Obviously very little about your time in Croatia turned out as you planned it. What was the biggest surprise for you?

Isn’t how that always is for a mom? I think the biggest surprise was how hard it was to adjust. I’ve been a travel writer for a decade now, and I thought I’d be the one leading my family around. Oddly enough, it was the exact opposite. I had culture shock, jet lag, the bends (not really). But pretty much every made-up travel ailment you can come up with. Meanwhile, my architect husband and my two very young children went skipping off into the mountain meadow, and I didn’t see them until four months later. I’m fairly certain this is because they had no expectations. And I had too many.

One of my favorite scenes in the book is when you arrive in Mrkoplaj to find the apartment yo were to live in unfinished. You felt responsible for your children and guilty that things were so topsy turvy and uncertain. But they ended up being fine that night and the next morning. Do you think this speaks to the ability of children to adapt in new situations?

I put a lot of heavy baggage on myself that whole first week in the village. Iowa is a conservative place, and I heard a lot of questioning about my decision before I left. “Isn’t that the country that’s in a giant war?” Well, yes it was. Fifteen years ago. And now it’s over. But things like that work on your psyche when you’re under stress. So that things weren’t as settled as they are at home made me worry for my kids. Was I a horrible mom to give in to my wanderlust and drag the kids along like this? I don’t know what I was expecting. Of course they’d be unsettled in a different country. And I would, too.

And you know what? They did great. I think we spend a lot of time trying to help our kids have perfect lives. I’m not so sure that’s good for them. My kids really grew and thrived in Mrkopalj because not only did they have challenges there, they had their parents close by to teach them how to deal with challenges. As long as you’re there for your kids, loving them and giving them support and attention when they need it, they can pretty much deal with anything. And couldn’t we say that about humans in general? That’s why travel is the ultimate growing experience. Every moment you get a new thing thrown at you. And funny enough, you deal, and often, you thrive.

It interested me how freedom much children had in Croatia. Did this benefit them? Has it affected them now that you’re home?

We did let them roam the way the kids in the village roamed. They were pretty much in eyeshot of us all the time anyway. It was good for them, and for us. I feel like our generation does more face time with their children than any before us. It’s tough on everyone. Because here’s this mom with a master’s degree who spends her days cleaning up Cheerios and having full conversations with a rear-view mirror. That’s a good thing, yes, because kids rock. But there’s so little separation between kid world and grownup world, I think it hinders the independence of both.

Can you share a bit about the traveling you did after you left Mrkoplaj? What did you see? How did it go?

We were in a compact car with two small children and two antsy adults for three full months. Let me reiterate: Compact car, three months, family of four. Sometimes I can’t even believe we’re all alive and relatively unscarred. Essentially Jim and I made a wish list of cities in Europe we liked, and the kids added to it with things they’d studied with Jim in homeschool. Then we hopped in the car and ticked every single place off the list: Lausanne, Switzerland; south of France; Paris; Lisbon, Portugal; London; all around Spain but especially San Sebastian, Barcelona, Bilbao. It was awesome and awful at the same time! Moving to a new currency, new language, new set of streets every few days is totally exhilarating. On the other hand, you’re doing that in Mommy-Daddy mode, so it’s probably four times as stressful. Or maybe eight jillion times more.

Still: There are so many inside jokes we now have as a family because of that time. And so many memories that are part of our in-house language here. I feel like that road time cinched us together as a family in a way that we’d have to work pretty hard to loosen. We became a team then. Or maybe a troupe of clowns. Either way, that feeling is still with us. And that’s what I’ve always dreamed of in a family.

What was it like to come back to the United States? How did your children adjust?

We were never more grateful to be Americans than we were on that first day home. We live in the greatest country in the world. We really do. And the fact that we were back with family and friends, in a place where we knew all the good deals again and how to get half off at the deli counter at our local grocery, was exhilarating as seeing the Eiffel Tower. As Grant Wood said, “I had to go to France to appreciate Iowa.”

What have you been up to since you came back to the States? Any future travel plans?

The first year was spent with our heads down, working to recover financially. We like to have a savings account built up, so we really focused on that, because you never know when that wanderlust will hit again. We’ve talked about following Jim’s roots, which are really interesting. His people are from a fishing village on the fjords of Norway (how awesome would that book be?) and from the Alsace-Lorrain region of France (training grounds of Thomas Keller; also awesome).

What’s your advice for parents who are planning long-term travel with their kids?

Prepare for baptism by fire when it comes to preparing for the journey. But when you make it through that, you’ll know that your desire to go was pure, and you’ve just earned the most amazing experience of your life. Also, buy Elisa Bernick’s The Family Sabbatical Handbook. I can tell you about the emotional roller coaster of excellence in Running Away to Home, but Elisa will give you logistics. We followed it to the letter.

Purchase Running Away to Home or visit Jennifer Wilson’s site where you can see video and more photos from the family’s trip.