Stranded on Pine Island, Don't send help....

I have been trying to blog for WEEKS! The plain truth of it is, it seemed a bit insensitive to tell you all about the sunshine when it was in the negatives back at home! I'll just say, it's lovely here, almost all the time. I walk to work at 5:30 and it's warm, the stars are out and the palm trees sway along the way. After work we hang int he pool, and bald eagles and osprey fly overhead with talons filled with fish. Yep, pretty great.
      On occasion, it does get stormy here. Some rain, some wind and a little chill. And we have found something extraordinary. The best shells wash ashore the day after a storm. The ocean gets churning, the wind blows, it's chilly and nasty and then, VOILA! Something beautiful washes ashore. What a great lesson for our family, if you just hang in there, get through the storm, something new and beautiful will wash up. It's just a matter of watching carefully for it.

Jacob watching a dolphin feet from shore, that's the dorsal fin!

The warm weather isn't the only reason I haven't posted. This last couple months has been a period of intense personal growth for me. We anticipated learning more about our kids, about our family and our marriage through this trip, but I didn't realize how much I would learn about myself. And more importantly what kind of changes I would see and make in myself. It's an interesting time of being continually placed in situations outside my comfort zone, learning new things, testing my limits. There is a lot to process but I am certain that this time on the road has happened in a very specific way, for very specific reasons and could not have happened any other way, at any other time. Having spent so much time with people from other generations, (Alright, OLD people) has been really eye opening for all of us and has really made us appreciate the timing of all this. That we did it NOW and not in 20 years was the right choice for our family and it's great to meet so many supportive, involved people on this journey. I was talking with Ann today, (her youngest child is 4 years older than myself). She, like so many others here, commended our choices and said the same thing we hear over and over, "I wish my kids could have experienced something like this." But then she said, "From what I have gathered in this life, the most important thing you can do is have a dream, and work toward it." I said to her, "But Ann, what happens now?? I reached my dream!" She said, "Keep living it!"  Well said Ann!
And, in case you are more the glass half empty kinda person...  Our friend Kelly passed away Christmas Morning at just 58.  He and his amazing wife Sue are cattle ranchers in S.D. and have been coming down here for the last 6 years. The morning Sue left to take his body home she stopped by to say goodbye to the boys, (they are buds!). She said to Alan and I, "You enjoy this time together, and think of me and Kelly, I am a cautionary tale. You never know how much time you have ahead of you." There is nothing to make you appreciate the moment you are living quite like spending it with people who are...you know, running out of those moments. But that's the point isn't it? We don't know how many of those moments are ahead of us. So, what's your dream?