Costa Rica...How It Began

Dear Kate,

In a few days, you leave for camp, and just over two weeks later, our family moves to Costa Rica for a year--an adventure that actually grew out of insights you shared from another drive to Colorado this past October (see Kate's Oct. 28, 2oo8 post "Thank you for hearing me...." at http://stoneriverstudio.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html). As you were driving, a friend called on your cell phone and commented on how happy you sounded. Reflecting on the conversation, you talked about hearing your voice in a figurative concert hall...in an atmosphere where you felt "free of past impressions or future expectations."

Last fall was challenging for Heidi. In her search for who she is and what she believes in , she was finding it difficult to live in our house on the campus of a conservative Christian school. Even though she was no longer a student there, she didn't feel like she had much mental breathing space. After your comments, I found my heart longing for Heidi to find a Carnegie Hall in which to hear the voice of her soul.

You have often written about God planting desires in our heart...and then answering them. A few days later, I got the clear message that, "You won't have to move off campus to meet Heidi's needs." "OK God," I replied. "I look forward to hearing what you have in mind." I didn't have to wait long.

Within a week, the outline of a family sabbatical to Monteverde was in place. Prior to this, we'd never seriously talked about living abroad, and none of us had ever been to Costa Rica. But Mike had occasionally mentioned his desire to travel as a family with a community service focus. I looked at several international community service websites and then investigated Christian Science schools abroad as possibilities for Lincoln (I knew we'd need to balance his love of home with Heidi's spirit of adventure), but nothing clicked until I glanced at a Monteverde Conservation League newsletter in my inbox. Several of Lincoln's classmates had traveled to Costa Rica; so the idea wasn't completely foreign to him. A web search quickly led me to two bilingual schools in Monteverde, and I learned that in this community founded by pacifist Quakers in thd 50s, you can get by with minimal Spanish--a good thing since Mike and I are just beginning to learn the language. And Costa Rica has no quarantine on pets. (Yes, the dog and cats are going with us.)

For now, I'll keep the story short and skip most of the details between last October and today. The school where we work has generously granted Michael and me leaves of absence for next year. The kids have been accepted at the Cloud Forest School (http.www.cloudforestschool.org) where we will be one of ten international families at the mostly native Tico school. We've arranged to rent out our house in St. Louis and are busy packing.

While the trip may have started out as an answer to our prayers for Heidi, we now see how in different ways it promises a needed practice room and concert hall for each family member--a place to learn more about who we are as individuals, a family, and as part of a global community. It is an anwered prayer for all of us.

I'll be thinking of you while you are at camp and will miss being a bunkhouse mom there this summer. As you look out at your snow capped peaks, I will gaze out over Costa Rica's tree-canopied mountain tops to the Pacific Ocean and hear the spirit of your voice in the wind.

Happy trails!

With gratitude and love,
Maria