Kim is such a creative force to be reckoned with. She is fun, obviously beautiful, and is living an adventure equal parts dreamy and scary. I picked her to be part of this series because she and her husband jumped ship temporarily from the "American Dream" and went on an adventure together to both learn and teach. That is beautiful, and I was eager for her counter-cultural story to be told.
In Kim's words:
Hello tiny twig readers!
My name is kim and I’m the girl behind the blog, yellow songbird, where you’ll find anything and everything from fashion, etsy crushes, tutorials, giveaways, life, and snippets from our adventure overseas. I’d love for you to stop by!
Anywho, I’m pumped to help Hayley out with her counter cultural series. Currently, my husband and I are overseas teaching English. We are on a group of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean. Some days are rough, as we tough out the heat & humidity, while eating weird food. Other days are luxurious, as we go to the best resorts in South Asia to teach resort workers to better their grammar, vocabulary, and overall English speaking skills. Teaching has been great. It’s a fun gig and my students are so eager to learn.
It was difficult, at first, to come over here…difficult to leave our cute townhouse in Colorado, to put my business on hold until we returned, to pack my sewing machine away for 4 months, to say goodbye to friends & family that we love so dearly, to know that our lives were about to be forever changed. It took a leap of faith to get here, and we are so glad we took that leap.
Can you see why? ;)
Let me tell you that we are only here for four months. We have hit the one month mark and have finally settled into our ocean view flat (on an island most flats or apartments are ocean view haha). I thought four months would be no problem. Easy peasy. I was so wrong! It’s been difficult in every way, but I am constantly comforted from friends, family, my incredible husband, and above all, my Heavenly Father.
Neither of us were settled into a career that we needed to stay for. We don’t have kids yet, so we were told over and over “this is the time to do it.” I know that some people think “You’re almost 24. You are out of college and should be having kids and working a 9-5, not living in a tropical paradise making no money teaching English. What about retirement? What about your kids’ college tuition?” In my opinion, these statements & questions come from a pit of worry & fear. One of my favorite quotes from Donald Miller is this:
"fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life."
Fear makes you settle. Fear puts limits on what God wants to do with your life. Fear “tricks you into living a boring life.” It’s not that we aren’t concerned with our future. We are. But we aren’t tied down to what the world thinks is right. We aren’t consumed with a hefty retirement account ((which, is retirement even Biblical?? Think on that)) and the Lord has never failed to provide for us. He has a pretty good track record of faithfulness! We know we are where He wants us and are 100% certain that He is using us here. That may be crazy to some, but for us, it’s perfect and it’s one way we live out our faith in this crazy world in which we live.
love.