18 Month Reflections

It's so hard to believe that we have reached 18 months of living here Mexico...18 months! I can distinctly remember when we hit the 6 month mark here; I felt like time had inched by so slowly to get us to that date and that most everything was still so hard. What a different season of life we are in now than we were a year ago!

Life here now feels, well, normal. It still is definitely not easy, but we're very accustomed to that discomfort. We don't expect things to happen on time or to be fixed quickly (or at all). We expect problems and delays. One of our phrases here is, "Nothing works, but everything works out." 

This past week in particular optimized that phrase. It all began Sunday when my car wouldn't start. Of course, the week in front of us happened to be crazy busy and a huge work week for Ben with a big event and his bosses coming into town. A perfect time to be down one car. Surprisingly enough however, instead of freaking out, Ben and I calmly went through our options and figured out plan B. That would be example #1 of the way that we have grown while living here. Trust me, anxiety does nothing to fix the problem. So, plan B looked like Ben taking an uber to work and using the Daimler pool car. This was perfect for me, because his car has bluetooth phone access and so I could actually make phone calls to my family (my phone hasn't been working for phone calls for about a month now...that would be too easy, right?). Anyways, on Tuesday Ben went to gas-up the pool car only to discover that the gas door won't open no matter what he tried; so he drove it to work on fumes and discovered that whoever gave him the keys knew it wouldn't open and didn't tell him. (Mexicans are never forthcoming with information, we have really learned that the hard way.) He had to pry the gas door open and broke it. Tuesday was also the day that Seth and Sam's soccer game was cancelled because it was too cold (50 degrees, I kid you not, was considered too cold to play and it wasn't even raining.) Even though their game was cancelled, I was told that they had practice; however, their coach forgot to tell them this information so the twins failed to get on their bus to the field and stayed at school waiting for me to pick them up. On days that I work I don't get to the school until 3:40, so that meant I was over an hour late picking them up. Add that to the list of frustrations for the week. By Wednesday, thank the Lord, my car was functioning again: FYI if your key faub is out of batteries it could cause your car not to start because of something to do with its security (who knew?). Poor Ben had switched back to his car and now it needed to be gassed up. Leaving work on Wednesday (again on fumes) he couldn't find a gas station that would accept either his American credit card, his work credit card, or his work gas card...too easy, right? So, he scrounged up 130 pesos from his car to get about a gallon of gas until he can make it to a second gas station, that would accept his card, to actually fill up the car. Oh, and it must be mentioned that the only reason he had so little pesos in his wallet is because he doesn't have his pin number for his American debit card because it's in the mail in America at his parents house. Why can't anything be easy?

I seriously don't think that I could make up stories like this, but truly this is Mexico life more often than not. It's crazy, maddening, endearing, refining, exhausting, beautiful, difficult, and vale la pena (worth the pain). 

So, here we are a year and half in (probably at least half way through our tenure here) and we're comfortable with the uncomfortable. 

Driving and traffic are still crazy, in fact this week we have seen three accidents in front of our apartment alone (that doesn't include the other half a dozen accidents we have seen elsewhere). We still pray every day before we get in car for safety, but thankfully we can manage the crazy drivers a little better now. (Sometimes we're even those crazy drivers...I went the wrong way on a one-way today so as to not have to sit in traffic after missing my turn.)

Language acquisition is coming, but still not easy. Ben is pretty darn adept and can hold his own in most situations. The twins have embraced an hour of soccer practice four days a week all in Spanish and say that they understand almost 100 percent of what the coach says (he doesn't speak any English). They also are reading and answering questions to fourth grade level Spanish stories for school...we're pretty impressed. However, they still don't speak it much. I have days where I feel like I'm killing it and days that I feel like I'm totally failing. I'm nowhere near as good as I hoped I would be by this time, but I am also worlds better than I was a year ago. Josh understands a lot, but doesn't really speak any. 

Looking back at last October, it was when we had really caught our stride here, mostly due to our discovery of and involvement with our church. That still continues to be the most constant and encouraging piece in our lives. I cannot imagine being here in Mexico without our iglesia community. Friendships with locals has been difficult, but we have started to form a relationship with an all-Spanish speaking family at church who also has three boys. We're hopeful in that friendship. Sam and Seth don't seem to have any close friends at school or in soccer and at times that really grieves my mother's heart, but I'm trusting that this time as foreigners and outsiders will really shape their character in amazing ways for the future (and at least they always have each other). Josh does well with friendship at school and is loved by all the students. But always, we are missing our closest family friends, the Leonards, who moved back to the States this summer. 

So, in summary, at 18 months, our life here in Monterrey in good. It's packed to the brim often with more than I think we can handle, but in the end, we do handle it because it is what God has asked of us and is equipping us to do. Sometimes we long for "easy" days living in our own country, hearing only English, grocery shopping at wonderful stores, working in our garden at will, and seeing family at a whim. However, we treasure our times here in Mexico and know we will deeply miss it when we return. 

As always, we are just so thankful for this opportunity, uncomfortable, crazy, and lovely.