Families Doing Fabulous Things!

Hank Debruin & Tanya McCready have been married for 17 years and started their husky family before starting their child family.

They now have four children, Logan, 12, Dustyn, 10, Michaela, 6, and Jessica, 4 years old. They live in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, in a stunning wilderness area full of lakes and ridges and hills which sits on the doorstep of Algonquin Park and their life revolves around dogs!

We first profiled them in Dec. 2010, just before Hank ran the Yukon Quest race, in Canada in early 2011. Right now, as this interview is republished, Hank is out on the trail running the Iditarod! You can follow the race and his progress at the official race site.

Click to read more…

Hank Debruin & Tanya McCready have been married for 17 years and started their husky family before starting their child family.

They now have four children, Logan, 12, Dustyn, 10, Michaela, 6, and Jessica, 4 years old. They live in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, in a stunning wilderness area full of lakes and ridges and hills which sits on the doorstep of Algonquin Park and their life revolves around dogs!

We first profiled them in Dec. 2010, just before Hank ran the Yukon Quest race, in Canada in early 2011. Right now, as this interview is republished, Hank is out on the trail running the Iditarod! You can follow the race and his progress at the official race site.

Click to read more…

Every now and then I run across another family that just blows my socks off. I hear their story and I’m left standing in awe, thinking, “WOW! Now THEY are amazing people!!” And I come away inspired. The Palmer Family of Going Anyway is one such family. Chris and Jill and their amazing five kids are on an open-ended world tour in spite of the unusual circumstances and added difficulty of traveling with a child with special needs. When they first contacted us about the logistics of traveling with kids I was inspired by their spunk and I continue to cheer from the sidelines as I watch the amazing ride they’re on as a family.

Jill has agreed to write for Uncommon Childhood on the topic of out-side-the-box parenting with a differently abled child. I’m so excited to have her on board and to learn from her beautiful example. Without further ado, I’d like to present the fabulous family behind Going Anyway:

Click to read more…

Angela & Jason and their son Bode make up the team behind the site Bode’s Well.

This intrepid little family is off an an open ended adventure pursuing health, education and the life of their dreams!

We caught up with them and asked them to tell us a little bit about their life on the road.
Click to read more…

Imagine what it would be like to enter university as a freshman, full of hope, your sights set on your long term goal: Graduation and a degree in “doing hard things.” You’ve researched your field of study, you know what it’s going to take, and you know it’s not going to be easy. But, you know that in the end it will be worth the sacrifice and the uphill climb.

You dive in with enthusiasm and you work hard. You document your progress. You follow the prescribed course of study. You play by the rules that the controlling institution (your university) sets.You do everything “right,” and exceed every measurement, and everyone knows it.

Graduation day arrives!

You finish strong! Your friends, your family and all of those you’ve met along the way jump up and down and cheer as you walk across that stage. There’s not a dry eye in the place, you’ve done something amazing, something bigger than you thought possible, what’s more, you’re the first person in your family to do it.

But wait… where’s your diploma?

What?

The administration regrets to inform you that they won’t be issuing your diploma.

Why?

It’s not that you didn’t do the work, or didn’t pass the tests, or didn’t follow the rules. It’s not that you didn’t achieve greatness, they agree that you deserve it and you did everything they asked.

No, it’s just that somewhere in your third year of study they changed the rules, decided that because you were under eighteen they couldn’t reward your hard work, couldn’t acknowledge your accomplishment, and wouldn’t honor their end of the deal, even though you put in the time and the money and the work and honored your end.

Sure, you still did the work, you own the information and the accomplishment; nothing can change that. The diploma is just a piece of paper, but it matters to you, doesn’t it? It’s that piece of paper that represents your accomplishment to the rest of the world. Of course it matters.

Can you imagine the disappointment? Yours personally? That of your family and friends? That of everyone who supported you?

David & Daryl Vogel can.

These boys are friends of ours. They’re 13 years old and they just spent three years, a quarter (more or less) of their young lives, cycling from Alaska to Argentina. They were chasing a Guinness World Record for “Youngest people to cycle the Americas.”

They spent a year planning it, and three years pounding the pedals, up and down every hill. They followed their pre-approved route, logged their progress daily, dotted every i, crossed every t. They did it.

Their accomplishment is not disputed.

The Guinness people recognize that they did it, did it according to the rules, and met the prerequisite qualifications for the record. But somewhere along the way, they decided, without telling the Vogel boys, to discontinue the category of “youngest” to accomplish something.

Why? Because some parents are crazy enough to let pre-teens take off sailing around the world alone, or tackle some other similarly life threatening undertaking.

It’s probably a good choice, to remove that category, but is it fair to pull the rug out from under persons who are already underway in their own record attempts? Especially when the folks at Guinness have pre-approved the route and the attempt? Especially when, in this case, the minors in question were accompanied by and protected by their parents for every single inch of the trip? No, it’s not.

This post is part of a campaign to put pressure on the folks at GWR to honor their half of the bargain, to present the certificates to the Vogel boys, and to award them the World Record they were promised.

If we, as adults, or institutions made of adults, make a habit of changing the rules mid-stream we prove ourselves liars to the next generation.

If adults are liars and the rules are subject to change without notice, what incentive do young people have to play by the rules, rise above the challenges and do hard things?

• I have had the privilege of sitting around campfires with the Vogels, and watching their boys sword fight with mine.

• I have the benefit of knowing these kids first hand and, more importantly, knowing their parents first hand.
• I know that this record chase was done fairly, safely, faithfully and was enthusiastically the dream and the effort of the boys themselves.

Won’t you join me in calling on GWR to play by their own rules and honor the accomplishment of these inspiring young men?

Visit their website and encourage the boys as they challenge their denial

Here’s what Nancy (the boys’ Mom) asks that we do:

1. Blog about it - anybody who has a blog or knows anybody who has a blog, please do a quick write-up about this issue and it’s unfairness. I think we should be grandfathered in and then they should close the category. We understand the record the boys broke no longer exists; we would be happy with some sort of official recognition from Guinness – maybe a certificate stating that they met all the requirements as laid out in the guidelines they gave us?  I would be happy to talk with bloggers, but most likely will not consent to interviews with the boys.
2. Social media is powerful. When I got a letter from the director of Guinness World Records this morning he mentioned all the heat on Twitter, so I know it’s working. They have a facebook page (search Guinness World Records) and their Twitter account is @GWRnews Flood them with messages about this.
3. Contact the press – if you have a good, trustworthy source. This is one of those stories that could easily go haywire and I don’t want it twisted every which way. If you know someone in radio/TV/newspaper/magazine media, please contact them. But – don’t just throw it out there for all the kooks to pick up.

Sometimes, the most fabulous things that happen in life, in a family, happen beneath the surface. They aren’t loud, or showy or obvious in any way; and yet, they’re earth shaking.

Justin & Heidi Mussler and their kids eagerly hosted us for a lovely day in Jamaica Plain a couple of weeks ago. They took us to a street festival and we marched in a parade. It was perfect in every way, even the spring downpour that sent us all running for their house and a board game and to sample the chocolate they’d made after watching our chocolate podcast.

On the outside, they look like the average family, two kids, two parents with two jobs and a delightfully funky flat in a charming section of Boston.

But on the inside? There’s a revolution going on. They’re the force behind The Great Family Escape and they’re quietly revolutionizing their world. Click to read more…

A friend introduced me to Stephanie, in the virtual world, some time ago. I instantly loved her heart as a Mom, her zest for life and her passion to make the world a better place through the influence of her little family.

Then, when I found out what their “next big thing” was, we became instant friends.

Imagine renting your house, walking away from everything you’ve known to live in a camper and travel the continental USA for a year… with two toddlers, and a mission!

Tim & Stephanie Shaeffer and their girls, aged two and four, are the one family dynamo known as “Give Every Day” and they’re on a mission to do just that as they move across the country. Click to read more…

Not long ago we encountered the Hudson Family, Michael, Nadine, Desmond (10) and Lenny (8), when they left a comment on one of our posts. Their international family is on an open ended world tour that currently has them in Mexico. We’d love to introduce them to you! Click to read more…

Awhile ago I had the great fortune to run across the website of a very interesting mother and son team: Raising Miro.

I read their blog, watched their podcasts and fell in love!

Hopefully you’ll be as inspired by their journey as we were: Click to read more…

One of the very cool things about running Uncommon Childhood is the parade of fascinating people we get to meet and interview. Every once in a while, we run across a family that makes us go, “WOW!” (okay, more than every once in a while around here!) and the Smeenk family is one of those!

Brian and Jennifer are unique in that they have a BUNCH of kids but decided to hit the road anyway and their open ended adventure is truly inspirational. I know you won’t mind that they’ve given their kids pseudonyms for the internet, charmingly reflecting the adventurous heros of the Narnia Chronicles:  Susan, 9 years old, Peter, 8, Lucy, 6, and Edmund, 4, are growing up in the great big world.

We caught up with them in Turkey, where they’re currently based and were completely impressed by their story, their motivation and their dedication to their family; hopefully you will be as well!

Click to read more…