It is amazing how quickly a year goes by. Even more so is all that we fret about when we consider giving something up or making a change for that amount of time (or any amount of time for that matter). For anyone who knows me, the decision to bring my family to Belize for a year was filled with tons of joy and a tinge of fear and uncertainty.
It goes without saying that this was truly the chance of a lifetime...I mean who wouldn't trade the everyday stresses of living in the US (rising gas prices-though NOTHING on Belize, unrealistically high mortgages, food costs, the must do's-haves-be's), for the calm, tranquility of the Belizean Tropics. I'm talking year round SUN, daily swims, fresh fruits in the backyard, THE SEA!!!!!.... SIGN ME UP RIGHT????
Sounds good I know but despite this, I wondered how I would balance it all (3 classes, 2-3 day internship, and homeschooling a kindergartner and 2nd grader, by myself), would I be overcome by loneliness and how would my children fare being away from our community of friends they had grown with since the womb, away from their grandmothers who for most of their lives either lived in the bedroom next door or no more than a 10 minute to an hour drive away. The aunties, the uncles, the fast food, the conveniences....
But mostly I worried about the distance from their father and what impact it would have on him, them and us.
In the end things went better than I could have expected, had I had any real expectations. In the end, degree done, internship complete and a year with my family in the Caribbean down, I still feel the same mixed bag of joy, fear and uncertainty returning home in the next 32 days that I did on the days leading up to my voyage to Belize.I've had different people ask how have I changed or what did I learn while living here in Belize, what will I take back to Nashville, to the States with me. Truthfully off the top of my head I can't exactly say...for me and most things I can't say until I start to regurgitate or reflect.
Soooooooooooooo..............
