In the summer of 2008, Diana and I decided to host a foreign exchange student through AFS. 
In August, we met Ary, a 17-year old student from Central Java, Indonesia. Ary changed our lives forever by sharing her culture and her heart with the family. We met dozens of wonderful people through AFS, including students from all over the world. The following summer included a tearful goodbye as Ary returned home to finish high school and begin her career.
Our family kept in touch with Ary using Skype and Facebook. During a video chat in the winter of 2018, Ary told us that she had plans to marry, and would love it if we could attend her wedding. With the high cost of airfare and my medical issues (diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea), we thought seeing Ary again was just a dream. Over the week of Christmas, however, I found an airfare that was within their reach. The flight was booked and planning began.
Diana and I both began a wellness program, monitoring food intake and committing to daily exercise. Both of us reached our goal weight. I lost over 50 pounds.
With recent protests in Jakarta, the Indonesian Government restricted the use of social media for a short time in the spring. I decided at the last minute to start this blog in the event that the issue would recur, so that I could keep family and friends updated, including those without Facebook accounts.
“Daring Adventures” was chosen as the title for a few reasons. Picking up and traveling across the world requires some daring for a couple that had never left North America. It’s also the title of an album by Richard Thompson that was a favorite of mine in college. Finally, it’s a quote from Helen Keller’s book, Let Us Have Faith: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
In 2026, I decided to update the site to make it a journal of many of our travels. I registered the name “mydaringadventures.com” since “daringadventures.com” was already taken. I began copying some of my past Facebook posts and adding additional journals about trips I hadn’t documented well. My Daring Adventures is something I can look back on to remember these moments.