A couple years ago, I wrote a post called Adventures in Single Motherhood. I had recently been divorced and I was crippled with insecurity and fear which had an immense effect on my sense of adventure. Since my divorce, I have done some intense rebuilding. A tearing down to the studs and starting over type of rebuilding.
I have read lots of books and done lots of work to undo the damage which was causing the insecurity and fear. In my self-assessment, I discovered that the number one, most important thing in my life that brings me joy is adventure. Aside from parenting, of course, but we’re talking about trying to reignite the spark within me and figure out what apart from being a mom makes me tick.
Two years ago, my family and I decided we were going to embark on an adventure to the UK to reconnect with our family’s roots. We decided the summer of 2019 was the year we were going. We hadn’t all been there together as a family since 1982, and I hadn’t been back myself since the early 90’s.
My daughter has been obsessed with London since she was about 4-years-old and when her best friend went two years ago, she lost her mind with jealousy. This was going to be a special trip.
But when it came time to actually book everything, schedules, life and outside priorities got in the way, and one by one family members started dropping like dominos, until the last two pieces standing were my daughter and I.
I’m so much more confident than I was two years ago, when we lived in Phoenix and I didn’t have the guts to travel the four-hour drive to the Grand Canyon with my daughter by myself. But I wasn’t sure I could do a two-week stint in a foreign country alone with my 11-year-old. I also knew opportunities for these types of adventures don’t come around often, and sometimes you need to seize the day!
I started to warm up to the idea of doing the trip alone – a special mother daughter trip. When I told my daughter the family trip had fallen apart and it was just her and I left, she didn’t skip a beat when she asked, “Well, can we just go by ourselves, then?” And I didn’t skip a beat when I replied, “Of course we can.”
Two days later our trip was booked. She helped pick the hotels, we got our British Rail pass, {because why stop at visiting one country, let’s visit two} and we made a list of all the things we want to do while we’re there. No pub crawls for mom, but it will still be the adventure of a lifetime!
The journey of single motherhood has been an interesting one to say the least. It’s a difficult adjustment to make, going from life with a partner, back to life on your own, but with a little help, and a lot of self-love that has reignited the spark within me, we have settled into a groove. We are ready for the next adventure! Because the wanderlust never left, I just needed a reminder that the power was always within me.
Need some fresh ideas?
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