Plan B
If at first you don’t succeed … change your strategy and alter the direction. It seems to be the story of my life. Every time I have felt like I am heading down the highway of life with a clear plan all mapped out I somehow end up making a detour and taking the path less traveled. Yes, I know there are a lot of metaphors and even a poem in there, but it is true to the travels of my life. And each and every time it has happened it makes me realize I am not conventional, and the pedestrian life is not the one for me. So, I am embracing this alteration to the plan and trusting it will 1. Get us to the same place and 2. Allow us even more of an adventure along the way.
Our original plan, as those of you who have been following along know, was to come home put our house on the market, it would sell quickly and we would stretch out our last summer in Charleston, then move to Puerto Aventuras in Mexico, where we would buy a home and live happily ever after.
Not to bore you with the details, but that has not been the way it has played out. 6 months later, and 2 realtors into this we still have no offer. What we do have is a staged house that feels nothing like home and a burning desire, after 9 months of feeling displaced, to get moved and start settling into our new community. We have decided, as Plan B, to move now to Puerto Aventuras and rent a condo for 6 months, while everything back here plays out and we get the house hopefully sold.
There are plenty of benefits to this plan, we have 6 months to get a better feel for the community and take our time to look for our next home. It gives us more distance from our home of 18 years, making the sale a little less painful. The negatives are obvious, we are spending money we hoped not to have to spend. We will have to tighten our belts a little, especially after spending more money than we had hoped to on getting the house up to par. The other side of that issue is the reason this makes sense. We can live cheaper in Mexico than we can here. We will be within walking distance of everything including the beach, friends, shops and restaurants. Basically, life will just be easier day to day. We will have no car so we are also going to simplify our life.
Up to this point we have been attacking our household full of stuff like peeling an onion. Layer by layer we have sold, given away and gifted things we know we can’t take with us. A process I recommend everyone do. The plan was to get our belongings to an amount that would go in our friend, Redbeard’s van and be transported to our new home. That has changed slightly. Redbeard’s delivery will wait until we close on the house. In the meantime, my new mission is to figure out what I really want with me for 6 months in our temporary condo. I have a better idea after we spent 3 months on the road last winter. That said, packing is going to be interesting. As my friend Jordan predicted, my big mixing bowl is on the must-have list, but no I am not lugging it as one of my carry ons, so we need to buy a large suitcase.
This weekend will be spent reexamining our stuff and trying to sort out what will go with us on the plane and what will wait until after the closing. There is a first for everything, and this will be the first time my checked luggage will have items such as salad spinners, mixing bowls and photos of our grandchildren.
As we take the steps for Plan B, we still hold on to the hope that the house will sell soon and the move will be completed as painlessly and quickly as possible. I can’t tell you how many people we need to thank for stepping up to the plate to help us make this move a dream come true. Many of the people probably don’t even realize what a great help they have been. Support comes in all shapes and forms. We have had people open up their homes to stash and store our things, others have made invaluable suggestions, still others have given advice on the legal steps that need to be taken to make an international move. Most importantly, there are those who have been there to quietly support and encourage as the emotional flood gates have opened from time to time. They have wiped away a tear, physically or metaphorically, and always encouraged us to keep going, things would work out!
Mike and I have lived many different places in our lives together and prior to meeting. We both feel blessed to have people who we have stayed in touch with from our first friends to people who have come into our life for a season. Now that we are making this leap to a foreign country, we realize more than ever how much we need our friends on both sides of the border! I have come to realize, it not only take a village to raise a child, but it takes incredible relationships to truly live a blessed life. We thank you all for being here through this transition and we know we will share many more memories with our friends and family in paradise! We will get there one way or another, so plan to come visit.