Can't stop thinking about Costa Rica!

My first trip to Costa Rica was amazing. Here I am in another country with beautiful people speaking absolutely no English! Ok, ok, we met a few Tico's that spoke English but they were travelers. Thank goodness for our wonderful friends who joined us on this trip. They added to the experience.
Our host at the villa was an older German man named Heinz who no doubt enjoyed spending time just hanging out with us. He rode around with us for probably 11 hours one day.
We drove to the beach house in Playa Avellanas that I swore would be the perfect house. Turned out to be... not so great. I was very disappointed, It wasn't a total loss for Heinz who found a particular plant that he managed to convince the owner to let him cut a branch for transporting.  I had hoped that we would reside in Guanacaste, near the Pacific Ocean but God must not of wanted that for us. While walking around that property all I could think of was praying night after night that God would close that door if it was not his will. That he did.
By day 4 we finally decided on the first home we saw with the wonderful view. This home is in Patarra, less than an hour from San Jose. One draw back... it is totally unfurnished... can a sister borrow a mattress?

I left the morning of day 4 and Tony stayed behind to sign the lease. I got on a plane with Catia and made my way back to the US and couldn't shake Costa Rica off of my mind. Is that normal?
I was really sad to leave the country and this was after meeting just a few people. Before we boarded the plane to head to Ft Lauderdale, we were held up in security. Not because of anything in our bags or person. But because the security guards took literally 20 minutes to hold and play with my daughter. They took turns holding her and playing with her. All this with our language barrier. We arrived in Portland at about 4am after our horribly long layover in New York.
On the home front, we were able to find a renter that I believe God has given a divine appt with us and secure a deposit. I truly believe that the Lord is in this and will do exceedingly great things!  We are scheduled to depart Maine on October 19th and move into our new home before November 1st. I can't even imagine what the Lord has in store...
More to come...

Hard to understand friendliness...

So, I sat down certain that I was going to write about mishaps on our way to Costa Rica. Sure that I was going to tell you about missing the bus to the airport, paying an outrageous amount for my luggage... that did not fly free, asking for a glass of water on the plane and being told to pay $3 and getting lost in the airport where no one spoke English. How do you say...."Where's my husband?"

But, Today We were picked up at the airport by the owner of a beautiful little bed and breakfast who spent his day talking to us and giving us all sorts of advice about moving here.

 After relaxing a bit, we were picked up by the owner of the first house on the agenda....stop... I'm from Brooklyn and have lived many years in Miami. This young man drove us clear across town, spent a generous amount of time showing us the property and the neighborhood. Before we left, he asked if we would all like to grab dinner, which sounded wonderful to our hungry bellies. We then drove to an open/patio style restaurant and we ate and laughed for hours. By the time he brought us back to the Bed and Breakfast, we still hadn't told him if we wanted the house or not but it was like we were the best of friends, hugging and kissing cheeks. Kind of weird, but kind of nice. 

Tomorrow we will be driving to Playa Avellanas to see the second home on the agenda. It is 4 hours away and the owner of the bed and breakfast has offered to take us for a very small fee... What can I say? Pura Vida!

More to come... 

And away we go!....Well, not quite yet.

It was always my intention to begin school as late as possible this year but my overzealous children had other plans. They were up bright and early on Monday morning Aug 30th and sat waiting at the kitchen table. Who are these children?!? Unfortunately for them, I had a final bible study class scheduled that morning and had to leave. Didn't deter them in the least, they were waiting (not patiently I may add) and ready to begin at 2:00 in the afternoon. I still didn't have my act together. Schedules were not made, books not picked up at the library and my laptop charger had died 2 night before hand. Great! Well, Next best thing! We dumped the 4 bags full of school supplies on the kitchen table and divided them up. Passed out the Teaching Textbooks math, Apologia science, Tapestry of Grace (history,geography and literature) and a sprinkling of other grammar and spelling books . We then talked about what our year will look like, traveling through Central America and learning a new language. I ask them to pick the one thing that they were interested in the most and write it down. They would then learn as much as they could about it, along with other subjects and then be ready to present or teach it to their siblings at the end of the year. In the next two weeks we will be picking out a place to call home in Costa Rica. In the next two weeks Tony's job will officially end. In the next two weeks I will be watching and waiting for God to do amazing things!
More to come...