Countdown to Mexico!!!

Right around January 1st I received an email about our friends’ parents house for rent in Mexico, and it seemed like a sign.  Yes, I think lots of things are signs.  The email was sent to A LOT of people and most of them didn’t decide on the spot to go to Mexico, but I’m easily influenced.  I immediately put the wheels in motion to rent the house for 4 weeks, and work remotely while also taking some vacation time.  The departure date seemed so far away…now it’s 10 DAYS until we will be south of the border!!!

Ben can’t work remotely or take 4 weeks off, so we will be spending the first 2 weeks with my friend Elizabeth and her twin daughters, Chloe and Hannah, who coincidentally are Aliya’s best friends.  I can’t imagine being 11 years old and spending 2 weeks in Mexico with my best friends (plus 2 more weeks after that for Aliiya).  I don’t think they know how lucky they are.  When they fly home, Ben will fly down and spend the last 2 weeks with us.

Given all of the bad news about Mexico in the media lately, a few people have asked why in the world we would go there, whether we’ll be safe, etc.  The answer is YES, we’ll be safe!  I met some people from Mexico the other day and they told me that San Miguel de Allende is “muy tranquilo”.  The areas of Mexico that are experiencing the violence and drug problems are not near SMA.  We don’t expect any problems but we’ll be cautious as always.  While trying to put mom’s mind at ease, I found this article – Top Ten Most Dangerous Things in San Miguel.  The list includes accidentally talking to a Republican, fallen seniors who have tripped on the cobblestone streets, and wine bottles clinking together in the trunk of the taxi.  No doubt we’ll come up with our own Top-10 list – we’ve already been warned about the drunk shopping…when you wake up in the morning and wonder how in the h*ll you’re going to get that giant piece of Mexican art home (thank you Priscilla!).

On Monday morning I told Norah that we had 12 more days and I felt that little flutter of panic that I get when I’m still doing laundry at 3 a.m. and leaving on a 9 a.m. flight.  So in hopes of some stress-relief we started getting organized and doing a little packing.  The kids and I already have our 4 pairs of matching socks ready to go into the duffle.  We are allowed one 50-pound bag each, and just like when we go to Morocco, a lot of what we bring will be staying there.  When I visit someplace I like to leave some sort of positive mark and teach the kids something, so on this trip we will be bringing supplies to a girls’ orphanage and doing some “social volunteering” (aka playing and visiting).

We’re bringing school supplies, soccer balls, and 270 pairs of underwear!  Here’s Norah sorting and packing the undies:

The soccer balls that we’re taking are really cool – they’re indestructible and they don’t need a pump.  We will be taking 10 balls with us, so we’ll have enough for the girls orphanage and also the boys orphanage!  If you’d like to sponsor a ball for $25, let me know!  Here’s a great story about the balls from the One World Futbal Project:

There’s more information about SMA, along with photos of “our” house on the SMA page.  I’ll try to do a good job of keeping up with my postings, for anyone who wants to travel to Mexico vicariously.  😀