Last Post……….

As I sit to write this post, I think to myself, “How do I close this chapter of our lives worthy of the full extent to which we were blessed?” There’s only one way, and that is by sharing with you the best and the hardest part of this journey.

~With Mother’s Day this weekend, I want to celebrate my mother by letting others know how blessed I was to have shared this time with her.  Rare is the occasion, as we reach adulthood, that we get to spend every day and night with the person who loves us more than any human can or will on the face of this earth, and this is our mother. There are sure frustrations involved when living with your mother, things we had to accept, ignore, and forgive, but it wasn’t until after she had left me here to finish the last 3 weeks alone on this island with my two boys that I realized my mother was the “service” I was longing for when we set off to come to PR via Hunter’s baseball training last year. I wondered from the beginning, and had hoped for an opportunity, if there would be a place of service me and the kids could take part in while living in a different culture. Two days of catharsis after my mother returned home to Houston, and perhaps two days too late, my heart and mind told me the last 9 months were given to me and the kids to love and serve my mother in a way that we may never get to again. I experienced a tremendous loneliness for her when she left; a loneliness and gratefulness that I don’t think I have ever experienced my entire life for my mother. We certainly don’t have these emotions toward our parents when we’re kids, then teenagers, and after that our heart is filled with what we give our own children and spouse. I survived these last 9 months, away from my husband and life companion, separated from my two oldest kids, finding my way in a different culture, on my own at the head of the ship, because my mother was by my side cheering me on, giving me confidence, listening when I was scared, tired, or unsure, and then cheering me on again and giving me confidence again. She woke up every day to clean, wash, and cook for us, freeing me and the kids to complete our workload of school and other errands that would literally take up an entire day to complete just one task. I pray that the Lord gives me the days to repay the service I could have and should have shown my mother when she was by my side every day and night for 9 months. I pray that today you are as grateful for your mother as I am for mine; there really is NO ONE on this earth to love us like our mother - just think of your own love toward your children, then you’ll know what you mean to your mother and perhaps show her what she deserves for that love in return.

The best part of our journey was spending it with my mother. Here are photos from PR of my wonderful mother……………

The birthplace of the Pina Colada! Gotta have one in PR! At the El San Juan Hotel when we arrived in August.



Waiting at the bus stop in her new scarf....



The streets of Old San Juan



~Then there was the hardest part: Being away from my husband and life companion. I choose the term “life companion” because I never realized, until this time away from each other, the depth of what it means to have a companion…someone with which you share every part of your life and being. When that person is no longer “there” on a day to day basis, in the same way that they have been for over 25 years, it’s a pretty huge thing. To say it has been hard does not even begin to describe just how difficult for both of us. It will go down as part of the “things we do for our kids” because, when it’s all said and done, we took on this amazing, yet difficult, journey precisely for what Hunter, Naomi, and Wyatt could each gain from the experience, nothing more and nothing less. And because we suffered being apart (David more than me because it was he that was all alone when the work day was done; I had mom and the kids), we have a renewed sense of our companionship and what it means to each of us. THIS may be the biggest blessing of all to come from this journey! The hard things usually do lead us to the better, the higher places….

As I sign off to the last post of La Vida en Puerto Rico, I want to leave you with photos of our times together, mine and David’s, spent here on the island. Only two more days, from the date of this posting, and I’ll be back in his arms again and reunited with our five children in a certain old farmhouse in Shiro, Texas!



A night out during the holidays





One of our favorite spots near the apartment





Old San Juan




Doin what we love.....watching Hunt play ball



Thank you to all who prayed for us. Your prayers were felt each and every day. I hope you have enjoyed your time spent with me on these posts because I truly wanted to share this amazing place and amazing part of our lives with each one of you; I hope to have added a little Caribbean sunshine to your daily grind through the photos and stories. Most importantly, I wanted to remind you that God’s presence is everywhere, and His provision guides our way when we choose to humbly walk through the doors of insight and opportunity that He sets before us.

I thank my God in all my rememberances of you 

Philippians 1:3