Loving it Here in HZT. . .

Yesterday I had to drive to another town about 45 minutes from Horizontina. Emma was in school and Kevin was at work, so I was alone in the car. As I was driving between Tres de Maio and Santa Rosa, I noticed beautiful autumn colors in the leaves on the trees. Dark reds, deep oranges, and bright yellows covered a handful of trees. Of all days to leave my camera at home! The changing of seasons is so subtle here one can almost miss it! The grass is green year round, although it doesn't need to be cut nearly as often during the winter. The palm trees stay green and most of the fruit trees don't seem to change either. There are really only a handful of trees whose changing leaves remind me of fall in Iowa. Needless to say, I was so appreciative of the quick glimpse of the colors.
I have many more pictures from our time in the States, but right now I have a few thoughts that are fresh in my mind. I am so thankful to be living here right now, in this moment, at this point in our lives. As I look back over my personal journal and blog posts, I'm reminded of what a difficult transition moving to Horizontina felt like for me. I cried a lot our first six months here and asked God over and over again what we were doing here. Why here? Why now? At the end of April, while in the U.S., we celebrated our two-year mark here. It's amazing how different my heart feels now, two years down the road. I'm still shaking my head, thinking, "Really? Two years? Where has the time gone? I'm not ready for it to be over!" Fortunately, it's not over and won't be for at least another year or so. But one year in the scheme of three just seems so short! We've been talking about all the trips we want to take to see more of Brasil and South America and we're very aware that one year just isn't enough time to do everything. There are people we want to have over, relationships we want to cultivate, a language we want to continue to learn, and so much more! I've been thinking this week that I feel more planted here than ever before and the thought of uprooting doesn't feel very fun. However, because I know moving back to the U.S. is not only likely, but certain, I'm going to try to be purposeful about enjoying our remaining time here.
I'm going to enjoy having someone else carry my groceries to my car. I'm going to enjoy having someone else gas up my car (and wash my windshield. . . WHILE smiling). I'll enjoy the juice man who drops by my house occasionally to sell me fresh orange juice. I'm going to enjoy the gauchos on their horses, riding around town like teenagers dragging main. I could write a book about what I enjoy here. For example, today we went for a walk and I picked an avocado off a tree. The tree is close to the street, so I'm not really sure if it's owned by the person who owns the house, but I wanted to pick the avocado, just to say I've done so. I jumped up and grabbed it and fortunately, it came off quickly. Then we ran away. I'm pretty sure when we leave here we're not going to live anywhere that has random avocado trees along the streets.
What I'm going to enjoy most is the time I get to spend with my husband and daughter. Life here is so incredibly calm. There just aren't as many acitivities vying for our attention. Our weekends are slow and lazy, if we want them to be. We can easily fill them up with errands and things we'd like to do, but rarely do we have to do something on the weekend. When we leave here, I'd like to take a bit of this culture with us. I love enjoying my family and not having twenty-one commitments in a week. I'm realizing that I will have a choice when we move back. I don't have to say yes to everything or to anything. I'm really thankful right now for being here. While God hasn't given me the reason(s) for being here in writing, I know that He has me where He wants me (and our family) and there's a lot of peace in that.