You are cordially invited to travel the world with us!

I’m not kidding. Let’s do it. We’ve signed-up and here’s the video to prove it: http://www.mydestination.com/users/thepaynes/bbb

Some may think we’re a bit nutty, but we’re super excited! To be quite honest, as of last night I was discouraged.

First of all the concept in itself seems a bit far-fetched. A mom traveling with two-kids?! Well, I think it’s fabulous, because dad’s deployed and I’d give my right arm to keep the kids distracted from that fact alone and not to mention I’d give both my legs to be able to give the educational adventure of a lifetime for my kiddos – who wouldn’t?

But then I was intimidated by my competitors. Let’s be serious, a bunch of single straight-out-of-college kids putting out some wild videos, how could I stand a chance? My better half reminded me, how could I not?! Thanks hubby!!

Not only has everyone seen that a million times before… I for one have been there and done that and for those who haven’t yet, there’s plenty of it available everywhere. That’s not what we need more of. What we need more of is… reality. Not Jersey Shore reality with all due respect, but the type of reality where people grow-up and one day have kids and want to pursue greatness and go out and do great things even when it seems improbable. That’s what we’re trying to do – the improbable. So I was encouraged again and we went ahead and made the video you just saw… but then last night I was devastated!!!

While tweeting to everyone and their mother, because clearly I’m not the most popular cat in the block and I have to try really hard to get our video out there, it came to our attention that the winner of the challenge could not go accompanied. What did I do?

I had a lump in my throat with the thought of how I’d break the news to the kiddos. So I prayed about it… that if it was meant for us to go that somehow the opportunity would present itself and if not that the door would be closed so that we could just stop daydreaming about it!

So we wake up this morning and this is what is in my inbox:

WOW! …ummm WOW! That’s not all, after replying to that email I was notified that I just needed to be on the top 5 in the voting to make it to the finalist round where the judges would make the final decisions!

Last night we only had a handful of votes and guess where we’re ranked as of this morning? We’re in 8th place!! Let’s not focus that the people ahead of us are ahead by A LOT, but hey if I’ve learned anything at all from this, it’s that ANYTHING is possible!!

I won’t just be traveling with the kids, we will be traveling with YOU because this is a blogging experience so not only would I love your support but I’d like your encouragement, input on where we should go, what we should do… everything!

We are pumped! Let’s DO THIS! We clearly can’t do this on our own, so please, please help us out. We get votes every time our video is shared from here: http://www.mydestination.com/users/thepaynes/bbb

So what are you waiting for… we leave in June… I’ve got a lot of planning and packing to do! Are you in?