How Many More Days Mom....

Thankfully the boy's enthusiasm for the move is keeping my anxiety at bay! Every day over breakfast, we talk about how many more days until we leave. I wish it was as simple as that and am glad, that the boys see it as such a simple thing in their mind...14th of June we wake up in Costa Rica and lay our heads down in North Carolina...cut and dry...right? For them, maybe, but for me - it is part of my daily routine now to review my To Do List to 'ready' ourselves for the transition. We just signed the contract for a rental house, so we have a place to call home for atleast a year or so before we can again qualify for a loan! What keeps me awake and what fills my conversations with Mike is how different Michael and John's school experience will be in the States. Going from a class of 23 with 3 teachers to a class of what I hear might be upwards to almost 30 with just one teacher! Today, they receive kisses and hugs from their teachers as they bounce out of class and into my arms at noon to tell me all about their day. What will their day look like in Downers Grove, Illinois? What about the bombardment of advertising, TV, games, and hand-held devices that await! Things that go BUZZ and BLING and all that - do we invite these into our house or will be thought of as 'wierd' by our neighbors and boy's classmates, if we do not have a TV or a hand-held game to offer up for play? Will John and Michael be seen as outcasts at school if they can't carry on a conversation about the latest Mario game...or whatever it is. For goodness sake, they are only six years old - do we have to deal with all this electronic stuff right now? So, Mike and I have already started discussing our strategy and how these things will or will not support our family values! Don't get me wrong - a ton of kids here in Monteverde have cell phones, access to their own Facebook page and X-Box at their homes, so perhaps rural Costa Rica is not that far out of touch??? Another thing that has my stomach turning is the freedom they have now to run outside at any time, climb a tree, play in the rain, pick fruit, pat horses, catch leaf-cutter ants, etc. "Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore", how do we keep their sense of freedom and innocence while, at the same time, keeping them safe and aware of their 'new' environment. One of our main goals is to keep their curiosity alive without numbing their sense of adventure. I for one, will be bringing my coffee sock home with me and will be brewing my morning coffee using this - and YES, it does taste so much better made this way than the 'Mr Coffee" way. So, as I look forward to being closer to family and having different opportunties available, I am realistic that we will have to prioritize that which is dear to us. We continue to prepare the house, giving away clothes, puzzles, rain boots to kids/families in the zone that can put them to good use...and yes, the rainy season has started and I am pulling out the few crafts we have left to entertain the boys. Two days ago during a rain-out in the afternoon, we brought out all our cards in the house, Sight Word Cards, Spell-om-inoes, Counting Cards, Playing Cards and had a great time building the house of all card houses (a twist on the three little pigs), with Michael being the Wolf, trying his best to blow down the house. It kept us busy for a good two hours!

Today, my Spanish tutor came to collect our dining room table to repair the top. Most of the, well, imperfections, were complements of John and Michael - a pen mark here, a heavy pencil scratching there...so before Edgar took it off to his workshop, the boys and Mike got busy this morning before school sanding it down to start the process. Our moto is "whoever makes the mess...cleans it up." Hopefully a lesson well learned.

Another lesson well learned...if you want to play outside in your socks, you'll find the bucket, soap and scrub brush in the corner of the kitchen! I, for one, have resigned to trying to get the mud/dirt out of their socks - so another good lesson in taking responsibility for their own actions! This will pay off in the future....right?

I am looking forward to the boys Graduation on May 29th from Prepa - it will be quite an event, so I'll make sure my camera is fully charged and the boys are showered and relatively clean :) The boys gifted their stuffed animals "Pooh and Tigger" to a little girl in San Luis. She comes, with her mother, Alba, to our door a couple times a week around 6:30 a.m. selling home-made breads, fresh whole chickens, and other edible goodies. The boys were delighted to leave Pooh and Tigger with Alexandra and know that they will be loved and well taken care of. We thank Danny and Michelle for years to joy these stuffed friends have given our boys and hope Alexandra will enjoy for many more years to come.

Mike is busy finalizing reports for the end of the school year and readying our land in San Luis for tree planting. We hope to get the trees in the ground next week with the help from a visiting student group from the University of Georgia in San Luis! this is what fills my mind today! Thank you to Beth for helping us secure our rental house - we appreciate your Hustle on this! A nice bottle of Red will be waiting for you when we arrive. Peace, Signed: S