Five Years

We've committed to five years in Guatemala, after language study and training are finished.

5 years means a lot of life will happen both in the States and in Guatemala. Babies, deaths, weddings, vacations, family time-we will miss much. I've never been more thankful for Facebook and email and the internet. It will be our lifeline to "home." (We will have at least one opportunity to come back within the five years.)

5 years means we will return with a 7 and 6 year-old (and hopefully more). Babyhood will be a thing of the past. Formative life years will happen for our children. 

I try to imagine what life may be like in 5-6 years. It’s impossible to fathom, though when I think about life five years ago, I’m baffled. Technology like Smart Phones are so commonplace now, and even a couple years ago were obsolete to the masses. What every day technologies and realities will be part of 2018 that seem unimaginable today? Who will be President? We will return to a very different US, of that, I’m certain.

But oh, the things we have to look forward to in Central America.

-Becoming a bilingual family.

-An entirely different culture and pace of life. This is all our kids will know. 

-Seeing and understanding the depths of poverty found in Latin America, and hopefully making some small difference and positive change in the plight of relief and development.
-Hopefully living a more simple and less "plugged-in" life.

Now begins the process of sorting and packing our belongings-what to take, what to store, what to get rid of. What's worth keeping in storage for more than 5 years and what should we release? We plan to store our stuff in Oregon and will spend at least a few weeks there visiting friends and family before we start language school.

We are in our fourth year of living in Fresno. That’s a record for us by a long shot. Leaving will be bittersweet. My girls were born here. We’ve connected and shared our lives with many people.

Truthfully, we’ve always felt a bit like outsiders. The vegetarian, hippy, cloth diapering Oregonians. I honestly can’t think of a single person we know here that doesn’t have at least one family member in the area, plus lots of history. People live here and stay here and so do their families. That’s made it hard to connect deeply because everyone we meet has longtime friends and family here to take up their time, and we never felt like we would be living here forever.

And so, we prepare to say good-bye in a few very short, quick months. It will be sad to say adios to yet another chapter of our lives, and I’m terrible with goodbyes. TERRIBLE. But we press on and look forward to what is coming.