Limbo Land is a Gray Area

I’ve been to Limbo Land a couple of times but never as often as I have in the last month. The main culprit is that no one has officially decided if we should open the Monteverde Adventist School for next school year (school year runs from Feb. to Dec.). School is supposed to officially start on February 14 but we don’t have a Director or a Spanish teacher yet. We don’t have enough students to pay teacher salaries, and if we did, it’s difficult to get the families to pay their school bill. Nickele and I swing between wanting to shut the school down (because of NO organization) and keeping it open (so she and I can still have a job) on an hourly basis.

So what do you do when you can do nothing? What do you do when you already know things are not going to go well?

You have to stop planning things and just go with the flow.

I think these guys say it best:

Enjoy life… there’s plenty of time to be dead. ~~~ Anon

You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you. ~~~ Joseph Campbell

Remember that happiness is a way of travel—not a destination. ~~~ Roy M. Goodman

And really when it comes right down to it, Mark Twain said it best: "When we remember we all are mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained."

Becoming a Mom(ish)

Of all the things I expected to do as a missionary, becoming a mom was not one of them. Let’s see if I can explain…

I live with a single mom and her nine-year-old son. Yolanda the mom goes to work every day, comes home, makes dinner and then usually proceeds to watch tv in her room and fall asleep. This means that Fabian is home by himself A LOT. Since I arrived, I’ve become one third mom, one third teacher, one third annoying sister. I usually make him lunch, I help him study, I put him to bed and I read to him. He follows me around at home and at school and wants to do or try EVERYTHING that I’m doing. He won’t go to sleep until I get home and he sleeps in the other bed in my room.

No place is sacred. Every drawer and every bag that I have has been opened and examined. I have to be prepared to share anything I buy and bring home because my child will inevitably ask to have some. Not even the bathroom is a haven (although the bathroom does have a lock) - just yesterday I was dressing in the bathroom when Fabian began to tell me to hurry up. After lots of pleading, I opened the bathroom door and there was Fabian sitting on the floor with his underwear on his head, waiting "patiently" for the bathroom.

Fabian drives me crazy but there are also times when I’m definitely thankful God put him in my life. No one can teach you to be less selfish and more loving than a kid.

BusIN-it

Christmas Vacation can really be summed up in one word: Buses. I set out intending to count how many buses I took over the break but quickly lost count. Let's just say bazillions.

My Christmas Extravaganza began when Nickele and I headed out to San Jose to pick up Nickele’s sister Aubrey from the airport. Sadly her first hour did not go well because some of her stuff was stolen while on the bus ride back to the hostel. Definitely the low point of the trip.

Our travels then took us back to Monteverde where we took a night tour of the biological reserve, went zip-lining through the jungle, and had Christmas present opening time! Aubrey is the best Santa Clause Nickele and I have ever had. However Christmas was short since we had to travel to our next stop Arenal, a volcano a few hours away from Monteverde. The most notable thing we got to do here was go to one of the local hot springs. Quite magical really….

Since Nickele and I have to leave the country every three months we decided this was a great reason to go to Panama….and since we don’t plan to go back to Panama, we of course had to go all the way to the Panama Canal (This meant a 15-hour overnight bus ride. Still worth it). Panama is a different sort of place. The people are fun, lively and jolly. Every time someone new got on the public bus, he or she would shout “Feliz Navidad” and the whole bus would respond happily. Panama’s a good place to be during Christmas.

Christmas Day arrived and it was this day that we decided to go the Canal. Unfortunately we arrived right as the visitor center was closing but the guard was nice enough to let us go up to the restaurant and view the lock from there. It turned out to be a better deal because we got to see plenty of lock action and we didn’t have to pay a thing. Once we had fully experienced Panama City we headed to the bus station to buy our ticket to Boquete, our next destination. Luck was with us of course and the tickets were sold out. In order to save time and money, we decided to take another overnight bus to our next location. The only bad part was that we had to wait 12 hours. What do you do with 12 free hours in a foreign country? You hit the mall of course!!!

After our second wonderful overnight bus, we rolled into Boquete at 7:00 in the morning. After a slow start, we headed out to take a tour of a local coffee plantation. I hate coffee but I LOVE tours so it was awesome!! Nickele helped me drink my coffee sample. Our day in Boquete passed quickly and before we knew it, we were in the bus again headed to the beach at Manual Antonio.

Manuel Antonio was the perfect way to end our Christmas vacation. After so much bus travel, it really was a relief to lie on the beach for a couple days. Yeah for vacations!

My Notable List

For those of you who don't know, I keep a Notable List. I've always wanted to keep a journal but it takes too long to write everything down and I don't write in it everyday. I decided there had to be an easier way so I started to write down the most notable or most interesting thing that happened to me each day in one sentence or phrase. I've been doing this for over a year now it's fun to go back and read about me life. Even one line helps you remember things.

Here is part of my Notable List of the last few weeks:

December 2: CHOSE to buy nuts (I used to HATE nuts for those who don't know)
December 5: FINALLY had a successful baking experience and got to use my First Aid Kit for the first time. Go Nickele!!!!
December 6: Studied with children in the office
December 8: Beautiful sunset - pretty sparkling water
December 9: Last Day of School!! Found money in a tree, attempted to put together a Hot Wheels Toy thingy
December 11: Got to go to Youth Sabbath School!! No teaching little kids!
December 15: GRADUATION!! Started one hour late but no one cared

Life is made up of lots of little things....but even the small things are Notable.

Us in our awesome gifts!

The graduates

Kindergartners on graduation day

The church

The boys on Party Day!

The girls were more creative with their photo

The Cake