Insta vs Reality

One of the key learnings of our adventure is that 3 months is a long time. But I have been amazed at the resilience that my family has shown.

What are some of the hard things we have experienced:

Language. While Spanish is my native language, it is not for the rest of the family. The way Catherine has been able to navigate this experience with the Spanish she learned while living in Houston is fascinating. While its hard for the kids to make friends, when they do, they are able to figure out how to play together despite the language barrier. Their confidence is getting stronger.

The Food. You know how hard it is to find bagels? Also, the nearest Trader Joes is 16 hrs away in San Antonio, Tx. Catherine is starting to like Valentina, which is HUGE. The kids are starting to like tacos a little more. Camila’s primary lesson (at church) was about trials and how to overcome them. She wrote that her trial is being in Mexico where everyone speaks Spanish and that she doesn’t like the candy; what she wrote about overcoming it was “We’re in Mexico, I am going to enjoy it, and suck it up”.

Constant adjustment. We have been in Mexico for about 6 weeks, and in that time, we have been in 3 different cities: Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Puebla. The constant adjusting and changing is hard. This is our last week in Puebla, and we are going to MISS the people here. We have made some really strong bonds with a few people here, and we will miss them.

The sibling struggles. We are in a new home/city, experiencing new things, and all of this while I work remotely, and the kids do “home” schooling. The number of arguments, fights and screams have more than tripled since we’ve been here. Camila and Nico continue to find new ways to tick each other off. We definitely miss school and play dates where we could separate them for a bit.

I am sure there are more, but ultimately, this experience is changing our lives. I love my family and their willingness to be adventurous. It has been an awesome ride so far.