AUTHOR OF THE NESTING PLACE AND HOMEBODY EXTRAORDINAIRE

No one leads us through adventure and family better than Tsh! This expansive story of people, places, presence, and pluck is an absolute page-turner. She went on the adventure I always dreamed of but didnt know was possible. You are going to love this book. Youll close the last page, hug your family tight, and then call your travel agent.

JEN HATMAKER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOR THE LOVE

Other Books by Tsh Oxenreider

Organized Simplicity

Notes from a Blue Bike

I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.

Winnie-the-Pooh

There is a false dichotomy spread via the modern travel section of your local bookstore: you either love to travel, and therefore throw caution to the wind by divorcing a spouse or dropping out of college to go find yourself on sale in some foreign night market, or youre happily married with kids, which means you have zero hankering to leave the suburbs and the school pickup line. Sitting on my desk is yet another new memoirfresh on the market and one I cannot bring myself to finishabout a vagabonds quest for the open road with the motive to escape any form of responsibility. Marriage? Thats only for the conventional types who love memberships at bulk warehouse stores. Produce offspring? Thats even worsesay good-bye to any semblance of independence as you know it.

This makes me sad.

I can dispel this myth. I can shout from the rooftops that you can both love to travel and be happily married with children. You dont have to delay familial commitment out of fear that a ringed finger means no more fun in European bars or on African safaris. Giving birth to new life doesnt mean the death of your passport; kids are remarkably fantastic travelers and can open more doors to cultural experiences than going solo.

Ignore the books that tell you travel is the antithesis of family. To me, those two beautiful words go hand in hand. They stand together on a crowded city bus, holding on as the tires bounce over potholes, siblings who have each others backs.

Its not easy. You can bet the saffron in Istanbuls Grand Bazaar that its far easier to pack when youre single, and its decidedly much cheaper to move about the cabin. But traveling with family isnt impossible. A love for travel, to explore new places and foods and cultures, to sleep on the cheap in the worlds grandest cities, doesnt mean youre not family material. It means youre one of the more honest parents in the car-pool line.

If youve picked up this book in search of another story to justify your hard-held belief that kids and travel dont mix, you might want to move on to another one. Or better yet, buy this and start reading it right now, before declining that marriage proposal out of fear youll never again strap on a backpack. A solid marriage, well-cultured kids, and travel? Hearty ingredients for a fulfilling life.

If youre holding this book because youre weary of punching your parenting time card yet one more day, I offer you solidarity with a side of hope: I cant tell you how to travel with your kids, exactly, but I can show you what its like for me to travel with mine. This book chronicles my experience as a happily married wife and mom in her midthirties who never outgrew her wanderlust. Those post-college backpacking years whetted my appetite for more, and once my three kids came on the scene, I couldnt believe my good luck: I now have three beautiful people to whom I can leave my love of travel and a worldview that accounts for the entire planet. Because once theyve traveled, theyve seen it firsthand. No going back. What a gift to bequeath them before leaving their childhood home.