currently #4

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THIS WEEK'S THEMES: Coveting, Imagining, Asking, Saving, Fearing

Elliot and Emmett are currently...

Coveting his rubber ducky collection- Elliot is, anyways. He insists on taking his rubber duckies (usually in a bucket or basket) everywhere we go.

Imagining that he's a dragon. He yells, "Giant Dragon! RAWWWWRRR!" Multiple times a day now. It's pretty funny- except when it scares Emmett.

Asking for "more snackys" "more snackys cheeeeeeeese" (that's how he says please). The kid is always eating, but somehow isn't gaining any weight. I guess he got his mama's metabolism? Emmett has also now mastered how to ask for "more" food. But if he's thirsty it's a different ball game. If he sees a cup that's out of reach, and he's thirsty, he proceeds to FLIP OUT until it is retrieved for him. He has two levels of thirst- 1. I'm not thirsty at all, and 2. GIVE ME WATER BEFORE I DIE!

Fearing his new speech therapist. Elliot's beloved speech therapist has been replaced by a younger (fresh out of college) woman, and Elliot spends at least the first fifteen minutes of every therapy session hiding on the couch under his blankets. I can't figure out why- she's really quite nice.

  

Elliot and his duckies (crappy instagram pictures, sorry)

I am currently...

Imagining how blissful our life will be once we finally leave the states and arrive in Costa Rica! I really can't wait. I know you're not supposed to wish your life away... but really, I've never anticipated something  so much in my life. I just cannot WAIT to finally start living our life there. (ps: we are also discussing possible plans of having baby #3 in Costa Rica. Maybe a home birth? Shhh.)

Asking myself how I am ever going to weed through all of the boys clothes, and toys, and (in Elliot's case) blankets to decide what we will/will not bring to Costa Rica. We are going to be limited to probably about 6 suitcases... and I expect four of them to be for them. They have A LOT of stuff. I'm nostalgically attached to many of their things, so it's going to be sad to sell/give away what we can't take. Sigh. Small sacrifices, right?

Saving every extra penny for our upcoming move.

Fearing the unknown, a little. I wouldn't be human if I didn't, right? I'm always worrying that something will go wrong.... like we'll really struggle with the language barrier, or we'll end up lost somewhere on the side of the road, or what if we get there and absolutely hate it? That's highly unlikely, but you never know! Most of the time, I'm filled with anticipation and excitement, and thinking positively. It's only every once in awhile that my mind wanders to the "what ifs". Then I remember that God has a plan!

can we just be in Costa Rica already?

Yesterday, Aaron found our dream home in Costa Rica. I've never seen him light up so much while talking about a potential house in my life. It's actually not the house itself that we're so excited about, although it meets (and exceeds) all of our criteria- it has three bedrooms, each with a balcony, and two bathrooms... with a stone shower and a jacuzzi tub! It's what lies outside that's so exciting. The house sits right on a river and is surrounded by lush, tropical vegetation. All kinds of fruit trees and gardens fill the property. Seriously, guys, you've never seen so much green in your life!

I can just imagine going on long walks, picking fresh fruits from fruit trees along the way. What little boy wouldn't rather learn to swim in a refreshing river than a chlorinated pool? I can already see Elliot throwing a tennis ball and watching our dog chase it and disappear briefly into the jungle of green. After a day of learning and exploring, once the boys were tucked into their beds, Aaron and I would sit on the balcony, drinking te caliente and making plans for the next day, while nature hummed in the background. Or, I could escape for a bit and catch up on my reading in the jacuzzi tub. Doesn't that sound so blissful? All this for only $500/month! Crazy, right?

It's not the exact area we have been looking in- the house is near the small, quiet mountain village of San Gerardo de Rivas, which borders a nature reserve. Although my husband would probably love living in the middle of nowhere, I'd be more comfortable a bit closer to a larger town with shopping and restaurants and the amenities... but we could make it work.

This is just one of many houses we have fallen in love with in Costa Rica. It still amazes me that in just a few months, we will be living a life we've always dreamed about! Now, if only the VA/Army could pick up the pace a little... all this waiting and wondering is aggravating.

for now, we'll just pretend this is Elliot exploring the rainforest instead of our apartment complex, okay? ;)

why costa rica: the short list

I've been a busy bee, for months now, researching researching researching. I've looked into basically all of our options, from cities in the US to countries on nearly every continent. I just keep coming back to Costa Rica. Our second choice is Panama, but since it borders Costa Rica, we plan to explore Panama as well. Until our pensionado visas are approved, we will have to leave the country every 3 months, anyways. I suppose we could always end up moving to Panama, in the future, but we're definitely putting down roots in Costa Rica first.

I could blog about our decision for hours and fill pages upon pages, but it would probably bore you all. So for now, I'll leave you with my short list.

One thing not listed, but definitely worth mentioning, is that on one of my random Google searches, I happened to stumble upon a lovely lady named Emily, an American expat and writer of the Travel Mother blog. She, her husband, and two young children (close to the ages of our boys) have been living in Costa Rica. It has been fantastic to be able to shoot questions at her and receive honest responses from someone who has mostly the same priorities as us. She also pointed me to some helpful facebook groups. She may be the one who pushed me over the edge when I was debating between Panama and Costa Rica, in fact. I think it's comforting to know, going into it, that there are other native-English speaking families there, who could show us the ropes, so to speak, if needed. Not to mention... she is also currently raising the first canine addition to our Costa Rican family. Visit her blog if you have time! You won't be disappointed.

We are still just waiting on a few things with the VA and the Army so that we can go home to visit our family,  bid our goodbyes, and finally start living our new life in Costa Rica!

PTSD is a real problem... and we're moving because of it

On January 19th, 2008, while countering enemy fire on a rooftop in Mosul, Iraq, my husband was shot in the head by a sniper. Luckily, God was on his side, and after a surgery, he was fine. Well, that's what people assume, anyways. Let me tell you, though, living with someone who has chronic/severe PTSD, knee problems, sudden and unpredictable anger, anxiety, insomnia, migraines and memory loss (due to his brain injury) is not easy. So I can't even imagine what it must be like to be in his shoes. He can't focus, has trouble remembering things, gets nervous and anxious in large crowds, can't run or (some days) even walk without being in pain... and the medications that are supposed to help, have side effects just as bad! Even the littlest things, like going grocery shopping or out to eat for dinner, have to be carefully planned. In a restaurant, he has to sit somewhere where he can see the entrance to feel comfortable. The grocery stores are always packed around here, so I usually opt to go with a friend to save him the anxiety of trying to shop while surrounded by strangers. These are just a few of his daily challenges. Somehow, most days, he still manages to smile, to love, to be happy.

The helmet that he was wearing when he got shot. You can see the exit hole.

After three years as an Infantryman, two years as a UAV pilot, and a year in his current Restoration & Upkeep unit (where they send all the broken guys when they can no longer do their jobs), Aaron is now in the process of medically retiring from the Army. Yes, that means he will be retired at only 25 years old, and he will be receiving a pension. Do I feel guilty? Nope! He has given more of himself to this country in the last five years than most American citizens will in an entire lifetime. He (literally) isn't able to work anymore- he can't sit or focus long enough for a desk or office job, he doesn't have the patience or self-restraint to work in customer service, he can't be in large crowds for very long, and has too many physical problems to work in manual labor.

At only 24 years old, my husband is disabled both physically and mentally. Wow, as I typed that word, disabled, and read it now... I'm filled with sadness. He is a great man, filled with compassion and ambition, but most of his dreams aren't going to turn out how he'd hoped. There is one dream, however, that he has always had, that is still a possibility. It is something he has wanted to do for a long time, one of the things we talked about when we were younger.

  "I want to move out of the US," he said, "I want to raise my family somewhere else. I want my kids to experience and explore the real world." 

So we're planning to do just that- we're moving out of the country. For once, not because the Army ordered us to, but because we want to. We've been discussing and researching this for awhile now. We narrowed down our choices to five countries: Panama, Chile, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Slowly, I crossed each country off the list, until only one remained. It was hard to find one place that met all of our criteria.... but we have decided.

This fall, after one more summer in Texas, we are moving to Costa Rica ♥

Since this is already a long post... I will be talking more about this on a series of posts that will probably be entitled something like, "why we want to move to Costa Rica" ...except hopefully I will come up with a more creative title.