Good Ride, Cowgirl

 My main squeeze and reason this adventure is even possible...

Here we are enjoying a favorite speakeasy, Floreria Atlantico. 

 Enjoying our first (and definitely not last!) trip to an estancia -- Estancia Don Joaquin. 

Lounging at Plaza de las Naciones Unidas with Floralis Generica behind us, otherwise known to our kids as "our flower"... Don't mind us.We take ownership lol.

*Please forgive me for rodeo heavy references below. It was the song that inspired me to write this blog, so I went with it.*

"...And we sang Life's a Highway
There's only one way you're gonna get through it
When she starts to twist, be more like Chris
Pull your hat down tight, and just LeDoux it
When that whistle blows, and the crowd explodes
And them pickup-men are at your side
They tell you "Good ride, cowboy, good ride"
~Garth Brooks

Back in the days when Target was a part of my (almost) daily life, I was perusing the music area one day and found the Garth Brooks Collector's Set on clearance for $4.98. (Score!) Even though I had purchased the SAME set for Kyle a few months prior and he returned it because he said we don't use CDs anymore (what a snob!), I thought--$4.98?! Who cares if we only use it once. Plus, its ALL THE GARTH SONGS EVER. Garth is too cool to be on Spotify, so we will meet him where he is. He's Garth. Needless to say, I bought the CDs and they didn't get much listening time because, as Kyle said, we don't use CDs, and our laptops don't even have disc drives anymore. What is this life?

Fast forward to July, and we find ourselves living in Argentina, driving a little roller skate car that has --YOU GUESSED IT--a CD player. We have now been listening to Garth and only Garth since July 25th. Thankfully we only get in the car about once per week, so we aren't near being over it yet. (UPDATE: OUR CAR DOES HAVE A USB PORT... IT JUST TOOK US TWO MONTHS TO FIND IT.)

I will never forget the morning that I decided it was time for me to 'cowgirl up'... (You can take the girl out of Texas, but...) I was invited by a sweet friend to a weekly event for Moms at our kids' school. She actually didn't give me a choice. She said either you're coming up here or I'm coming down there to get you. I'm so grateful for that push because it was just what I needed. There was, however, one HUGE obstacle in my way. I had not driven yet, and not only that, but I was terrified to get behind the wheel in Buenos Aires. I can still remember the feeling of my clinched fists, hear the conversations I had out loud with myself (I kept telling myself 'you cannot melt into a puddle... you have to keep going...") AND God, the way I made several errors on the route and jumped every time a motorcycle zoomed past or a bus almost swallowed my car; however, the feeling when I arrived safely at the school was incredible. It was about more than just getting from point A to point B. It was the realization that each time I did something new (no matter how basic it seemed), I was expanding that comfort zone a bit more. The same friend who made me drive to the school that day told me that the only way to get out of my comfort zone was to keep doing things that scared me. Looking back now, so many things that seemed utterly terrifying in the beginning are now a part of my daily life and I think nothing of doing them.

The last seven months have felt like a ride on a bucking bull at times... holding on for dear life, falling off at times but getting back on and then eventually hearing that whistle blow. I've learned to feel OK about a two second ride. I've learned to practice what I preach to new families coming behind us and give myself grace in the learning process. I've learned to hold on tight to my little family and most of all, to Kyle. I know we are a partnership and it takes team work to make the dream work ;), but we wouldn't be here without his hard work and sacrifice. I've had moments of questioning our choice(s) to pick up our little crew and move several times already and now to a whole different continent, but as I look at each piece of the journey from this vantage point, I see how each city and the incredible people and experiences God brought our family within it have led us to this point and have given us the strength for this adventure--an adventure I can say with certainty that I am thrilled and feel so very fortunate to be on with our family of five. I'll never stop being grateful and living in awe of it.

For my own entertainment and for anyone coming behind me, here is a list of things that seemed so hard in the beginning that we've figured out or improved upon in the past 7 months:

1.) Driving
2.) Finding groceries and learning to cook with different/new ingredients
3.) Going to the doctor
4.) Ordering food at restaurants
5.) Turning on my stove (HEY - everything counts, and in the beginning this was hard lol!)
6.) Learning where to find various things like party supplies, candles, costumes, etc. (Everything in local shops is specialized, rather than having one-stop shops. This journey to finding these included driving to the suburbs to go to a costume shop and then finding one AROUND THE CORNER from my apartment two days later...)
7.) Understanding Spanish
8.) Communicating needs and wants in Spanish (still working on this but REALLY struggled in the beginning. Because I'm super logical and level-headed, I expected to be fluent within six weeks and that didn't work out like I planned!)
9.) Sleeping/camping out in our apartment...(we didn't have any furniture for three months so that was fun! ;) )
10.) Putting my kids on a school bus (have learned to love that lol!)
11.) Having a phone with prepaid minutes and having to recharge it at little stations around town or risk getting lost on the streets with no service.
12.) Paying our utility bill at kiosks across town
13.) Paying for parking at the grocery store and navigating a supermarket checkout process in a foreign language
14.) Getting around the city
15.) Giving myself and those around me lots and lots of GRACE

These all sound like normal, DAILY things right? That's what made it all so hard was having to learn how to do the basics. This is just a quick list... it goes on and on! There were so many days I cried to Kyle (or anyone who would listen!) about how I wasn't cut out for this. I felt like a failure in every way. I felt like I didn't even know how to be a mom or wife anymore because everything I was accustomed to taking care of for the family was suddenly hard or (some days) impossible! I'm thrilled to look back and see how far we've come in a short amount of time and to know that the list of accomplishments will be even longer when we leave. I'm proud of us. It hasn't been pretty, but what bull ride is? The beauty has been in clinging on for dear life and refusing to give up on each other or the circumstances. What a gift it is to be on this adventure with my four favorite people in the world.