How a pregnancy test ended a couple's nomadic van life journey
My husband and I spent nearly three years traveling across the U.S. in a camper van. When I got pregnant sooner than expected, we were forced to make a quick decision. Giving up our life on the road helped us realize what we truly wanted for our next chapter.
I sat in the bathroom, staring at the blue cross on the pregnancy test as quiet curses slipped from my lips. Disbelief wrapped around me like the morning mist at four a.m. outside our window.
My partner and I had always wanted children. Our van life was meant to be our "last hurrah" before embracing parenthood. But this wasn't supposed to happen yet.
The shock faded, replaced by a rush of excitement coursing through me. I smiled, covering my mouth with my hand.
We can't always control our timeline. I hurried to wake my husband, John.
Our Very Last Adventure—Just the Two of Us
Before this, my husband and I had both been caught up in the grind of nine-to-five jobs and side hustles. We lived in a big house, one we'd someday fill with children. But there was a whole world we wanted to see before settling into the responsibilities of raising a family. We decided to say goodbye to the life we were supposed to be satisfied with and chase one we could truly celebrate.
Partly on a whim, mostly fueled by adrenaline, we sold most of our belongings and converted a 1996 Chevy Express cargo van into a tiny home on wheels.
We wanted to explore the country from coast to coast before stepping into parenthood. We also wanted to figure out where we might put down roots. Did we want to raise kids in a city? In the middle of nowhere? On the East Coast? The West Coast? In a mountain town? In the rural Midwest?
We buckled in with our dogs and hit the road—to rediscover ourselves, free from the constraints of our old lives, and to decide where we'd drop our anchor next.
From April 2017 to April 2019, we uncovered the hidden gems of nearly every state. We camped in humid Florida, snowy Vermont, bustling California, and sleepy Wyoming.
Every place we explored had something remarkable that ignited our passion—and something challenging that made us question whether we could call it home. Each stop brought us one step closer to our ultimate goal.
Everything Changed Overnight
In March 2019, we were back in St. Louis visiting family. My periods had been irregular ever since I'd experimented with hormonal birth control, so we'd never been able to pin down my cycle with certainty.
We were planning our next departure when I took a pregnancy test—just to confirm I wasn't pregnant and put our minds at ease.
This wasn't how we'd imagined things would go, but one lesson van life had taught us was to find comfort in the unexpected. Flexibility is one of your greatest tools when you're constantly on the move. You never know what obstacles might steer you off course.
Thrilled beyond words, John decided to scrap our plans for the rest of the year. Now we had to make our most important decision yet: Where did we want to have this baby?
Life Threw Us a New Challenge
Throughout our travels, we kept returning to New Mexico. The warm sun, dry air, stunning winters, and towering mountains took our breath away. It was diverse, artistic, and endlessly inspiring. We joked that it was like Colorado—just without the crowds.
We both felt the pull and reached for the phone.
Soon after that positive test, we lost the pregnancy. Grief filled the van as we stared down the fork in the road.
We had to decide what we wanted now. Did we keep traveling? Or stay on this new path? The choice was clear. The excitement—and the loss—had shown us what we truly wanted. We were ready to grow our family.
We traded four wheels for four walls.
We spent the summer touring one property after another. The search for a new home came with an unexpected wave of grief. The van had been our home. The road was our driveway. The wilderness, our garden. Our identity was wrapped up in the term vanlife—a life of constant motion, always on the move.
But now, we were putting down roots.
We outgrew that way of living faster than we'd planned, yet we turned the page to an exciting new chapter when we bought an off-grid house on 40 acres. We didn't hit the brakes on adventure—we just shifted into a lower gear.
