Moving and Traveling — What Fun!

Over the past few years, serving as a youth and young-adult fellowship counselor at church, I met many families wrestling with all kinds of difficulties. Hoping to move faster toward my seminary training in biblical counseling so my ministry could bear more fruit, I decided to transfer to a full-time program in Los Angeles. Many people have asked me, out of curiosity, how I ever convinced the whole family to mobilize and go to the U.S. with me. The truth is, it took several rounds of lively discussion during our Family Time, and about half a year of praying it through, before we reached that decision.

Turning Dreams into Action

First, I raised the idea of continuing my studies during Family Time, so that everyone could think through what impact a change of environment might bring, and voice whatever was weighing on their hearts. Our two teenage sons worried about not making friends in a new place. I encouraged them to look at it differently — a new environment is really a chance to widen your circle of friends, just as when our whole family immigrated from Taiwan to Canada and ended up making even more friends. Our second daughter, then in university, also wanted to seize the chance to transfer schools and move to Los Angeles with the family for a different kind of learning experience. My husband's job let him work from home, so he could work wherever we went — which gave us a lot of flexibility.

Once the whole family had unanimously agreed to move to the U.S., my husband brought up his dream of driving our family SUV across the entire country. After more lively discussion during Family Time, we realized that turning everyone's dreams into real action would mean overcoming quite a few challenges.

But thank God, He led us step by step: within just two short months, both my second daughter and I finished the school transfer paperwork, and our house was successfully rented out. Our eldest had just graduated from college and could take turns driving. In the summer of 2013 we went back to Taiwan to visit family, then hurried back to Canada in early August with only one day to pack — since we planned to return within a year, we shipped no boxes ahead and set a limit of one carry-on-sized bag per person. All six of us climbed into the SUV and set off on our family road trip to the United States.

A Journey of Ups and Downs

On this trip, I noticed that when everyone packed their own bag, they each took only what they personally felt was essential. I didn't have time to check the boys' bags before we left, and only later discovered they had packed ping-pong balls and paddles, and even their medals — such a charming glimpse of their boyish innocence — along with a few pairs of shorts, jeans, and a light jacket, since to them a Southern California winter was hardly worth worrying about compared to Toronto's. Besides my Bible, I couldn't fit any reference books, so I just brought a hot plate and a large thermal cooker — and those two items turned out to be lifesavers the whole way.

Even on the road, we kept up our Family Time — sharing what we'd learned and felt each day, planning the route and dividing tasks, and praying together. Every morning I planned the day's itinerary, our second daughter went online to book that night's hotel, our eldest scouted out the sights along the way, and my husband could still get office work done in the car. It was a good thing our electrical-engineering major eldest thought to buy a car charger, so our phones and laptops could stay charged the whole trip. The 'ladies' brigade' did all the driving — our two daughters took turns during the day, and I took over when we needed to push on or drive through the night. Whenever we stopped for gas, the 'boys' brigade' went on duty — the two brothers took turns taking out the trash and wiping down the windows, while my husband filled the tank.

From Toronto to Los Angeles, the outbound leg covered 15,000 kilometers through eleven U.S. states over twelve days. We spent three to four days each at the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon, and made one stop in every other state — sometimes pushing straight through, sometimes taking a half-day to explore. By the time we reached Las Vegas the temperature had soared past 40°C, and we actually thought the car’s thermometer was broken. Our third child said we were like the movie Life of Pi — a community of life crammed into one vehicle, having to learn to coexist in peace.

One day, as we drove up to the top of the Rockies in Colorado, I glanced over at the breathtaking view the kids kept pointing out — and when I looked back at the road, I suddenly realized the short stretch ahead had sheer cliffs on both sides with no guardrail at all. Hail began falling out of nowhere, the temperature plunged to freezing, and mist fogged up the windshield, blurring my view. It was then I discovered that even with thirty years of driving experience, I actually had a fear of heights — I couldn't focus my eyes, my hands and legs went weak, and I could only keep praying inside... In the end, our second daughter took over the wheel, and only then did I finally shake off the fright. Her calm, steady composure in the middle of a crisis left me deeply impressed.

A Wonderful Year in LA

In Los Angeles, we moved into a one-bedroom student apartment at Logos Evangelical Seminary. I had worried the kids wouldn't adjust, but instead they said, thank God, He had prepared for us a 'super-sized motel' — compared to all the motels we'd stayed in along the way, at least this one had separate rooms — plus a swimming pool and a ping-pong table they loved, so they could do 'land and water sports' every day. The dorm had fifty housing units, and no matter how many children a family had, every unit was the same size; altogether around a hundred adults and more than thirty children lived there.

In terms of our physical surroundings, moving from a comfortable four-bedroom home in Toronto into a cramped dorm unit was a real test of adapting to change for every member of the family. As Scripture says, 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.' In daily life, we learned to live simply — saving wherever we could, reusing what we had, borrowing what we needed: three sleeping bags a friend gave us carried us safely through the winter; from the coin-operated washer and dryer to carrying water from the water dispenser, our two sons were always my faithful helpers — thankfully they'd built the habit of doing chores since they were small. Whenever our second daughter came back on weekends, she'd just sleep on a mat on the floor.

The Exciting Journey Home

In the summer of 2014, our eldest joined back up with us, and the whole family once again set off driving back to Toronto. With last time's experience behind us, this trip went far more smoothly — though figuring out what to keep and what to let go of, after a year's worth of belongings had piled up in the dorm, was yet another challenge for our family. And of course, our luggage was limited again this time.

The return trip was full of its own hair-raising moments. We took a different route from the way out, and because of changes in climate and mountain terrain, one moment the tire pressure gauge would show something abnormal, the next the battery would act up on startup — it kept us on edge the whole way. Over the two-week trip, we played it by ear, deciding where to stop and play, and booking hotels as we went, learning to work closely together and keep our itinerary and lodging flexible.

We made full use of Family Time to talk things through, and the kids each proposed the spots they wanted to see: our two daughters wanted to visit national parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore along the way; our third child, then in ninth grade, said a teacher had mentioned that a trip to California had to include two lakes — Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake; our fourth child, in seventh grade, was fascinated by technology and longed to see Google's headquarters in Northern California, so the whole family got to ride Google's bikes for fun. My husband and I, meanwhile, arranged visits with old friends, missionaries, and pastors we hadn't seen in years — turning the move into a rich feast for the whole family's body, mind, and spirit.

Growing Through the Move

Through this round-trip move and journey as a family, each of us grew in many ways:

1. Broadening our horizons: Our two sons made many new friends, giving them a season of laughter they’ll never forget. Living in the seminary dorm made it easy to gather a group of friends to drop by anytime. Our sons said life in Los Angeles felt like stepping into another world altogether — a truly special season of training and life experience that they still look back on fondly.

2. Strengthening our adaptability: Even in such a small space, we found we could tolerate the heat surprisingly well, sitting quietly under a fan to read or work — we discovered life could be this simple. Without that year of training, we would surely have struggled with the 30-plus-degree heat when we later returned to Taiwan. A change of heart, it turns out, makes it much easier to adapt to any environment.

3. Deepening our parent-child bond: Thank God for shaping us through that year, teaching our whole family to find joy in life wherever we go, to love one another, to carry one another’s burdens, and to complete our cross-country dream together. In the end, using Family Time to communicate fully and build good relationships means that even amid huge upheaval, a family that faces it together can turn the impossible into possible — and live an even richer life.