Time sure flies and I have been neglecting our blog. My apologies for the lapse in our posts.
Due to a family emergency, we returned to the U.S. in July. We spent 4 lovely months in Boquete, but an unexpected death in the immediate family brought us back. We’ve pretty much been laying low since then. We had to let our Boquete rental go as we are planning to be here in the US until the end of the year. We boxed up our things to leave with good friends. We also left our car with another good friend. This will make things a lot easier on us when we come back to Panamá. We love Panamá despite its imperfections, the people that we have met there especially.
Something I have been giving much thought to these past 2+ years since getting our residency is I really do miss family. I thought I could deal with it better and of course I expected all of them to just fly on down to see us. Like on episodes of International House Hunters, they all say “I want extra space for all the company we’re gonna have”! Well, that just doesn’t happen unless money is not an issue. We were blessed to have Craig’s daughter visit us but that was our one and only visitor. Just seeing them once a year when we flew back just wasn’t enough for me. The financial burdens for family to fly down, especially with young children, it was very daunting. Between 4 children and 7+ grandchildren (another on the way), I was always thinking what I was missing. I felt a strong need to have a home base in the US once again (and get our things out of storage). Craig acquiesced and here we are. Yes, I know some of you might want to judge me on this…the problems here in the US are hard to dismiss. I had to look past this and do what my heart was telling me. We purchased a home in Florida close to Craig’s family, yet easy enough to take trips up north to be with the kids. And vice versa, the kids always have a place to come down south to for get togethers. We are heading back down to Panamá after the Christmas holidays and have secured a rental for half a year. The best of both worlds. We miss our Boquete family but we will be back!
Enough about that…what have we been up to? After spending some time in Pennsylvania, we started furnishing our new Florida home and are acclimating to our new reality. The beach is a short drive away, family time with the brothers-in-law, going to the gym, walking, cycling, tikis, etc. I’ve also been doing a lot of crochet projects as there are new babies on the way.
I hope you are all well and staying safe. Oh, and by the way, before we left Panamá we were able to get our second Pfizer shots (yay!) Here are a few random pics of family and what we’ve been up to.
¡Hasta luego!
