This New Mom Used Her Maternity Leave to Travel With Her Baby
This baby has probably visited more countries than you have.
This is Karen Edwards. She's a mom, nurse and avid traveler from London.
She and her husband Shaun Bayes were experienced backpackers before they had their daughter Esme and decided that they would take her on their adventures when she was just 10 weeks old.
The couple sold their car and rented out their home to be able to go on the trip. Karen has a full 52 weeks of maternity leave and is using the entire year to travel.
The family headed off to Ireland (where Karen is from), New Zealand (where Shaun is from) and then headed to Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Karen estimates that the entire trip cost them about $14,400 and the family was able to afford it using the money she got from UK’s National Health Service (her employer) and money Shaun made picking up landscaping jobs.
"I am confident the different sights, smells and sounds will stimulate all of her senses. She gets stir crazy just as much as I do when we sit around the house for too long so I am sure this can only be good for her,” she said.