Well where do I start? It’s been months and months since our last post. Readers, I’m sorry we abandoned you. Life sort of got in the way and we got sucked into the daily grind of working and it seemed like there just wasn’t anything going on that was worthy of a blog post anymore.
But actually, that was only partially true. We did get sucked into the humdrum of working full time jobs and surrendering to a boring routine of going to work, buying groceries, taking out the trash, fixing the dinghy motor, going out occassionally with friends, watching stupid movies at night, and trivial daily crap that in many ways was not worthy of blogging about. AND, there were ALSO such big and important things going on that we didn’t even know how to write about them, and we became paralyzed for awhile about how to convey our journey to you, our readers.
For our journey, though it has recently not included much sailing or traveling, has indeed continued in profound ways. While we thought we were working towards our “plan”, which was to save up money to take our boat cruising to the Carribbean and Central America, God had other things in mind for us.
In August we found out that a Wee One had decided to join us in our adventures!
Yes, that’s right, we are expecting a baby!
It’s an exciting surprise for all of us!
Here is a brief sidenote for those of you who may have wondered silently what our situation was regarding having or not having children. I, Lala, am the mother of a wonderful boy named Diego, who was killed in 2002 in a tragic car accident at the age of 6. That is another huge, profound story and journey entirely that I don’t go into here. Cap’t K and I tried for quite some time to conceive a child together. After several miscarriages and a ticking biological clock, it seemed that maybe we were not destined to be parents, and so we decided to go off on a sailing adventure instead. We went through quite a process of removing ourselves from the “rat-race” lifestyle, giving ourselves a certain “unstable freedom” that may not be viewed by some as compatible with raising children. And then….surprise! A little soul has finally chosen us, and decided that now is the time to enter this world through us.
And so it is that we are on a journey to become parents together. 
So now what? The thought occurred to us that maybe we should get a house and a car and steady jobs and settle down and be “normal” people again. But, to be honest, even though that lifestyle definitely has it’s merits at times, the thought of settling down in that way was pretty revolting to both of us, and we started scheming of creative ways to continue our adventures with the addition of the Wee One.
And, after working our butts off for a year in St. Augustine with the goal of going travelling, we didn’t want to just give that all up and stay put in boring Florida. But travelling and living on a small sailboat while pregnant/with a newborn seemed like a bit too much even for us adventurous souls. It seemed that some sort of break from living on our boat was in order. Then, one day a friend planted a seed in our minds. He said “Did you know that if you give birth to your baby in Costa Rica, the baby will automatically get dual citizenship and the parents can qualify for permanent residency?” Hmmmmmm, no we didn’t know that, but hey, that sure is a nice idea…..
After leaving New England in part due to the cold weather, and after having lived in Florida for a year and found it not to be our dream location, we had been brainstorming about places to live or visit that had a specific list of criteria:
1. Mountains AND ocean
2. warm climate
3. good food and water
4. like minded people
5. affordable
Hmmmm……Costa Rica fits that description perfectly. Maybe we should check it out!
At first it sounded downright crazy…..going to a foreign country where we barely know anyone to give birth?! But there were many things that were tempting about it, as well, and we couldn’t quite get the idea out of our minds. So we began researching the option of going to Costa Rica for the birth of our baby. And, to make a long story short, we decided to do it.
We decided this for two main reasons: we wanted to give ourselves several months of relaxed retreat together to fully enjoy this special time, AND we want to secure the option of being able to live in Costa Rica as residents in the future if we so choose.
Next came several months of preparation to leave the United States and set up a temporary residence in Costa Rica for 3 months.
That preparation included continuing to work our butts off to save money, as well as a long list of things to get in order to be away. One of the main goals was to finally sell our first boat, Wee Happy. The sale of this boat had been delayed many months by a long list of random things, and it was getting down to the wire to sell it before our departure in mid-February. I was worried that it may take months to sell and that we wouldn’t be able to do it before we left. After all, boats in this economy don’t just sell in a week, right?!
Wrong! Within an hour of the listing going up on the internet, we were flooded with inquiries. The very first one was from a young couple who happened to be nearby and who wanted to come look at the boat the next day. They came and looked at it, and made an offer to us the very next day. We felt that they were a perfect couple to take over possession of the legendary Wee Happy, and everything lined up in such a way that the sale was completed in only a few days! Wee Happy was sold in under a week!!
Detail after detail fell into place, including the other 2 big questions of “What to do with our cats and our boat while we are gone?” Cats as special as ours needed a special kind of situation, with someone who appreciated how awesome they are and who could give them the love and attention they deserved. And our boat, well, that is another long story, but to make it short we were either going to put it in storage on the hard in a boat yard, or keep it on a mooring ball. And then the perfect solution presented itself: our dear friends Syd and Heather have a daughter who LOVES cats and needed a cheap place to live. Voila! We found a great cat sitter AND boat sitter in one by offering her a place to live on our boat with our sweet kitties while we are away.
But what about the pirate ship and the great jobs we had working on the water? Well, let’s just say that all good things have their end, and those jobs were great fun and an awesome experience while they lasted, but it was time to move on! And let’s face it, a corset with a belted sword just doesn’t go well with a pregnant belly!
So it all lined up and we managed to get ourselves off our boat and onto a plane to Costa Rica, where we are currently enjoying an abundance of fresh tropical fruit and views of the ocean from a lush mountainside! More details about our experience in Costa Rica will be coming in the next blog posts.
Also, please note that we have now decided to have our primary blog be located at www.weehappy.com. “Wee Happy” is more than just a boat name (and the boat formerly known as Wee Happy is continuing her adventures under a different name). Wee Happy reflects our philosophy of living happily with less, of appreciating the little things, and NOW, it also will include the addition of the Wee One as a new member of our happy family!
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