About me

It was pure chance that my refugee parents landed in Switzerland in the 1970s. After fleeing post-war Vietnam as boat people, my mother, heavily pregnant with my brother, faced the dangerous journey to Malaysia. After he was born, they stayed there for months, waiting for a chance to start anew in the U.S.
Unexpectedly, they received an offer to settle in Switzerland—a place they barely knew, just a name on a map. Yet they gratefully seized the opportunity and never looked back.

I was born in Switzerland as the youngest of four children, and it instantly became my home. Everything that seemed unfamiliar to my parents—from language and culture to the cold winters—became second nature to me. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

But life has a way of leading us down paths we never planned. In 2019, I followed the call of love, and what began as my parents’ stroke of luck became my own destiny: a heart that lives in two worlds.

When my daughter was born, it hurt deeply that my mother couldn’t be there—couldn’t hold her granddaughter, greet her, or look into her eyes.

So when we finally boarded a plane to visit family in Switzerland four months later, my husband and I were nervous. Even cramped in our seats, holding our baby made it all worth it. We’d packed every scenario into our backpacks, but our daughter showed us she needed little more than our closeness, a snack, and fresh diapers. That first flight set a pattern: before her fourth birthday, she’d flown back and forth across the Atlantic more than 14 times.

Traveling for me isn’t just about packing a suitcase—it’s about staying connected across distance.

Our daughter is curious and adventurous—and she loves flying. The excitement starts at packing, when we fill half our suitcases with gifts for our Swiss family. Travel is so second nature to her that on flights, she sleeps as if she’s in her own bed. Even during hectic layovers, she marches bravely beside me—step by step, even though her tiny legs run twice as fast.

I love trying new travel gear—from luggage to entertainment to travel pillows. Some don’t make the cut (“why did we buy this?”), while others become indispensable travel partners. In this blog, I share my experiences to inspire other families to discover the world with their kids.

I have two daughters—an adult and a four-year-old. Their childhoods are separated by twenty years, which feels like two different worlds. Not only have I changed in those two decades, but the world children grow up in has changed profoundly—and the environments shaping my girls couldn’t be more different. Raising a child in the U.S., a country where I never went to school, is a completely new experience for me.

Television was my only reference for the American school system. And I deeply miss my old social circle. Finding my way through this new chapter of motherhood is both challenging and incredibly exciting. It’s this perspective—a Swiss mom navigating life in the U.S.—that colors the stories I tell here.