As I squinted into the sun, crying tears of exhaustion, relief, loss, and change I realized that it was time to update my blog. A chapter of my life is over. I know, it wasn’t a profound thought by any means, but seriously… I’ve abandoned this blog for far too long. I have posted video updates here and there, but that’s pretty much it. This past season of my life was busy. The move was the hardest, worst one I’ve ever been through (and I’ve seen my fair share of moves – 20 now) and I suppose it isn’t officially over. We still have to (in the future – maybe not so near) move everything into a new place and unpack. Right now I would feel content living in an RV or furnished rental for quite awhile. I DO NOT want to move another box for a very long time. My back aches, my wrist feels damaged, my wrinkles look deeper, and I’ve had laryngitis for about 5 days (maybe more – I’ve lost track with all the busyness). My family has had more colds/flues during this stressful move than we’ve had over the course of the past three years combined. Maybe it’s just a bad year for germs, though, I’m not sure. I really think the stress has something to do with our immune systems having issues fighting off the germs.
There are many things to be thankful for, though. I had friends by my side helping me for many days with packing, cleaning, and filling vehicles with boxes to move. (Thank you, Crystal!) I’ve had friends and family there for all the days I needed to vent. No one is seriously injured, no one got food poisoning in spite of lots of eating out during the past two weeks, and the weather has been spring-like. Rain and warmth. During the end of our move we had a lot of warm days, which I’m very thankful for. Moving things would have been far more difficult there at the end if we had a lot of windy, cold, and/or snowy days. Instead we had a lot of sunshine, temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s (Fahrenheit), and blue skies.
Brad is starting a new job and things are up in the air a bit. We may or may not stay in the U.S. for the summer, but if not we’ll be headed to Nicaragua in the near future.
Well, I guess that’s basically all that is new for now. Things are a bit up in the air, but there are many things to be thankful for!
Showing posts with label move. Show all posts
Showing posts with label move. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year!
I must say, I'm so very glad 2009 is in the past. The best thing about 2009 was, of course, my baby girl, Elizabeth Rose. There were a lot of struggles that had to be gone through last year, a lot of painful changes that were made, and a lot of things I want to simply leave in 2009. I'm hopeful that 2010 will be a year of growth (hopefully not too painful), healing, and, well... change. That's one thing we can depend on - every year will be filled with change. In one form or another, change seems to enter every year. Sometimes with a bang. Like this year. I should be off to another country within the next couple of months. I'll be learning to live in a place where I'm not even close to fluent in the language spoken there. I will be leaving nearly everything and everyone I know behind. Yes, change is here and I welcome it. Okay, not really. I want to welcome it and to feel adventurous, excited, and trusting; but I don't. I'm working on it, but with change I tend to dig my heals in and fight it a bit. Most folks can't always see that with me, because I say the right things so as to help them (I want them to feel like I'm living my dream and not to worry about me), but inside... I'm a bit afraid. This is big and "secretly" I hope something comes up and it doesn't work out. I'll probably even be a bit disappointed if it doesn't work out (I've focused on it so long) and yet I could live without this big of a change... I think. I want to do what's right and maybe this move is right, but maybe it's not. And maybe it will just be another thing to live through. Another thing to praise God I make it past. None of us know what the future holds and that can be a bit daunting at times. I'm going to try and trust God to take care of directing our paths and taking care of us as we travel no matter where our travels take us.
Happy New Year!
Friday, October 30, 2009
On the Move
I have some big news, but haven't been able to figure out how to share it! I decided today that it's time I just delve right in. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away. It may help me decide what subject to write about next. The news is... my family is on the move again. This time instead of it being across a state or across the country we're going to move to Nicaragua. It's a small country in Central America - north of Costa Rica and south of Honduras.
I guess the first logical question to such news would be, "Why?" Well, farming in the northern U.S. isn't easy. The growing season is short and the area we're in currently has horrible soil. It's expensive to raise animals when you have to buy hay from other farmers. In Nicaragua there is a year round growing season. Not only will we be able to grow plenty of food for our animals, but we'll be able to grow food for ourselves (a lifelong dream of ours). Still, you might ask, "Why not just move to California or another warmer state?" That one is easy. California is simply unaffordable (plus we're not fond of the laws down there). The U.S. is not a cheap place to live. It's hard for a family to be able to buy land and actually own it without a ton of debt hanging over them. The last thing we want is to be in debt. In Nicaragua the wages are terrible, but living off of U.S. wages in Nicaragua is ideal. Even if you were just an off site telemarketer you could live like a king/queen down there. As most of you know, Brad has off site computer work, so that will work perfectly with our plan.
Nicaragua is a poor country. You can easily find a 3 bedroom home for $300/month. The problem is, as I mentioned before, the wages are terrible. A doctor only makes about $100 a month, which can't even pay the rent in many areas. Extended family often live together to make ends meet. Petty thieves are everywhere.
The weather sounds wonderful. Whatever warm temperature you like, you can pick an area of Nicaragua that has that year round. Right now that sounds heavenly. The cold winds are already blowing and we've had multiple snow storms here. Farming can be difficult in such a cold climate. In the "spring", when Brad is out of town for work, and I have to get up and go milk goats in the freezing wind I sit there and wonder what we were thinking when we got into farming here of all places. I'm not kidding myself, I'm sure there will be problems in Nicaragua, too. They will be different ones from here, but there will be some. For example, instead of the cold winds when I go out to milk the goat, maybe I just won't find our goat at all. Maybe our neighbor will have stolen our goat the night before since they were hungry and wanted some milk. If that's the case, and we end up losing a bunch of livestock to thieves, we'll probably come back.
Our first trip down there will be a 4-6 month long one. Our goal will be to decide whether we truly like it enough to live there, to learn Spanish better, to figure out what area we would like to live in, to meet locals in that area, etc. It should be a wonderful learning experience no matter what our final decision is. We won't take more than a few suitcases for that first trip. After that, assuming we still want to live there, we'll ship over a container of our things.
Well, my children are asking for lunch now, so I had better sign off. I'll try to write more tomorrow about this venture. Remember, I love questions! :)
I guess the first logical question to such news would be, "Why?" Well, farming in the northern U.S. isn't easy. The growing season is short and the area we're in currently has horrible soil. It's expensive to raise animals when you have to buy hay from other farmers. In Nicaragua there is a year round growing season. Not only will we be able to grow plenty of food for our animals, but we'll be able to grow food for ourselves (a lifelong dream of ours). Still, you might ask, "Why not just move to California or another warmer state?" That one is easy. California is simply unaffordable (plus we're not fond of the laws down there). The U.S. is not a cheap place to live. It's hard for a family to be able to buy land and actually own it without a ton of debt hanging over them. The last thing we want is to be in debt. In Nicaragua the wages are terrible, but living off of U.S. wages in Nicaragua is ideal. Even if you were just an off site telemarketer you could live like a king/queen down there. As most of you know, Brad has off site computer work, so that will work perfectly with our plan.
Nicaragua is a poor country. You can easily find a 3 bedroom home for $300/month. The problem is, as I mentioned before, the wages are terrible. A doctor only makes about $100 a month, which can't even pay the rent in many areas. Extended family often live together to make ends meet. Petty thieves are everywhere.
The weather sounds wonderful. Whatever warm temperature you like, you can pick an area of Nicaragua that has that year round. Right now that sounds heavenly. The cold winds are already blowing and we've had multiple snow storms here. Farming can be difficult in such a cold climate. In the "spring", when Brad is out of town for work, and I have to get up and go milk goats in the freezing wind I sit there and wonder what we were thinking when we got into farming here of all places. I'm not kidding myself, I'm sure there will be problems in Nicaragua, too. They will be different ones from here, but there will be some. For example, instead of the cold winds when I go out to milk the goat, maybe I just won't find our goat at all. Maybe our neighbor will have stolen our goat the night before since they were hungry and wanted some milk. If that's the case, and we end up losing a bunch of livestock to thieves, we'll probably come back.
Our first trip down there will be a 4-6 month long one. Our goal will be to decide whether we truly like it enough to live there, to learn Spanish better, to figure out what area we would like to live in, to meet locals in that area, etc. It should be a wonderful learning experience no matter what our final decision is. We won't take more than a few suitcases for that first trip. After that, assuming we still want to live there, we'll ship over a container of our things.
Well, my children are asking for lunch now, so I had better sign off. I'll try to write more tomorrow about this venture. Remember, I love questions! :)
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