Final BLOG!

As I sit and watch my laundry spin at the local laundry mat, due to my broken dryer upon our return home. I'm comforted by my calm emotion concerning a broken major appliance. I'm just so thankful I have a major appliance...even if it's broken. Our last weeks in Belize sealed out appreciation of life back home. Belize is a beautiful country with many reasons to go back soon, I already miss the sounds of the symphony of birds every morning, the call of the pelicans when the fisherman have arrived to the dock, the distant sound of our favorite vendor with his "Hot Corn Dokono's.....Da Best!" hollering his arrival. From the Caves (our last blog) our trip was a whirlwind of adventure. I set out at the beginning of this journey ultimately wanting to show my Children a different way of life with the intention of not just talking about the love of a family and the security we find within, but I wanted uncomfortable situations for us. I wanted to show them with their own eyes that although we are uncomfortable...great things arise.. we bond....we have faith in God to teach us and keep us safe and that we are OK..... I got my wish. Our trip from San Ignacio found us on the side of the road with a van that refused to run. Normally, if this happened a person would just call a friend, get it towed and carry on....but in Belize it doesn't work like that. First of all, just a mile behind us, we passed a half naked man waving a machete at us and yelling UN definable noises because we didn't pick him up... .....reallly?? !! We sat idle on the side of the road for only moments wondering what to do. It was Sunday and we were broken down in a Small village along the southern highway in Belize. We had just a hint of fright, wondering if our machete man was going to pop out and chop us up....

He never did..... I knocked on a nearby home where a super nice belizan was having his birthday BBQ out back. It just happened to be, that this young man was the son of a well respected mechanic of the district. He gathered a few of his buddies and began work on our borrowed van. It took a couple hours in the hot sun, roadside, to find out that the fuel pump was broken and the nearest part was back in the states. We unloaded our bags and hitched a ride to the next village with our birthday boys cousin. Dangriga is a small town on the southern coast of Belize. The village is known for the drumming talents of the Garfunia people. The Garfunia people are a blend of the Mayans, the Caribbean pirates and African American. They are beautiful people with an outward attitude of Rasta shining through. So on a Sunday at the bus station in Dangriga, we received a full education. Our Bus was due at 4 and at 4:30 we learned it wasn't coming.....praying the last bus at 6 wasn't canceled, we were only needing to go 40 more miles to Placencia where our beach front cabana waited...empty....Our 6pm bus arrived with just a few seats left. 80% or more of the Belizian population (which is 400,000) do not own cars. Bus transportation is the main source of movement in Belize. Consequently our bus was PACKED, even the isles were uncomfortably full. Our bus ride took 2.5 hours along a bumpy road stopping every 2 minutes to let people off ...and un beliavably more people ON!. Having my feet up under me due to the coackroach infestation...our ride was one of deep prayer and mediation to not absolutly freak out....We made it to Placencia 13 hours after setting out. We were tired, hungry, dirty and quiet. No words could discribe our thoughts so we ate in silence, brushed our teeth and hoped for a better tommarow. And that it was...the sun was hot for the next few days which allowed us to frolick on the beaches of Placencia with smiles. The next week passed by quickly and we found ourselves back on our Favorite Island of Caye Caulker. It was fun to show Troy our favorite places. Our much anticipated Rental of the Indigo Pearl unfortunatly turned out nothing like the pictures...we were thankful for the use of a kitchen but having no electricity due to disfunctional solar panels, we decided to cancel the rest of our stay and move back to our favorite place Colinda's. Colinda's Cabanas turned out to be our home away from home the owners are now our friends and the Cabanas are now ...our Honeymoon spot. Troy and I declared our forever love to each other and we were Married under the Palapa at the end of their dock on April 12th. Our Ceromny was simple and Magical. Big puffy clouds floated above us as our friends sang "Be thou my vision", 1 corinthians 13 4-7 was adopted as our life song and my children nodded their approval with smiles. We ended our last days in Belize as a family but not without one last adventure to San Pedro. In San Pedro we took a hour long boat ride in a tiny boat getting soaked with Seawater to the" Turtle mans House". The Turtlemans house is a hut over the water built of driftwood and palm. There is no electricity or running water. To get to the Hut you must wade out into the sea and climb a plank to enter. The toliet was a compostable toliet with sea grass and the shower was heated by the sun. As we shook in the wind careful not to fall through the walls, we frequently dangeled our feet over the carribean sea from our hut and stared out to the reef just a few hundred feet away. We decided what a great way to end this journey... livinging like swiss family robinson. We have been home for a little over a week now and we are back to our routines of school and work. But we are changed. Belize stengthed us as a family, I was once again given the opportunity to be a fulltime mother to my children, which I know in my heart, is what God created me to be. Belize taught us that life, when lived simply, gives us the joy of relationship... when all is said and done at the end of the day, ultimatly, the relationship with the people in our lives, is all that matters....Belize taught us that we don't need 'thing" to be happy....just each other.... and while the world will continue to whiz by, we must disipline our thoughts and remain focused on what is important to us as individuals. Eli and Ava came back with a adopted sense of security as individuals, knowing that friends are extemley important but being a friend to your family is key. We know we can do anything , go anywhere and be what we dream.... "things" may try to stop us....but God knows our hearts and we know he is the path to true joy....through LOVE