The Adventure Begins, well... not quite...
21 April 2007 | Bahia del Sol, El Salvador/ Traverse City, MI
Amy
Well, this is our first post and there is so much to say, but yet, not enough! Our new home for the next 2 years, or so, is still thousands of miles away in El Salvador. But things are moving along to get her here to the waters of Lake Michigan. My Dad, Frank, is down there right now, he arrived 5 days ago, to supervise the bottom cleaning, patching and repainting of Sunshine. Our other crew member Marc, will be arriving in about 10 days, as well as Santos who will be assisting in the delivery as far as Cancun.
For those family and friends who have been wondering how things are going, it has been an extremely hectic 2 1/2 months since we purchased her. Trying to locate crew that had enough time available to do the delivery, and getting the documentation papers properly done through the US Coast Guard. As you noticed, I said, properly, meaning we ran in to a bit of a snag there, which made that process take quite a bit longer than we would have liked. Jim has also been very busy making sure our crew has the proper equipment, and that meant much time researching and ordering all that was needed before my Dad flew down. Jim's been taking classes through the US Power Squadron 2 nights/ week, plus getting our house ready to go on the market, and then the usual day to day living "stuff", like a job, running a household with 3 kids, etc. We apologize if some of you feel we haven't been keeping in touch, but we literally have been consumed with getting all that needed to be done to get Sunshine here by early this Summer.
The kids, Bridget-12, Micah 5-almost 6, and Jenaya-3, are so very excited about the boat and the trip. They talk about it all the time and cannot wait until she gets here. It was the determining factor in getting Jenaya potty trained! I started to tell her, "no diapers on the boat, you can't wear diapers on the boat", and w/in less than a week, she was going all by herself, no diapers at all! Now when visitors come to the house, she let's them know, "now I can go on the boat, I don't wear diapers anymore!"
At the same time, though, it's hard for them since they haven't seen it. It's this intangible object out there, that they've seen pictures and video, and keep hearing Mommy & Daddy talk about, but hard to grasp exactly what it's all about. Heck, I'm even struggling with it some! I'm going on Faith and Trust that Jim's opinion of Sunshine when he went down to look her over at the end of January, is going to work for our family. It's like I'm waiting to meet this member of my family that I'm so excited to see, but have never met! It just seems all surreal that we are actually doing this! EVen pinching myself doesn't help- believe me, I've tried! But we have about 2 more months, and our Sunshine will be here, so then, I think, "okay, I can do that, it will go by fast... I hope!"