About Us

We are a homesteading, homeschooling family and we’re doing it in Ecuador’s Amazon jungle!

Our family story is different than many. It’s so easy to just live, day to day. Go to school or work, cook your meals, do piles of laundry. But our family has always lived differently. In the U.S. we also chose to homestead and home school. It set us apart. But we have come to find ourselves living and now homesteading in Ecuador’s Amazon Jungle. Moving our family abroad wasn’t an easy thing to do, but it was our mission and our purpose, even our calling, for a long time.

William and I had only met when I first heard about his adventures as a kid living in Ecuador. When he was five years old, his family moved to Ecuador to live off grid in the Amazon jungle. They were there for ten years. His eyes would come alive as he told story after story of playing in the rivers or the frog that lived in their kitchen cupboard. He shared with me the sound of this bird, the taste of that strange, foreign fruit, the memories of trips to town on horseback and then canoe. Making Colada Morada and guaguas de Pan on the Day of the Deceased holiday is a tradition his family still does every year. It’s one I quickly learned to love too. (______). Santa Clause in their family filled stockings but after returning to the U.S. he also left the kitchen table with an array of tropical fruits, as he “passed through South America first and knew the Porters would enjoy some things from Ecuador”. At New Years they also celebrate every year with their favorite traditional Ecuadorian dishes and an “Ano Viejo” dummy. Ecuador worked itself deep into the blood of the Porter family.

Defining our Family Mission

I joined that family when William and I got married, fully knowledgeable that William’s big life goal, his passion and mission was to return to the Ecuadorian Amazon and grow food, feed people and teach them to grow their own food. To feed the hungry. To liberate the captive. It all sounded so adventurous and amazing, albeit, scary and overwhelming. But of course I wanted to be there! I had always dreamt of being able to give my children amazing experiences that would teach them about the world and other cultures and languages.

But the logistics of it and an actual move was hard. We tried to plan it all, and I couldn’t figure it out. The money it would take to move there and get set up and live for years as we waited for animals to grow out and food to produce? I couldn’t come up with it. I couldn’t see how that would ever be possible. And figuring out visas and paperwork for long term residency? I felt so lost. 

We did go visit a few times, first William and I (_____), then with our kids but it wasn’t the same as going with the purpose of changing the world that we kept talking about. Finally, as our oldest child was ten years old, we realized we’d better put a date on our goal or our kids would be grown and this opportunity to move as a family wasn’t going to happen. So we did,we set a goal to be living in Ecuador by William’s 40th birthday. And things came together. We learned about sustainable agriculture in the tropics and began to share with friends living near Tena and encouraged them as they began alley cropping. I wasn’t ready to sell our house in the U.S., but were able to come to a creative arrangement that left us mortgage free and with some rental income. We connected with the Yachana Foundation who gave us confidence in our purpose and a place to land as we arrived. 

Taking the Leap

In June 2023 we moved, with only our fourteen suitcases and hope and faith that things would continue to work themselves out. We are raising our boys to be bilingual, adventurous, aware of a different way of life. We are “homesteading” in the Amazon jungle- working to grow our own food, raise animals and cook our meals from scratch, including learning to cook traditional Ecuadorian dishes and use the foods that are native to this area. And we are working with the Yachana Foundation- helping them in their purpose of creating a place of learning and education as well as conservation.

In Summary

We are often asked “how long will you stay?”. I don’t know. I don’t know what the future holds. But for now we are here. We feel we have a purpose and try to remember and work towards that purpose every day. We’re still in the middle of our story. Writing about what I am learning and what we are doing along the way is what I share here on my blog with you. I hope you also enjoy this journey.