Here We Go Again

So, it's here.  Today we leave for six months in the States.  We'll spend the majority of our time MI, but we're going to start out with a bang by flying from Costa Rica to Seattle and then driving east to see the country!

Yes, we've clearly lost our minds.  Four kids in a mini van for 11 days is gonna be awesome!  No really, I think it's gonna be a fanatic trip full of memories for the kids.  We'll probably want to repeat it in a few years when Quinn and Lucía are a bit bigger (or not, we'll see if we make to end of this trip.) but it just seemed like a good time in our family to do something a little bit nutty like this.

For today though, it's all about planes.  We leave San Jose at 2:00 pm, and land in Houston around 7 and the it's on to Seattle where we'll land at the local time of midnight.

Would you pray with us for safe flights, cooperative kids and easy customs?

Thanks guys!

Home?

Huh.

Last post over a year ago.  Really??
I guess I have two choices.  A) I can explain away on why this space has been so neglected, but honestly that's kinda boring to write and to read, and I think you all probably get why I have been absent, what with 4 kids and all or  B) I can forge ahead as if nothing happened.

Let's go with B. 

Moving on.

In one month, we'll be climbing aboard a plane again.  Yep, it's come around again, our six month Home Assignment.  Which by the way, we don't like that name.  Home is Costa Rica now.  We started calling it COMA, Country of Origin Assignment.  When we shared that with our pastor, he said, how about we call it COMMA, Country of Origin Mandatory Ministry Assignment.  More pause like and less death like.  Have I mentioned how much we enjoy this guy?

So, we are in that state of upheaval known in the nerdy missionary circles as transition.  And we all enter it and deal with it differently.  I have already started to deal with it, Noah won't deal with it until two weeks after we get to the States.  The kids are all in some state of it.  It gets a little nutty, with six of us. 

Emotions, good and bad, are running close to the surface.  A couple of years ago when we were in Colorado for some debriefing time, we were introduced to the concept of Yuck Ducks and Yeah Ducks.  Get it, a paradox?  So often we want to negate some part of an experience by saying things like "It was really great, but this bad thing happened"  Or "it was awful but this good thing was part of it"  It can be both.  Not just all bad or all good, but a mescla, a mix.  So there are yuck ducks, things that we don't like and yeah ducks, things that are good. 

We are excited and nervous about our time in the US.  Excited to spend time with family and friends, people we love and miss terribly living so far away from them.  Nervous, because well, we don't really fit there any more.  It's been six years since we left the US, Forrest and Elliot were just 4 and 2.  They have lived longer here than they have in the US.  Now we're this weird mix now, not Tico, but not completely from the US either.  (Proof?  That last sentence.  Six years ago I would have written "Not completely from America."  I know better now.  Costa Ricans consider themselves Americans, because they are part of Central America.  And before you blow that off as nonsense, think about it.  I mean really think about it.)

We're also excited for the change of seasons (FALL!!!) but will miss rainy season here.  Excited to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family!!  But I will so miss our Thanksgiving here with our friends and the fun of Christmas fireworks. We're struggling with leaving friends and church here for half a year, while at the same time we're excited to see friends and spend time at our supporting churches in the States.

So, we're a mashed up mess of Yuck Ducks and Yeah Ducks.  And will be for a while.  It takes a while to get resettled, and just about the time we find a rhythm, we'll go through the upheaval again to come back. 

If you see us in the first month or two, we might be a little messy, especially our kids.  For some of them, this will be the first time they really remember living in the US.  For one of them, this will be her first time living in another country.  Yep, she's little, but you better believe she will go through her own adjustment time.  This baby has never seen wall to wall carpeting! 

For our bigger guys, there will likely be some working through how Tico and how Gringo they are.  It might depend on the day.  Simple questions like "is it good to be home?" can cause all sorts of emotions and in elementary school it can be hard to express how they are a mix of both places.  At this point, they might not even realize how much of a mix they have become.  This six months could bring that out. 

So.  Know we're excited and ready to spend some time in the US.  Know to that while we are there, we're working through our mixed up mess of "we're home, but not home" all at the same time.  Thanks for your grace with us!  And we can't wait to see you all!!

An Epic Spring Break

So, we wanted to do something uniquely American over spring break with the boys.  As we thought about it, what is more American than a road trip?  Hours upon hours in the car, construction, stopping at strange road side attractions.  Nothing I tell you.

Oh sure, the boys had road tripped it to Panama and Nicaragua, but those weren't quite the same.

So we started to plan.  We have friends from language school in Memphis and in Kentucky and some friends from college in Southern Indiana.  And then we found out about the City Museum in St. Louis, and a route began to form...



A great big oval.  The first day our goal was to hit the City Museum by about lunch time, which meant leaving MI at 4:30 am.  Early, but doable.   We got on the road right on time, but the kids didn't follow the plan of falling back to sleep once in the car.  At least they were in that zombie like state for a couple of hours.  Well, except for when one started throwing up.  Poor kid, 6 times.  We thought he had out grown the car sickness.  But we made it.

Boy, we weren't prepared for what the City Museum really was!  It's an old warehouse with a series of holes and passages and tunnels and all sorts of things to climb on in and out of the building.  We initially thought we would bring the stroller in, and then we quickly realized that was a really really bad idea.  There were a million people there that day (the walls of the building were sorta pulsing with noise when we waked by on the outside!), but once we figured out the best plan was for Noah to take the big boys and I take Quinn it actually was fun from almost everyone.

Quinn's favorite was by far the piano which I let him bang on as hard as he wanted. The big boys loved the skateboard room where you just run and jump and slide.

Then it was back in the car for another 5 hours on our way to Memphis.  We were sooooo excited to see our friends the Savells.  They have been back in the US for about two years now and are doing great!  We kinda feel like war buddies with these folks.  You know, because Language School is like war!  Or maybe I've been watching too much M*A*S*H lately.  Anyway.

It was great to have personal tour guides of Memphis and boy did we hit all the high points, Graceland, The Peabody Hotel, Beale Street, A. Schwab, Lorrane Motel, and BBQ.  And when I say we hit them, there was some driving by, and some visiting.  Either way, it was a lot to pack in.  There was a lot of laughing, and amazing food!

After a couple of days with the Savells, it was on to Kentucky, to visit more friends from language school.  The Steeles are back in the US as their ministry focus has shifted and Tony is doing a lot of traveling.  We had a great time with them, more good food, learning about their area of Kentucky, seeing the Tennessee and Ohio rivers and laughing.    Somehow we never got a picture with them!

After another few days, we hit the road again and headed to Southern Indiana to see friends from college, the Mains. 

They were amazing!  More great food (as you can tell, this was an eating vacation!), playing outside, porch lunches and exploring caves! The boys even got to pan for semi precious stones at the caves.  Elliot was in love with that whole process!  That kid is a hunter gatherer for sure!

The Mains also threw an fabulous party for their small group so we could share about what God is doing in Costa Rica.  Their church also wanted to hear more, so we were able to share on Sunday morning as well.  Amazing!

After one last lunch on the porch, we hit the road again for the Mitten and made it back by about 9pm Sunday night.  What an Epic Spring Break!