Mom Mamma Mama'

It is a funny thing, time. How it can seem so slow and so fast all in the same moment. As I sit here right now I can hardly comprehend that we have been in Bolivia since June (four months having passed), it seems like we have lived here for years and for days. I cannot seem to wrap my mind around the fact that in 48hrs my husband whom I have not seen in 4 months will be arriving and we will be a family reunited. So much has taken place since we were together and the idea of being together again the 3 of us while exciting and happy is also overwhelming. Sure it will be fantastic to have our family back together, no one would deny that, but these four months apart have been packed full of change, adjustment, growth and transitions and so adding yet another big change is, well, challenging. I say all this because I myself am still processing, and I process best when I write. I am also trying to help Miss. K prepare for yet another big change, and so I feel as though I have been slowly wo...

It is funny the things you miss and the things you forget when living abroad. Just like it is funny how we take some things for granted and make assumptions about necessities. I have been in Bolivia for just  over 2 months and I have not received one piece of mail. No letters from home, no junk mail, no bills, it is not because my family and friends don't love me it is because the postal service in Bolivia shut down. There are rumors of it being open again, and when you look at their website it looks like it is all well and good, but here's the thing...no one cares. I asked my sister in law if she knew if the post office was up and running and she had no idea if it was nor that it had not been. I have seen expats ask online, but Bolivians don't seem to know or care because it seems no one really depends upon the postal service. If  you need to pay your bills then you need to go to the pharmacy, or the bank or the office and pay your bill, if you don't pay then you bes...

Today did not go as planned. All I wanted to do was find a storage bin for Miss K's toys and get some groceries. I had thought we would walk to a nearby outdoor market called The Ramada, but Miss. K was not in the mood for a 20min walk so I decided to take a Micro (aka bus) seeing as none of the ones who were passing were overly full I decided today would be a good day to brave them alone. I asked a lady which one went to a different market that my brother in law always takes us. She said #4 so we waited where she suggested and took #4 along the way I realized we were on a street where we had been a few times that specialized in plastic stuff. So we got off # 4 and shopped for the bin. Turned out they were a lot more expensive than I expected so we caught another Micro that said the name of the market on the window. Unbeknownst to me the bus was going in the other direction which I figured out pretty quickly, but wrongly assumed that it would just make a circle and get their e...

Before moving to Rome, Italy I attended a missionary training program through the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) ReachGlobal. There we were presented with a lot of really valuable training as well as took a lot of time to really get to know ourselves and how we relate to the world, others and God. I wish I could recall all the great information we were given, but alas most has faded with the passing of time. One of the lessons I do recall is that there are 4 stages that everyone experiences when moving cross culturally. We may not all hit each phase at the same time or for the same length of time, but we will all encounter these 4 stages of adjustment; honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. The past few days I knew that I was in the midst of th frustration phase, but even though I knew it I could not shake it. Everything about our new country was annoying to me. The fact that I had just dealt with my second round of stomach issues (i'll spare you the detai...

I think of myself as pretty non-confrontational. I even attended a Quaker university, but I am in a war with the pesky little tiny miniscule ants that seem to come out of nowhere. They are not like the ants we had in our bathroom in California, they are nothing like the ants that you find on your garden path. These ants are magic. One min you look and your apartment is an ant free peaceful place, next second they are everywhere. These small as a ground of coffee but white not black little buggers. (wait, just a sec they are back) Okay, I am seriously in need of a new plan of attack. I have done everything that I can think of short of set the place on fire. I have smashed them to smithereens, taken out the trash at least once a day, sometimes 2-3 times a day. I keep all my food in Ziplock bags in a drawer or in the fridge. I have wiped the counter with bug repellent, don't worry that did nothing I wiped it down again before food prep. (of which there is really very little), I have...

We have been here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for just 2 days and though not everything is how I expected our transition from one home to the next has been smoother than one would have imagined. I have gone many places and have even lived abroad before, but never have I introduced my child to a new home, let alone life in a country not her own.   I have to say I am very proud of our little family and our ability to go with the flow. The past few months have been all about downsizing and saying goodbyes to everyone and almost everything she has ever known.   Now that I have the time to reflect I can say my kid has handled all of this with more grace and calmness than most adults I know.   Nothing against us adults but we tend to get attached to our things and our way of doing life, where as my kiddo has been able to hold on to her sense of excitement and adventure through it all. I was fearful at times of starting fresh in a new country with a 3-year-old, especially wit...