We woke up at 3am this morning to finish packing and weighed and reweighed our luggage in order to not go over the 50 pound limit for each piece. Towards the end of packing, we realized that we couldn't take everything that we wanted so we had to make some hard decisions as to what to take and what to bring later. At the airport, each suitcase weighed around 49 pounds or so.
The flight was on time and went well. We all slept a little on the plane and David also occupied himself with a care package full of activities that my sister-in-law, Kathleen, made. As we were landing, we saw lots of beautiful, green mountains.
Our friends, Julio and Ashley, and one of their sons, Lucas, met us at the airport and took us home. We don't know why, but the traffic was pretty bad. The way people drive here is very aggressive and I don't see myself getting behind the wheel anytime soon!
Julio and Ashley treated us to Wendy's which happens to be within walking distance from our home. We unpacked our stuff from their car and a taxi van and had lunch at home. I was simply amazed with our new home; it's the most beautiful home that we've ever had. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms; one even has a jacuzzi tub which is very rare in other countries. The kitchen has a brand new refrigerator, electric stove, and pretty cabinets with contemporary handles. We have a washer and dryer too.
The "wow factor" is when you walk in the front door into the living room and see an open area with greenery behind a sliding glass door. It lets in a lot of natural light. I'll send a picture later so that you can see what I mean.
The windows have curtains and there is plenty of closet space in each room. We have a garage that has a tile floor, as does the rest of the house, so David can go out there and play by himself. There is no air conditioning so we leave the windows and front door open to cool off. Even though the front door is open, the garage door is closed and so is the gate door entrance so David cannot get into the street and no one can come inside without us letting them.
We are the first house in the neighborhood (Residencia Julieta) after the security guard so we feel very safe. The neighborhood has a playground that we can see from the kitchen window; I know that we'll be going there often. At the security guard's post is where you take your recyclables - yea! I'm glad that Costa Rica is so "green" and I can walk a few yards to drop off glass, aluminum cans, cardboard, mixed paper, and plastic.
Today, we took a small walk and discovered that there are many businesses closeby - a pharmacy, a locksmith, a pizzeria, a tire repair guy, a fruit stand, a convenience store, and a deli shop. That was just when we turned left at the stop sign. Later, we're going to turn right and see what there is.
The security guard's name is Eliazar and the deli shop owner's name is Elsa. We hope to meet all of our neighbors, residential and business owners, in order to form relationships so that we may invite them to our church. If you would start praying for God to open Eliazar's and Elsa's hearts, that would be great!
When we went to the deli shop, Elsa's daughter was watching "Martha Speaks"...in Spanish! When we went home, I turned on the TV and found Discovery Kids with all of David's favorite shows in Spanish - "Super Why", "Curious George", "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That", etc. My eyes started to mist and David asked if I was sad. I told him that I am very happy that he can watch his shows because it makes the adjustment for him a little easier. He unpacked his toy box and is having fun playing with toys that he hasn't seen in over a month.
Our first day here has been very nice for which we are thankful.
