For most families a vacation lasts a week, maybe two, but for the Hatta family, it lasted nearly a year and took place in 24 different countries.
Sixteen years ago, Robert and Megan Hatta lived in London and dreamed of starting their family abroad.
“We made and saw friends who were building their lives globally,” Robert Hatta says. “They’d move to China or be traveling through Africa, and we were really tempted. It was a lifestyle we had seriously considered.”
Both Robert and Megan are originally from the west side of Cleveland, and both still have parents living there. Ultimately, they decided that it was more important for their children to grow up around their grandparents than to raise them overseas.
“It was without regret that we decided to return to Ohio where all four of our parents live, but we still had tucked away this dream of living abroad with our children,” Robert says.
Hatta Getaway
Hatta
Robert and Megan found themselves with a 13-year-old daughter, Sydney, and an 11-year-old son, Oliver, and no idea how they got there so fast. With kids entering middle and high school, they started to feel like their dream was slipping away.
“We realized that we didn’t have until they were 18 to take this trip,” Robert says. “We really only had until they were in high school, because taking a kid out of high school for a year is a much bigger ask.”
The couple had always had an open conversation with their children about the possibility of living somewhere for a year and frequently talked about all the places they’d love to see as a family. When it came time to turn the dream into reality, Megan wondered, why does it have to be just one country?
The family set to work planning their international move. They decided on a year-long trip, rented out their home and loaned the dog to a neighboring family who was thinking about getting a pooch of their own.
“We started by going off a bucket list of attractions we knew we wanted to see and used those locations as stakes in the ground,” Robert says. “We created a map of the best time of year to see each of those things and this gave us a basic path to follow.”
Hatta Getaway
Hatta
Between these sights the family would map out where they’d like to go next, never booking a flight or accommodation more than eight weeks ahead of time. The family took this time in between stops to see how they were feeling and choose the next adventure accordingly.
When considering what this would mean for their kids’ education, Robert and Megan realized the trip would be extremely educational, but not in a traditional sense.
The family had a tutor they had known for years who was able to create lessons and videos that would keep the kids up to date with their math curriculum, and the couple made sure Sydney and Oliver kept up with writing and reading standards. The Hatta family knew that one of the best ways to teach a child about the world is to let them see it themselves.
“Between war memorials, temples and public markets you see and learn so much,” Robert says. “We hired a lot of guides who would take you through the cities and it was like hiring a teacher.”
The family became even closer through their travels. One of the most impactful experiences came when they traveled to the village of Malealea in Lesotho, a tiny South African nation where Megan and Robert had spent two months nearly 15 years prior.
“My wife and I had lived in and done service work there when we lived in London, so for us it was a return. But for our kids, it was the first time they had ever existed in a place with no electricity or running water,” Robert says. “With only two weeks, our goal was less about making a meaningful impact, which isn’t possible in such a short period, but rather connecting our family to the community and exposing the kids to the Basotho culture.”
Hatta Getaway
Hatta
The family was able to visit with the same service organization that Robert and Megan had worked with in 2007 and got to watch their kids become comfortable in an environment that meant so much to them.
In the blog Robert kept of their travels, he reflects on what the decade-and-a-half-later return to Malealea meant to himself and Megan.
“Our return reminded me of who Meg and I were 15 years ago as individuals and a young couple. Before marriage and kids, we had a vision of the life we wanted to build together,” Robert says. “Some dreams became real. Some remained just dreams. And others, like this world tour and return to Malealea, just took a little longer to realize than we expected.”
When the family’s adventure concluded, they were left with memories that would last a lifetime and armed with a deeper connection to each other.
The family acknowledges that it wasn’t all fun or easy. They shared rooms, fought over schoolwork and got on each other’s nerves. But they also laughed, grew and learned to understand each other in a way that wasn’t possible before.
“As somebody who worked a ton in the 10 years prior, I’d come home from work and try to squeeze 24 hours of parenting into an hour and a half and you’re not really listening,” Robert says. “Since we’ve returned, I now understand the cadences and rhythms of how my kids feel and act. I have the patience to really be there with them because I’ve had a year to practice.”
Ainsley Allen is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
