The #10 Thing I Will Miss About Dominica:
Community. One thing that is so great about living here in Dominica and specifically in the Ross community is that you have a built in bank of people who are going through exactly what you're going through. You don't have to look far to find someone whose husband is getting ready to take a really stressful exam, or someone who hasn't showered in 2 days because the water has been out, or someone who misses their family in the states exactly when you are dealing with those same "lemons" in your own life. It's a bit like a 0-60 in under a second kind of situation when it comes to making friends because of that. There have been positives and negatives to this...though the positives so far outweigh the negatives. There are people here in Dominica which I only met in December of 2012 or later who I *know* will be our friends for life. People we have only known less than a year of our lives! So I will miss the intensity of new found friendships here. There's no time to try and "feel someone out" in this community. You just latch on and hang on for dear life and hope they're who you thought they were. And praise God when you find out they are! I will miss the close-knit-ness of our friend base. How you can call someone at 5:00 and say "Hey wanna come over for dinner at 6:00?". Wether your house is filthy...even if you haven't even figured out what the heck you're cooking...and they come over anyway and you sit and talk for hours. I will miss the casualness of our friendships here. Nothing frilly...outings that are usually not planned more than a few hours (at *most* a day) in advance...no makeup, workout clothes and messy hair, dirty feet, and MacGyver-ed dinners. That is our life here in Dominica! And I'm not sure how we will transition back into the daily routine of *not* being able to live like that back in the states. I mean...I'm sure we will manage...but man we will miss this community and the impactful people we have met. We can only pray that we would cross paths with them again along this crazy journey, and make a concerted effort to keep these special people as close to us as we can in the coming years we will likely spend apart. After all...we've all become experts at maintaining long distance friendships haven't we??
The #10 Thing That Will Be Awesome About Living in the USA Again:
PATRICK and MATILDA!! Man we are SO excited about setting up shop somewhere and getting to have our precious fur babies with us! We have missed having them in our house SO much and we can't wait to get back into the routine of them living with us again. I was really skeptical about my ability to live an entire year plus without my girl by my side...it has been TOUGH, let me tell ya. So tough, in fact, that the 2 times I've gone home in the last 14 1/2 months I cried a few times just snuggling with her in bed because I missed her so much. I miss that puppy smell behind her shammy ears, I miss scooping up my little chunky kitty and giving him neck sugars. I miss Sunday afternoon family nap time with the 4 of us all snuggled up in our big cozy bed. Our little family just hasn't been the same without them. Just writing about that makes me even more anxious to bring ourselves and a little bit of Dominica home to them for good...
So there ya have it. Our 2 number tens on the list. Stay tuned for next week's number nines!
Hehehe I love this! I'm so excited to read the next 9 posts... and for you guys to bring your booties back stateside!!! Love you!
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