And the countdown begins.....

I knew once 2015 hit that it would seem like a downhill slide...a little slow at first, then faster and faster until we leave for home this coming summer.  Yep, we have entered into the double digit countdown until we leave Peru.  At points during this sabbatical, it's seemed that we would be here forever, but we picked our 21 month time frame to give us the opportunity to be home for two summers in MN (leaving at the end of one summer and coming home the beginning of one) and we get to miss two winters that way, too.  Also, we knew the effort to leave and come back would be about the same regardless of how long we went, and I think that 18-21 months is just about right.

Not a lot of sledding going on down here in Peru.  Nor do we have snow.  Or Civil War era reenacting.  But I am looking forward to all of that when we get back.

In case you were wondering, we really did go down the hill.

January flew right by and now we are almost midway through February.  I'm trying to be smarter about how we leave Peru than how we left the states (not that we weren't smart about it, but we ran out of time and it was really stressful toward the end).  So I started posting the things we are selling and offered them to our friends here.  Most of our things are already spoken for- I will just need to find someone to buy some of our appliances.  (Unfurnished homes here mean you don't get appliances, either, so we own our fridge, stove, washer, and dryer.)  I'm hoping to sell the dryer in March and we have someone interested in the fridge, so it's just two more appliances to get out the door.  (Well...at least spoken for.)  We found someone who wants to take our bed, which is great (because you kind of need those until the last minute....) and most of our little things.  There is a guest house across the street that we have booked for the last days, which will allow us to sell off our stuff without having to use it those last few days.  And people seem to be able to turn over their households here in a matter of weeks...there is always someone wanting to buy expat items.

It's all got to go.  Dave is determined to come home with less stuff than we initially brought.

Anyone want to buy a stove?

I registered Miss M for school in the states and we are looking at signing Miss A up for preschool for the fall.  I started picking summer camps and classes for the girls and we have our summer child care lined up.  We started to review and interview au pair candidates for August (we hope to get another native Spanish speaker and keep the girls going on their Spanish).

Quintessential summer....does it get better than sand, sun and ice cream?

Soaking up the sun and trying to enjoy our last months and unique experiences.

So it goes...one foot in each world....getting more and more prepared for reentry but trying hard to enjoy and truly experience our last months here in Peru.  I don't expect that we will be doing something like this again, at least not in the foreseeable future.  I am looking forward to continuing to take international vacations- but that won't be the same as living somewhere else.  I feel like I have finally adapted to living abroad (for the most part).  I understand where to go to buy things and get stuff done, my tourist Spanish is pretty good, and I don't miss home with the same ache as before.  But it sure will be nice to get back to our home, our culture, and our people!  I'm looking forward to it.  But I know I will miss the people we've met here, too.