Signing off!!!

There is usually a "short summer", as they call it here in Costa Rica, a brief period of no rain, perfect sun, and hot weather, just before the rest of the "winter".....or rain, rain, rain. We had that short summer this past week, and feel so incredibly blessed. It has rained (at some point in the day) probably 90% of the days we've been here, but this week, we literally didn't see or hear one drop from Monday through today....needless to say, the kids played at the beach all week long. We had our friends, the Wride's over the past two days to enjoy the beach with us (they have 7 children ages 10-1, so all our kids have at least one friend to play with :)). We couldn't have asked for a more perfect ending to our adventure. One of my first friends, Megan, whom I met on the beach just for a week, said that she and her family spent several weeks here every summer, and that it is magical (I remember her using the word specifically), and I can honestly say that is exactly the word I would choose, MAGICAL. To watch our children, literally everyday run out to the beach from our back door and be so excited to play outside and never tire of going outside...to see them interact with one another in a way they did not do at home with neighbors and friends around....to see them have literally ZERO toys, yet never be bored...to see them with insane appetites, eating anything and never complaining....to see them make friends with someone who doesn't speak any english....to see them learning new things (surfing), and wanted to learn badly enough that they keep trying and trying even when they get pummeled....to see them enjoying a healthy, active life, without me having to drive them to swim practice, track or soccer.....it is just magical!!!! There are so many things I will miss about this place.

But the reality is that we need to head home for now. We can easily count our many, many blessings, and the blessing of being here for 2 short months, that has just taught us so much about how we want to run our family, and how we want to run our lives. So we will come home and continue the fight against the norm to have more family time, to always have family dinners, to not get caught up in the run-around, to reconnect every night with our children. How can we be anything but grateful for this experience!!