The restaurant staff wanted to make a party so they ordered a custom piñata from a lady in the nearby village. It was so cool to look at once it had been busted up… there were rolled up pages of homework in the “shell” of the piñata! Nothing goes to waste!

The cooks made the most delicious banana cake and nacho platters to share around… we had workers, and neighbours join us too. One other, uninvited member of the party named Jose, a little guy who we didn’t know, hung around all day and invited himself to the party. Once the candy started falling from the piñata he shamelessly took most of it, while our little kids looked on from the sidelines wondering what was going on – sort of “deer in headlights”.

It was an interesting moment, one I wasn’t entirely sure how to navigate, because, if truth be told, I didn’t really want the kids to eat much candy, and yet there’s a natural sense of justice that is important too. Anyway, it was an interesting moment, and we all recovered from it, though Jose did take very, very full pockets of candy home after eating lots of cake… he won in the end due to my inability to speak his language!

Later, however, I talked with the children about the poverty this little boy is growing up in, and how this would have seemed like a meaningful windfall in his small world. We are learning to flex and share and respect in all sorts of nuanced ways, even as we attempt to discern important boundaries and appropriate interpersonal limits, etc. (For example, we decided that next time we have a piñata, we will do it close to our home on the private side of the property, not in the public restaurant side!)

The party was a very joyful time.

There is nothing you want to buy here and I am determined to accumulate as little as possible, so we told Cotton that the whole family would be giving her coupons that she could use over the next few weeks. She was thrilled… she got “gifts” such as a private walk on the beach to collect shells and make crafts with them (Sunny), a free surfing lesson (Ben – interesting, as he himself does not yet know how to surf), an art lesson (Tucker), 5 card games (Auden), a back massage (Mommy)…

…she said it was her best birthday ever (even with no gifts and a little guy who stole most of her candy!

This precious girl, who was SO afraid to go on another plane, but was so brave anyway, is so happy to be here. She felt cherished and celebrated by new friends and thought it was the best day. Her tender spirit, acute observations, clever wit, and understated presence are such a gift in our family.

I am so thankful for the gracious way she eased into a new kind of non-commercial birthday routine. This moment also created a new set point of birthday expectations for the other children, and I commend her willingness to be flexible and open at a time when so much is new.

It was a great, great day!

Shortly after 10:00 a.m. a sleek black bus pulled up and we loaded our luggage into it and the accompanying black van. The kids were thrilled when entering the bus because it had cool purple lights and little chilled water bottles for everyone. What a fun start to the day!

We made the easy drive to the Kissimmee airport and were even early for our flight. Our bus drove right onto the tarmac and our backs were then loaded directly on the jet that we had seen arrive just moments before. The pilot helped load our bags, as we waited in the waiting area… mildly squirrelly and super excited.

And then, it was time to go!

But, before our feet left the Florida ground our friendly pilot took a picture of us all glowing in excitement before we ascended the steps. We got on the plane and could hardly believe it. This was not the tin can we had flown in from Ontario to Detroit, this was an older, yet still crisp and clean elegant jet. The kids had no problem getting super comfortable for the three hour flight ahead.

Dorian quickly settled in with the pilots and enjoyed most of the journey from up near the cockpit. The rest of the kids watched out the windows (“Goodbye Florida Keys”, “Hello, Cuba”, “Hola, Costa Rica!”) played card games, read their books and just generally enjoyed the journey. Truett was super chill and enjoyed climbing on the couches, while the big kids relaxed together in the back. With the odd friendly check-in with our stewardess, Victoria, we were well supplied with snacks and animated conversation.

From the sky we were so impacted by the lush mountainous GREEN of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Just miles and miles of uninterrupted green! It wasn’t long before we were descending. We thanked the cheerful airplane stewardess and pilots and were immediately ushered into a bus that was waiting for us on the tarmac. They too, served us cool drinks, and we were set.

Upon entering the Costa Rican Airport there was NO one else there! Apparently, there aren’t usually many flights on Wednesdays. This worked out GREAT for us because we could go to the front of the non-existent line and sail through customs! All our bags were scanned as a huge crew of bored “scanner people” watched the process – felt like a bit of a circus, I’ll be honest. From there, we got into our next bus that was waiting right on time for us, and after a short wait, were off to the border. All our bags were stuffed in the back and there were enough seats for us all in the front. We bounced and bumped along, strangely at home in our usual skin, under the same sky, but now just looking at a new backdrop. The kids kept exclaiming about the different fruit trees and animals we saw along our route… you could feel the excitement in the air. 

Late in the afternoon we stopped at the Costa Rican border where Ben had to check us out of Costa Rica, and we all took a bathroom break. We then drove past a huge line of transport trucks waiting to cross the border and pulled to the side of the road and got off the bus.

Our bags were piled on the side of the road while me and the younger children stood out of the way on the grass inspecting some old, defunct bicycles. Our drivers, having compassion on us, helped us carry our bags the 100 meters to the Nica border. At some point, some men with trolleys loaded our bags on their carts and that made the process much smoother. So, there we were, walking right beside giant transport trucks, crossing into a new country by foot. Felt sort of like The Sound of Music… sort of.

It was getting dusky by the time we walked into the Nica Customs. We were the only ones there but it took a LONG time because our guy LOVED paper, and had to write on LOTS of it over and over in the strange process that did not seem to have any rhyme or reason. Our little guys were definitely getting antsy at this point. Another big group of travellers from Canada joined us in line and we made some nice connections there while we waited.

Eventually, we made it through. They did ask Ben to open one bag with a flip phone in it (the oldest, stupidest piece of electronics that we brought with us!). They looked over it for a couple of minutes, then put it back in the bag. I think they were mainly focused on a guy who had gone in front of us who had a new (boxed) set of speakers in his bag. (They don’t like stuff still in its packaging – they think you might try to sell it.) So, the customs officers were making a big fuss about this and our trolly guys were just saying (tired of waiting), “Come on!”, and they basically took our bags off the table before the inspectors thought twice about inspecting anything else! All loaded up, we were now in the dark walking farther down that long road to the place where our next bus was waiting for us, right on time.

This ride was a little different; the whole thing was in the dark, so we couldn’t see our surroundings at all. Horns honking, swerves, pot holes, flashing lights, and chatty drivers became the background music to this leg of the journey. Truett finally fell asleep in my arms. It rained. There were snack crumbs everywhere. Ben was texting family of our arrival, and we were trying to figure out how to distract an exhausted Keats.

Eventually, after the longest, sloshiest, bumpiest part of the trip we turned into the driveway of our magical new abode. We couldn’t see out of the tinted windows, but upon stepping out of the bus, we could see new friends standing in the soft glow of a beautiful palapa waving and welcoming us in.

The children’s eyes grew wide as they took in the nighttime view of the resort all lit up with orange and pink lights under and clear and starry sky. Our luggage was unpacked, and in a dazed sort of way we wandered about the pool and cabanas marvelling and pointing and letting out sporadic shrieks of delight!

We found our way to the restaurant, that was opened just for us that night, and we had our first full, hearty meal of the day to the sound of the crashing waves nearby. We were welcomed with friendly, open arms, our tummies were satiated, and it was time for bed. We pulled back the covers of freshly made beds, and laid our heads down in gratitude for this perfect day.

This is just a quick note to let you know that all is well… in fact, better than we could have imagined! I will write in more detail soon as I don’t want to forget our trip and our earliest impressions of this magical place. But, I did want to post a couple of pictures so you can get a feel for our journey and destination.

Skipping to the present moment: Truett is currently napping happily to the sounds of all sorts of tropical birds, the middle children are swimming in the pool, and the older children are being tutored in how to run the coffee machine and make the smoothies at the restaurant bar (which they are thrilled about). Ben is setting up his office for remote work, and we are prepping additional rooms for other families who will be joining us here soon.

The staff that work here are amazing and so warm… they have created an incredible community, and they are keen to teach the children so much. We are learning Spanish rapidly, the big boys have already been out getting acquainted with the waves (I think they did stand up a bit too on their boards, so technically, surfing), Snowy has already received an invitation to go on a sunset horseback ride, and we have been enjoying discovering all the fruit trees on the property, and eating the delicious food in the restaurant for our meals.

We feel like we’ve landed in heaven… we’ve been meeting neighbours and walking the sandy country roads, slowly getting oriented. We love the birds and iguanas (apparently there are monkeys, but we haven’t seen them yet). There is a little ginger cat who has already adopted the children and follows them everywhere.

Besides still feeling a little tired from the intensity of the last few weeks and the time change, we are feeling so energized and encouraged about following our hearts and enjoying an uncommon adventure at this chapter in our family’s life.

We are calling the resort “Mar Adentro”, (Spanish) which means “the ocean within”… this makes me think of ‘Jesus within’ (streams of living water)… something expansive and impossible to contain, overflowing with life and wholeness. Only a few days here, and we are already feeling the reality of this vision.

We received the happy news that our van/trailer and belongings made their way safely back to Canada today, with the generous aid of a friend who was willing to do the drive for us! We felt a big sigh or relief upon hearing of the successful return.

Now, our main task is to deep-clean the house we’ve been renting… always difficult, because clean surfaces tend to invite more stickiness: I have got to find a way to outwit Truett at this game… 

Today, Ben and I were stuck with the task of getting lots of paperwork details organized, and I was so happy when the kids came home from a walk to tell me that the resort was hosting a Halloween party today… so the Bigs took all the Littles to trick-or-treat by the pool while Ben and I hustled on the mind-numbing details and forms involved in big ventures.

We are trying to use up the pantry stuff… as usual, I have too much on hand… Auden made some vegan cinnamon buns today, which everyone devoured! And, Dorian mixed peanut butter and honey, oats and other random pantry sprinkles in a ball and then pressed it into the bottom of a frying pan, which is now residing in the fridge. I do not know what it is or how we are supposed to eat it. We are very short on appropriately sized pots and pans now, as they have all returned to London. I have a feeling we will be eating a number of strange concoctions over the next couple of days.

We fly out on Wednesday: Orlando to Costa Rica. In our research we discovered that it is actually more simple as a large group to go across the land border to Nicaragua (for things like papers, customs, taxes on goods, etc.) than straight through the Managua airport. 

We take a bus from Liberia, CR to the land border of Nicaragua (Piña Blancas) where we walk across the border and then get another bus after we’ve gone through customs.

Our bus drives us directly to the resort (Buena Onda at Playa Santana) where we will have our first meal in our restaurant! It will be a full day with lots of new experiences and sights to see…

We have had the chance to speak on the phone and online with many new friends from the area in Nicaragua where we will be staying, and we are so excited about the adventures that lay ahead of us. 

In closing, I thought I would share an article I stumbled on yesterday regarding the differing/sometimes conflicting news re: Nicaragua in North America vs. what we are hearing directly from those on the ground.

This recently written article (by a Canadian) seems to reflect the sentiments of many expats on the ground in Nicaragua. I thought I would share it for those curious about some of the nuances of the country, as I myself found it quite encouraging and interesting considering the deep history of Central America.

…

I want to give you some news about our new place!

We can’t share the specific address of our new place just yet, as we need to wait until the current owners wrap up some of their business, but we are excited to share that our property in Nicaragua is a small surf resort right on the Pacific Ocean! 

The current owners are Swiss, and built the boutique hotel from the ground up over the last 10 years. They have managed it from abroad for the last six years and it has done very well. It is in fantastic shape and in a great area, both rural, and yet close to a number of other resorts/towns where many families live. The current owner is my age, and his family still owns a house on a hill nearby where they come and spend half the year every year, the other half in Portugal. They moved onto some other business ventures and so decided to sell the resort.

This suits our vision perfectly as a “second footprint” property to move between Canada and Central America.

The resort part of the property is comprised of 6 dwelling places, a swimming pool, and a beautiful palapa (with chairs/table/kitchen and bathrooms) all fenced in a beautifully manicured 2 acres.

There is a small dirt road you must cross to go walk the beach side of the resort (1 acre) which has a lovely family restaurant, a yoga palapa, and a half pipe for skate boarding.

The beach is part of the “Emerald Coast” of Nicaragua – some of the best, most consistent surfing in the world. It is such world class surfing that the beaches surrounding the entire area are dedicated to surfing schools, boutique hotels, unique restaurants, family getaways, and farms/gardens to produce organic foods for the local eateries, as well as local families and business that benefit from the investments of foreigners.

It is entrepreneurial heaven, filled with permaculture enthusiasts, foodies, eco villages, artists, surfers, famers, cob builders, and local craftsmen.

Our plan is to live in the resort side, while hosting family/friends/airbnb stays, which won’t be open to the public. But on the beach side, as the restaurant is already up and running and bringing in good business, we’ll just plan to keep it running under the direction of the local Nicaraguan managers. This gives us lots of flexibility and contributes jobs to the local economy.

As we were leaving Canada, we knew two things: we would be gone for a year, and we were searching for a second footprint to able to invest in a place with more year-round sun. We were considering Texas, Florida, Tennessee (not as much sun, but less winter!), and Nicaragua. I’m mostly not exaggerating to say I looked at 1,000’s of properties in these areas over the last year. Arriving in Florida felt SO good, but I ***knew*** when I found this sanctuary in Central America a few weeks ago that God’s fingerprints were all over this spot for us.

The kids are already anticipating eating the coconuts from the trees on the property, daily swimming, horseback riding, learning to surf, and sledding down a volcano (it’s a thing!).

As of today, flights from Toronto to Managua are $246… making the whole endeavour of getting there and back incredibly feasible (and a lot more simple than the extended scenic route we took!).

Can’t wait for you to visit us… though I suppose we have to get there first.

I’m including some pictures so that you can get a sense of the place. It’s bright, beautiful and so inviting.

I saw her starring, rather smitten with herself, into the mirror at one point today – freshly cut bob, dripping bathing suit, and foggy goggles – feeling pretty satisfied with her new vibe.

It’s been so refreshing to get daily doses of morning sunshine every day at the pool and we have all the books we could possibly need now, with our new library card. We do a couple of outings a week as a family, and Ben and I have enjoyed taking the kids out for individual dates to help them replenish their wardrobes and enjoy a treat together. 

The older children have online Spanish tutors and the younger ones continue to learn with books and CD’s…. I am hoping my subconscious is doing a lot of learning for me, as my conscious mind is quite busy with all the usual stuff of life. Art and baking continue to be big themes right now for a number of the children, as is laundry (that part hasn’t changed at all!).

We are doing lots of daily walks around the pretty lakes in the neighbourhood, and enjoying the bright skies and quick bursts of rain that visit regularly. The rainy season is actually quite lovely.

In some even more exciting news, we have an accepted offer on a property in Nicaragua! 

We have been interested in Nicaragua for a couple of years now, and have been in contact with a number of Canadians who live there, and it has been an enjoyable discovery process. In fact, our real estate agent is a Canadian from Alberta who has lived in Nica for ten years, the selling agent moved down 12 years ago from Victoria, BC, and our financing agent came from Whitby to build a home in Nica. There is a really exciting expat community there, not to mention the nationals who exude so much warmth and friendliness.

A couple of years back, Ben and I were “dreaming big”, thinking about how we’d like to snowbird (live part of the year in some warm, exotic place). Nothing seemed possible about the idea then (before online work), but it did prompt me into research mode. 

After diving in to YouTube videos by “The Nomad Capitalist” we were even more inspired by the many people who live with multiple “footprints” (homes) around the world – enjoying the best of multiple places… and I got excited to imagine where we could land another footprint.

Nicaragua emerged with shining colours as a safe, family friendly, nature-vibrant, adventure-solid setting with un-inflated real estate prices. It is very straightforward to “invest” in a property there and gain residency privileges, which was exciting to us as well. We watched listings for a year, before finding something that ticks every box on our “dream list”. Our agent has been an incredible resource and it feels exciting to be moving to an area where we are already connected with other unschooling, adventurous families through the internet.

***We’ll tell you more about our new home soon, though we are waiting for some final pieces to come together before sharing specifics.***

This happy opportunity is launching us out of Florida sooner than we had anticipated, as the owners were eager for as short a closing as possible. We will be leaving Kissimmee end of October and flying to Nicaragua just in time for the beautiful Tropical November surfing season when the rains stop.

It has been a fun whirlwind season to stretch into the next leg of our adventure. There is still much to sort out and lots of big pieces that need to get lined up, but we are feeling energized and wanted to share with you what is moving forward.

What is perhaps most exciting to us is that our new property has the capacity to host others outside of just our family, so we are absolutely counting on visitors! [We’ll be sending pictures soon, once we can tell you more about the place!]. 

…Lots to get excited about as we watch God clear obstacles and solve problems in such remarkable ways… everything is happening so smoothly and in such beautiful order, we just feel so thankful for this opportunity that has been set before us, and we look forward to being a blessing in a “new” (to us) land where we all can see more of God’s incredible world and experience a greater connection to the simpler rhythms of life for a time.

We look forward to updating you soon… with pictures!

We’ve settled into somewhat of a rhythm over the last three weeks. Sunny and Tobin have taken to long early morning walks together (up to two hours every day!). They came home the other day with the intention to begin picking up the trash they passed on their walks. They now go out in the mornings with a garbage bag and fill it by the time they come home… making Florida a little more beautiful every day.

Ben works in the mornings, while most of us head to the pool, soak in the beautiful healing rays of the sun, and upgrade our swimming skills. It’s fun to see the younger children getting more comfortable and confident in the water every day. 

Returning home, the older children are variously doing online work, reading, writing, working on personal projects, taking long unicycle/rollerblading trips, upgrading their art skills, and practicing Spanish. 

Sunny is reading the unabridged Les Miserables right now. How fun it was to converse about the characters as we floated in the pool with a gaggle of little children listening to us roll over themes of grace and law within the story.

Dorian as begun reading A Happy Pocket Full of Money, perhaps my favourite book on finances, ever. He has also been doing a 30-day challenge to sketch a foot every day… it’s amazing to see his progress in just a few days!

Duke has an online Spanish teacher in Nicaragua, who was telling him that ultimate Frisbee is a thing in Central America too!

Tobin has been doing a ton of web design work, not to mention making great lunches for the team. Tucker has been honing his video editing skills, Snowy is researching geckos, Auden is writing recipes, Poppy is making smoothies herself and doing as many grown-up things as possible every day. And Cotton, Nova, Keats and Truett are really good at making art, contributing to healthy baking, and eating snacks!

Ben and I are enjoying the rainy season where the rain just pops up (or down, I suppose) once or twice a day for about 10 minutes. The heat is great and not generally too overwhelming. We are going on lots of walks together and enjoying our new double jogging stroller – such a treat! (We threw out more than a couple broken/deadbeat strollers in the dumpster before we left Ontario!) The two littlest boys love the rhythm of the wheels bumping over the sidewalk, while Mommy tries not to squish geckoes. Ben and I love the time to talk, process life, and work out our visions for the future.

We are having so much fun dreaming, and planning the next leg of our adventure. We anticipate that Central America will be our next landing place and we have already connected with many incredible Canadians who are on the ground in the areas we are keen to visit. We have always desired to give our children a cross-cultural experience, and it is so exciting to me that we can make this happen while they are all still “at home”. 

Technology is a gift in so many ways, connecting us to people and places that in previous decades would have felt inaccessible.

We’re feeling energetic, inspired and so very happy as we stretch ourselves and try new things. Stepping out of our comfort zone has a way of upgrading our senses and awakening us to whole new vistas of opportunity and joy. Feeling thankful.