Less stuff more Life: The HannaCruz Family moves to Sicily for an exciting job opportunity, culture, adventure, and of course leaning into our faith over fear mentality.

The boxes told the truth before we were ready to say it out loud.

As our home was being packed up for our move to Sicily, we stood there watching room after room turn into stacks of cardboard. Closets emptied. Cabinets opened. Drawers revealed the little things we had forgotten we owned. It was humbling to see how much had filled our space, and even more humbling to ask how much of it we actually needed.

This move is more than a change of address. It is a family decision to choose less stuff and more life. More travel. More shared meals. More courage. More culture. More chances to step outside what feels familiar and let faith lead the way.

Choosing faith when fear had a lot to say

Moving to another country sounds romantic when you say it quickly.

“We’re moving to Sicily.”

It rolls off the tongue like an adventure, and it is. But behind that simple sentence are hundreds of small decisions, doubts, and late-night conversations!!

What if it is harder than we thought? What if the kids struggle? What if the language barrier feels too big? What if we miss the comfort of home more than we expected?

Fear had plenty to say.

Faith asked a different question: what if this chapter grows us in ways comfort never could?

That became the heart of our decision, even though November of 2025 I said I don't think I can do this, "We shouldn't step away from everything we've worked so hard to build in Seattle: comunity, connections, friends, family, and a wonderful, loyal and successful business at Posh Posh Beauty Bar. I continued to be prayerful and hopeful someone passionate, honest, hard working, and eager would join the team so I didn't have to sell Posh Beauty Bar. Rather keep it open, maintain the loyal and amazing guests inside the beauty brand we worked so hard to curate, continue to offer the white glove, bespoke guests reservation, and guess what God knew the perfect fit. Trusting isn't always easy but when you lead your life by faith everything falls into place in the right timing. We chose to say YES because we ultimitely didn't want to look back at our life and say WHY didn't we just try, so here we are not because we had every detail figured out. We did not. Not because we felt fearless. We did not feel that either. We chose to move forward because we believed this next season had purpose, even if it came with uncertainty.

Faith over fear does not mean fear disappears. It means fear does not get the final vote. Fear can always seep in your just have to have a mustard seed larger in faith than fear.

Letting go of what we had been carrying

Packing showed us something we could not ignore. We had accumulated so much.

Some of it was useful. Some of it was sentimental. Some of it was just there because we had space for it.

There were bins we had not opened in years. Clothes we kept “just in case.” Decorations we liked but did not love. Kitchen tools that rarely made it out of the drawer. Items tied to past seasons that no longer matched the life we were walking into.

Letting go did not happen all at once. It came in layers.

We asked simple questions:

• Do we use this?

• Do we love this?

• Does this help the life we are choosing now?

• Is this worth moving across the world?

  
  

That last question changed everything.

When every item had to earn its place, our priorities became clearer. We were not just packing a house. We were choosing what kind of family rhythm we wanted to carry forward. Of course we packed our entire home GYM as fitness is a huge part of our lives.

Making room for travel, culture, and shared memories

The goal is not to own nothing. A home still needs comfort. Kids still need familiar things. Family life still comes with shoes by the door, favorite mugs, and the random objects that somehow follow you from room to room.

The goal is to stop letting stuff take the place of experiences.

In Sicily, we hope to trade some of our old habits for new ones. Weekend drives through hilltop towns. Slow walks through outdoor markets. Beach days that turn into simple dinners. Church bells in the distance which is music to my ears. Conversations with neighbors, new friends, and community and even if our Italian comes out clumsy at first we're still willing to try our best to immerse ourselves.

Italy offers so much history and culture, and Sicily carries its own deep story. Greek ruins, Norman architecture, Arab influences, Baroque towns, fishing villages, vineyards, volcano views, and family traditions that stretch back generations. We do not want to observe it from a distance. We want to learn from it up close.

That means choosing immersion over ease.

It means trying the language even when we make mistakes. It means tasting foods we cannot pronounce yet. It means teaching our children that the world is much bigger than what they already know.

More life, for us, looks like saying yes to the unfamiliar.

Building a family culture of adventure

Adventure does not always look grand. Sometimes it looks like filling out paperwork which we've accomplished so much of that by taking this job opportunity. Sometimes it looks like weighing luggage on the bathroom scale. Sometimes it looks like comforting a child who is nervous about leaving friends, many tears flowed from each of our eyes.

A family move to Sicily will stretch all of us.

There will be days when everything feels exciting. There will also be days when we miss the easy version of life, the version where we know where everything is and how everything works.

That is part of the growth, stepping into the unknow will always be hard but everything that is worth working hard for will never be easy but always worth it.

We want our children to see that courage is not only for big, dramatic moments. Courage can be small and daily. It can look like ordering bread in a new language, walking into a local shop, making a new friend, or asking for help.

We also want them to understand that home is not only walls and furniture. Home is the people around the table. Home is prayer before a decision. Home is the stories we keep telling. Home is how we show up for each other when life changes.

Learning to live with open hands

One of the hardest parts of change is realizing how much we try to control.

We make plans, lists, budgets, timelines, and backup plans. Those are good and needed. But at some point, a move like this asks for open hands.

Open hands to release what no longer fits, open heart to embrace what is to be aligned in our life in this season.

Open hands to receive what we could not have planned, but was all along a part of our what was suppose to be.

Open hands to trust that obedience can be uncomfortable and still be good.

This chapter is teaching us that a full life is not measured by drawers over flowing. It is measured by presence, connection, growth, and gratitude. It is measured in the moments when we look around and realize we are living the story we once only talked about.

We didn't shoot for this opportunity because we thought everything would be perfect. We as a family encourage growth, encourage new experiences, encourage trying to do things that challage and teach us what we're made of. We believe there is something so precious and beautiful about being stretched in life as confidence is birthed from trying new things then realizing you can do the next hard thing and that will bring compounded confidence in never playing small.

What we are taking with us

We are taking fewer things than we once thought we needed.

But we are bringing the essentials.

We are bringing faith. We are bringing curiosity. We are bringing a willingness to be beginners. We are bringing our family traditions, even as we make space for new ones. We are bringing the hope that this move will shape us in quiet, lasting ways.

And we are bringing the belief that less can make room for more.

More patience. More wonder. More connection. More courage. More time outside. More meals shared slowly. More history under our feet. More gratitude for the gift of being able to go.

This move started with My husband saying "You know I've never said no to you, and because of that you've had a lot of sucess because of your drive and ambition. However what do you think of me applying for a job in Sicily" My answer was "If God be for it whom could be against it." As time went our decision led to a day when we saw our entire life getting boxed up, taped, and a house slowly being emptied.

But what it is really about is a family choosing to live more awake. To trust God in the unknown. To step beyond comfort. To let go of the extra weight and make space for culture, adventure, and deeper faith.

Less stuff. More life.

That is the chapter we are walking into. What are you and your family walking into with this next chapter in life? Please trust me and lead with a mustard seed more of faith verses fear.

Much love everyone.