A Costa Rica homecoming

Last week we returned to the wonderful land of Costa Rica for a 10-day visit. David was asked to teach within the QERC semester program, and naturally, the kids and I just had to accompany him.

For a quick recap (I could write pages on our visit), here are some of the things we did and some thoughts on our return.

The red-eye flight turned out to be a bad experiment. We had 2 things going against us - we were in the very back row, so we couldn't recline and were very uncomfortable; and we were next to a family who had 3 kids under 10 years old who let those kids stay up super late playing games on their iPads without headphones and eating all sorts of snacks loudly. SO, although Henry was asleep an hour before the flight even took off, he woke up an hour into it and was so stimulated by people talking and playing that he didn't go back to sleep. When we arrived to San Jose, David and I had pulled all-nighters, Henry was going off of 2 hours of sleep, and Adele was the winner who slept the entire flight - with a whopping 5 hours of sleep.

Most was forgotten when we were picked up by Esteban, our favorite taxi driver and friend. It was a nice welcome "home."

After sleeping a while in the morning, we had a busy day of traversing San Jose. We went to the market and let the kids pick out a souvenir, then to our friend Larue's bookstore, then over to the Clínica Bíblica where Adele was born, then through the plaza where the kids chased the pigeons, long naps in the afternoon, late afternoon coffee with Larue and his wife Liesse, then dinner with our friend Brendan, a stop for ice cream and finally back to the hotel to crash.

Henry is a hoot. He not only loved chasing birds, but he yelled very excitedly "BUS!" every time one passed, and "WHOA!: very excitedly every time a motorcycle zoomed by. Needless to say he LOVED San Jose.

Friday morning was a similar pace. After a good buffet breakfast from our hotel, we went to the former 7th Street Bookstore which has now turned into Jungle Bean, a smoothie/coffee place - still owned by our friend John. After a brief chat, we headed out to see if we could visit our friends from LASP. Unfortunately, after a decent wait at the bus stop, we were informed that the bus stop had moved and we found ourselves without enough time to get to LASP and back to San Jose in time. So we ran with the pigeons yet again, randomly ran into Laure on the streets, and met up with David's host sister Sophia for lunch. Adele loved Sophia and called Princess Sophia from Disney Junior's Sofia the First.

The kids did awesome, and it was really nice to have a day and a half in San Jose. For David and me, that's where our story began. We walked through parks where we sat as students 12 years ago and had nice long talks, and we reminisced lots of old stories, and talked about people, and places we had been to.

Finally we headed back to the hotel to collect our belongings and Esteban picked us up and drove us out to the valley.

Driving into the valley is unexplainable. There is nothing like it in the world for us. Esteban stopped a few times for us to admire the view and to listen to the river flowing. Henry yelled "tree!" every time we saw a tree (we heard that a hundred times all the way down the valley) and Adele compared it to Oklahoma ("well it's sort of like Oklahoma...we have trees there too. And birds. And flowers.") I myself got a bit emotional, that's for sure. Even with a little more development, it was still the same. It's still home.

Being at QERC was incredible. We spent quite a bit of time walking around and visiting people, and it was so great that we truly felt welcomed home. And the kids did awesome. Henry often overshadows Adele a bit in normal situations with his huge outgoing personality, but in Costa Rica, she was a star. Since everyone knew her as a baby, they all wanted to hug her and kiss her and oooh and ahhh over her. And she loved it. She practiced her Spanish and became super bold about saying "hola" to people and going in for hugs. And Henry followed suit, and naturally drew his own attention with how he wouldn't sit still for 3 seconds. They loved the outdoors, loved the hummingbirds, loved the flowers, loved playing in the dirt on the soccer field, loved climbing rocks, loved visiting the animals in the neighboring farm, and loved the people.

A typical day for us consisted of mostly being outdoors. The kids loved playing at the soccer field, so we spent lots of time there - Adele getting her princesses all dirty and Henry burying his cars in the sand. They were usually so dirty by the time lunchtime rolled around - and I couldn't be happier. :)

Naturally, I had many emotional thoughts from being at QERC. It's hard to describe them, and they often changed. I would question why we left in the first place, and then remember how we felt it was our time to leave; and I would dream about how great it would be to raise our kids at QERC, and then I would remember other reasons why we appreciate being in the U.S. There are positives and negatives to everything - I wish we could have the best of both worlds and live in two places at once, because I definitely feel like my heart is split in two.

It will be interesting to see how QERC fits into our future. Maybe just going to visit, maybe David teaching in the semester program, maybe him developing summer research down there eventually...who knows. What I DO know is that I'm thrilled with the way our kids responded to being there, and I truly love that place.

It will ALWAYS be home to us.

The funnies

Some funny things around our house lately...

When we've had snow, Adele asks to get "all bungled up to go outside and play."

Adele had her first ice skating experience while we were in Spokane after Christmas. We were semi-watching the couples ice skating during the Olympics and so I asked Adele if she wanted to do that someday. She confidently responded "yep! All I need is a boy!"

Sometimes at night Adele has trouble falling asleep because she wants us to stay in with her. We are trying to teach her to remember that God is always with her in order to comfort her. The other night she was wrestling with that difficult concept and told me, "but mommy I tried to give God a toy last night and he wouldn't take it!"

Recently Adele and I were looking at a pre-k program. We looked at the classroom and I asked a lot of questions about the pre-k options around town and how to go about registering. When we left, I asked Adele, "do you want to go to this school?" And she responded, "I don't think so..." So I surprisingly asked my daughter (who is very excited for school) why not, and she said "I just think we should check out all of our options."

A few days ago we had a nicer day and the kids and I were playing in the backyard. As we were kicking around a soccer ball, I was complimenting Adele on her skills. She simply replied, "Yeah, I'm really good at soccer because I'm Costa Rican!"

And finally, here is my funny boy:

Brushing his teeth in high heels and a crown. A daily occurrence.

Cook kid with the cool glasses.

Loves to be like big sister - from the crown down to the heels!

Packing up

It's become increasingly difficult to keep the house picked up these days.

Adele is SO into pretend play that she comes up with these very elaborate scenarios, creates a world with tons of props, and stays in character for a very long time.

She commonly pretends to be Anna or Elsa from Frozen and creates a scenario for them, or she and Henry will be pirates on a treasure hunt, or sometimes her pretend play will be more realistic - she will pretend to be moving into a new house and introduce herself to us (with David being her gardener and me being her cook), or she will go on a trip to visit Nanny and Popa in Washington or Grandma and Grandma in Iowa, or she'll get ready to go to Nicaragua or Costa Rica.

Recently I've noticed a common theme that's present among pretty much all situations - she spends a lot of time packing.

I'm pretty sure that's what she thinks we do all the time. Pack.

If she's moving into a new house? She'll pack. If she's going on a treasure hunt as a pirate? She'll pack first. Gotta make sure she's well prepared, you know.

Adele will spend a very long time getting all sorts of things out to pack. She'll pack a backpack (or two), roll more toys and clothes up in a blanket, find a box or basket to put even more things in...it never ends.

She also has a great memory. Which means that as she's getting all her belongings out again and again and again and re-packing again and again and again, she prefers to leave everything just as it was when she goes down for a nap or bed.

And everything she packs is so random. So even we do get to a point that we can pick up (just so she can start over the next day), she has packed items from every possible basket or toy chest in the house. It would take me a very long time to get the toys and clothes and blankets and stuffed animals back in their proper spots.

I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. I love organization. But I really love the fact that my girl is so creative with a huge imagination.

And in other news in the world of imagination...Henry thinks there are dinosaurs in our house.

They consistently hang out by our front door, and throughout the day he will randomly run over, point to them, and excitedly say "dinosaurs!" Before he goes down for a nap or bed, he will also make his rounds telling everyone goodnight and giving kisses, so he will wave to the dinosaurs and yell out "goodnight dinosaurs!" on his way into his room.

My kids rock.

"I want my daughter to be..."

Recently I was in an office and I saw a magazine nearby with the title of an article "I want my daughter to be a strong independent woman."

To be honest, it really turned me off to even reading the article (which of course I couldn't do anyway, as I was keeping Henry from jumping off chairs).

Granted, the article could have been great. Even the title got me thinking. I mean, who doesn't want their daughter to be a strong independent woman?

But here's the thing. If I were to identify qualities I want MY daughter to have when she grows up, strong and independent are not at the top of the list.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not pushing for a weak, helpless grown woman.

But here are the qualities that I truly want my daughter to have:

Compassionate. I want Adele to be tender-hearted. To have a feeling of deep sorrow for others who are suffering from misfortune. And to be so overcome with that sympathy, that her heart desires to help alleviate the suffering. I want Adele to care.

Selfless. I want Adele to think first and foremost about others. To be generous with her time and money. I want her to see ways in which she can contribute to the world, and not be focused on ways the world revolves around her.

Kind. I want Adele to go beyond just being nice, but I want her to be considerate, and helpful, and gentle, and loving. I want this to be so part of her nature that she displays kindness both in her words and her actions.

Truthful/Honest. I want Adele to be honorable in her actions. To be fair, and sincere. I want people to see her as trustworthy, always struggling and striving to do the right thing.

Genuine. I want Adele to be real, not someone pretending to be something she's not. So that when she displays the other aforementioned characteristics, they will be real, coming from her heart.

Some might look at this list and not be able to see how a strong independent woman could fit this mold.

I beg to differ.

And some might look at this list and see a it as very girly.

But truth be told, it's the same list I have for Henry. :)

Snapshots

Rather than attempt to catch up on our happenings over the past month, here are some snapshots of our life. The highlights, if you will, of our holidays.

"Frossy": Sometime before Christmas, Henry became obsessed with "Frossy Mo-man". We would go for walks around the block, and when he saw the blow up Frosty at the house down the street, he would take off on a dead sprint yelling "Frossy!!!" the whole way. We went to see Santa at the park one time and Frosty was also there, so Henry followed him around pointing and yelling "Frossy!" the whole time. He has a pillowcase with snowmen all over it, and enjoyed going to sleep each night pointing to each one and saying "Ni-nigh Frossy!" Any snowman we saw, whether it be on wrapping paper, tv shows, figurines, etc., would set Henry off yelling "Frossy mo-man!!" over and over. Katie's fiance Shawn bought a Frosty the Snowman book that played the song and said it was for all the kids. HA! Henry claimed it as his own and read it to my parents' dog, read it with each adult, and often went to sleep with it.

Dinosaur fun: While my sister and her family were in town in Iowa, we did a mini-Christmas celebration. Her 4-year old son Ash got something he was really hoping for - a remote control toy dinosaur that walked and roared. The best part? Henry's response!

Ash opening the dinosaur, and Henry protecting Sophie the dog

until the dinosaur got too close, and Henry had to save himself and took cover!

Wedding prep: One morning we went wedding dress shopping! My sis Katie is getting married in April so we took advantage of all of us being in town and made a girls' day out of it. Spoiler alert: she bought one!

Adele and Ash anxiously awaiting Aunt Katie to show off the next dress

Christmas Eve: Christmas Eve we attended a service at the church I grew up in, Westminster Presbyterian. I hadn't been there in years and enjoyed  walking around the church, noticing many changes and reminiscing lots of great memories of my childhood. When we sang "Silent Night" and the whole congregation raised our candles during "sleep in heavenly peace" and lowered when repeated, I had to chuckle when David was surprised. He apparently thought all these years it was just my family that raised their candles and didn't know it came from an old church tradition!

My beautiful girl in her Christmas dress

Christmas Day: Watching my kids on Christmas brought up lots of childhood memories. So fun to spend a whole day going from toy to toy and snuggling in to watch Christmas movies and eat Christmas treats!

Game day: For our "Christmas Day" in Spokane, we had a game day. It was complete with challenges for all ages including puzzles, board games, foosball, etc. The day finished with prizes for everyone!

Henry and Hannah refining their puzzle skills while Adele checks out the prize table

Coloring: Coloring books were a hit this year for Christmas in Spokane. The older kids got these really elaborate coloring books and even the adults enjoyed the afternoon naptime to sit and color.

Ice skating: Adele had a chance to go ice skating with Aunt Jordan and her cousin Benjamin's school. I thought she would be nervous or not even put the ice skates on, but she did wear skates and loved every minute of it! She now tells me, "I know how to ice skate Mommy. Next time we go, I'll teach you!"

Frozen: We only go to a movie maybe once every other year. This year we went to see "Frozen" and LOVED it. Even Henry was entertained, mostly because every scene where the snowman Olaf was on screen meant Henry would yell excitedly "Frossy!!" Since the movie, my kids have almost memorized the soundtrack and often re-enact scenes from the movie. One of the highlights - seeing Adele react to the short Mickey film before the movie. She truly thought the characters had come through the screen and were on stage. We were giggling a lot when she was standing and waving yelling "Hi Mickey! It's me, Adele!"

Dentist fun: Adele and her 3-year old cousin Hannah played together almost every single day while we were in Spokane, sometimes all day and sleepovers at night. One activity they enjoyed together was playing "dentist." It may sound strange, but Adele had recently gotten 2 fillings, and Hannah had her own appointment coming up to get fillings. The girls took turns being the dentist, and also did work on any adult they could convince to lay on the couch!

Hannah and Adele matching...and Hannah being the "dentist" for Adele

Christmas memories

The Christmas season is all about remembering.

Maybe it's because as young kids, there are many family traditions that are instilled in us that we repeat year after year. Or maybe it's because we "remember" the birth of Jesus, simply based on traditions of setting aside the day to remember and reflect on his birth.

As a mom of young kids, I am faced with the challenge of creating our own traditions for our family. It was important to get a Christmas tree and decorate the inside of our house. And to watch many favorite Christmas movies like Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, and Small One. And to bake and decorate sugar cookies.

Of course, we were already faced with questions from Adele like "can we put up Christmas lights outside??" (Note to self: begin that tradition next year.) Or "why don't we have stockings hung by our fireplace?" (Because Mommy didn't finish sewing them this year...another important tradition that will be necessary next year.)

Every year as the Christmas season rolls around, and lights pop up on houses around the neighborhood, and the house is filled with smells of sugar cookies and a mix of cinnamon and cloves, and we fill our calendar with fun Christmas activities...I am flooded with memories of my own childhood and the traditions I grew up with.

I love this time of year.

It is in the midst of those memories that fill my mind, that I am also overwhelmed by emotions of love and gratitude and general joy and happiness.

This year, however, rather than simply reminiscing my childhood memories of Christmas, I have thought often of our years spent in Costa Rica during the Christmas season.

One year in Costa Rica, David and I were sitting around a campfire with some of our neighbors in the valley singing songs, and it was then that I was introduced to the song Canción para la Navidad by José Luis Perales. It is a beautiful song, and one that is now a permanent part of my Christmas playlist each year.

This year as the song popped up on my ipod, I found myself replaying it many times and each time my eyes filled with a few tears as I remembered fondly our Christmas seasons in Costa Rica.

Naturally, traditions are different in Costa Rica. Even the manger scene is different - very rarely did we see what we would consider typical manger scenes with wise men, shepherds, sheep, Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. Most manger scenes we saw included many, many other animals like dolphins and whales, pigs, Mickey and Minnie Mouse figurines, etc.

Leading up to the actual Christmas Day, many Costa Rican families spent hours preparing tamales together. And there were posadas, where many gathered together to do some scripture reading and sing Christmas songs.

Christmas Day was also the only day of the year where even the Savegre Hotel shut down in the valley, so that the entire family could gather together and share a meal and a time for exchanging presents.

But one of the best memories I have is simply the changing of the seasons.

There was no dreaming of a white Christmas. Rather, the Christmas season marked the end of the long rainy season, and as the much-anticipated summer approached, December was known for being less rainy and more of a warm-windy feel. It was called the "Christmas winds."

And I am thankful that Christmas is a time for remembering - and that a simple song popping up on my ipod can transport me back to that time that was so different than the traditions I grew up with.

But were just as special.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oklahoma is not known for having snow.

About 3 years ago, before we moved to Oklahoma, we began to stock up on good winter gear. We anticipated moving somewhere in the western/northwestern part of the U.S. So when we ended up in Oklahoma, we put our winter gear in a box and stuck it in the garage. And since kids grow out of clothes so fast, we never keep with winter gear for them while we're here in Oklahoma - we simply borrow boots and coats when necessary when we visit family where snow is more commonplace.

A couple weeks ago, our weathermen started preparing us for "winter." They talked about a huge snowstorm coming in, started tracking the arctic blast coming down from the north, and began predicting precipitation a week in advance.

Of course, we were talking about a mere 3 inches of snow.

Having lived in other parts of the U.S., it's always humorous when "winter" comes to Oklahoma, and people bust out their scarves when it hits 50s and 60s, and stay crippled inside with even the threat of some snow falling or cancel plans for the next 3 days with the first glimpse of snowflakes.

However, it is not my intention to knock on Oklahoma for their anxiety and general craziness that comes with "winter." I am reminded of my own anxiety and craziness during other times of the year in Oklahoma - the times that I park myself in front of the TV days in advance when there is a threat of a tornado, and the months days that I scour the weather for hour-by-hour forecast hoping to see cooler temps.

But back to our "winter."

Adele and Henry were thrilled to look outside and see snow falling and actually starting to accumulate on the ground. The morning we woke up to a white blanket covering the ground, we did what we could to gather warm clothing for the kids, found big gloves for their hands, and covered their heads. Given the choice, they would have stayed out there all day.

The first time there was the tiniest bit of snow-like precipitation, we brought a chair inside that we had accidentally left outside. The kids were excited to lick up even the smallest amount of snow...

...so a few inches of snow was pretty exciting when it came to eating it!

Henry in his make-shift snow gear

Loving being outside!

 Adele wanted to make snow angels all over the yard

 Fun on the playground!

Daddy's shoveling helpers

Adele loves playing with the small decorations 

(and ornaments) she's carefully placed around the house