Thankful

 

As we close out the Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it was very fitting to write about how thankful I am for all this past year has been.  So much has changed, and it would be very easy to dwell on everything that has gone wrong, but yet I am a positive person and I choose to only think of everything that has gone right.  Talk about a whirlwind year!  Here a few of the things I am most thankful for:

FAMILY – Where do I even begin?  Our family has gone through A LOT this year with packing up and/or selling everything we own and moving to a tiny, little island in search of a new adventure.  Through it all, we have become closer, both physically and mentally – ha!  Now that we are here, there is a lot of “together time” since the girls no longer leave for school every day because school is now their laptop in their room, and Jay no longer works 12-14 hours a day outside the home.  All of this togetherness could have presented a problem for some, but we have figured it out for sure.  We have a balance of all being under the same roof and doing the same activities, but we have also figured out some sort of separation and “alone time”.  There are times when only one  or two of us goes on an errand, allowing the others their space, or even times when all four of us don’t go to the beach or to dinner or whatever we are doing.  We really do seem to have figured it out and have had absolutely no instances of wanting to send another member of the family to their own island away from us!  The closeness we experience here is priceless – we play games together, we go to the beach together, dinner together, movies together.  How could I not be thankful for this?

FRIENDS – Moving to an island where we basically knew only one person, really was a scary thing.  Leaving behind the friends who were our “regulars” was definitely the hardest part.  Let’s start with them – I am thankful for our friends who remain in the U.S. but are only a Facebook post, a WhatsApp message, or a FaceTime appointment away.  Has it been perfect?  No.  Have there been times when I have longed to hear Dee Dee’s dinger at my front door (inside joke), craved going to Chili’s with Jill and talking for HOURS, or having dinner and playing games with the Forbis family?  Yes.  Again, this was the hardest part of leaving, but we get through it.  What gets us through it?  Those times when we are able to message or talk and makes it all better (well, at least for a while).  What else gets us through it?  The friends we are meeting here in Aruba.  It is so amazing how many wonderful people there are who truly want to hear your story, be your friend, help you out.  There are a few special friends who we see regularly and I am very thankful for them.  It has been so much fun getting to know new people, learn their stories, and share our experiences.  This is what it’s all about.  This is why we are here.  The picture below is our Thanksgiving celebration with some very special Aruban friends who are having their first experience of the food coma that follows a good old American turkey dinner.  I’m quite sure they will never be the same!

THE BLUE WATER – It always comes back to the blue water, doesn’t it?  I am so thankful to live in a beautiful place and hope to never take for granted all it has to offer.  I have a new respect for the ocean after seeing its many moods.  It is nothing but remarkable.  Being at the beach really does reset your soul.  Sounds cheesy, but it’s so true.  There have been days when I just want to give up, pack up, and be done with this crazy roller coaster ride we are experiencing, but when it gets to that point, I know I need to put my toes in the sand and be in the water.  It honestly does make everything better.  We have had many struggles with the details of establishing Full Throttle Tours, but just knowing that with every hurdle we jump, we are one step closer to opening day and having this amazing water be our “office”.  Being close to the water makes us work harder for that goal!  Nothing is going to stop us from doing what we love and what we know will make so many people’s experience in the waters of Aruba even better than it was before.

This has definitely been the craziest, wildest, most insanely unpredictable year of my life (thus far!), but I just know that we are going to look back at what we’re doing and be so thankful that we did.