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| We got our residency visas! Notice President Rafael Correa in the background :) |
Monday, December 23, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
The journey begins...
Welcome family, friends, and friends of friends, to the Arrowsmith/Esquivel Family blog, created to chronicle our relocation to Cuenca, Ecuador. I feel I must state the following obvious disclaimer, in case this should fall into the hands of someone who does not know me and may feel cheated out of a top-notch blog experience: I am not a writer/blogger, nor do I aspire to be a writer/blogger. This simply seemed like a good way to share a few pictures and interesting stories with our family and friends.
Let's start with a little background. Craig and I met in the spring of 2005 in Portland, OR, and hit it off right away. One of our common interests is our love of travel and we vowed early in our relationship to one day live in another country for an extended period of time to really experience another culture as members of that community, not just tourists. We "practiced" with trips to Thailand, China, Kenya and Nicaragua during our early years together. Though it would have been easier to take on this challenge without children, we decided to start our family soon after marrying in 2007 and were blessed with 2 beautiful daughters. Craig remained steadfast in his desire to move abroad, while I began to get cold feet. Raising newborns and toddlers while working a moderately-stressful job as a physician assistant in surgery felt like more than I could handle most days. Forget about trying to do that in a foreign country, away from the support of family and friends! And, although my job was stressful, I really loved it and wasn't ready to risk losing it forever by quitting. But something changed for me over the last year that made the move seem very desirable. Perhaps it was the slowly widening emotional gap I began to feel between me and my children as I worked more. Or maybe that I was beginning to feel burned out at work. Or maybe because I turned 40 this year! Whatever the reason, since we made the decision official and put the wheels in motion, I have had almost no doubts about our decision. Craig calls it "our family sabbatical" and I love that!
The most common question we get these days is… why Ecuador? Craig is a very passionate person and he channeled this energy into researching the perfect place for our adventure. The wish list for our new home included a Spanish-speaking country (I speak pretty well and it is the language that Craig and the kids are most likely to pick up easily) that is relatively inexpensive to live, safe, with a stable political structure and cultural diversity. Cuenca meets all of these criteria with the added benefit of a temperate climate and a family-friendly attitude.
We have accomplished several milestones over the last few months on our way to becoming "ex-patriots" (I think that word deserves a separate post in the future, as I'm not sure I completely embrace its meaning, but it is a convenient term none the less): purchasing 1-way airplane tickets, last days of work, moving out of our house, saying good-bye to friends. Yesterday marked the completion of perhaps the biggest logistical hurdle: we obtained our residency visas!!
The next few weeks we will spend slowly making our way south: Texas for Christmas with my family, Florida for New Year with Craig's family, then touchdown in Ecuador on Jan 6!! Thanks for reading and hope you continue along for the ride!
-- Ileana
Let's start with a little background. Craig and I met in the spring of 2005 in Portland, OR, and hit it off right away. One of our common interests is our love of travel and we vowed early in our relationship to one day live in another country for an extended period of time to really experience another culture as members of that community, not just tourists. We "practiced" with trips to Thailand, China, Kenya and Nicaragua during our early years together. Though it would have been easier to take on this challenge without children, we decided to start our family soon after marrying in 2007 and were blessed with 2 beautiful daughters. Craig remained steadfast in his desire to move abroad, while I began to get cold feet. Raising newborns and toddlers while working a moderately-stressful job as a physician assistant in surgery felt like more than I could handle most days. Forget about trying to do that in a foreign country, away from the support of family and friends! And, although my job was stressful, I really loved it and wasn't ready to risk losing it forever by quitting. But something changed for me over the last year that made the move seem very desirable. Perhaps it was the slowly widening emotional gap I began to feel between me and my children as I worked more. Or maybe that I was beginning to feel burned out at work. Or maybe because I turned 40 this year! Whatever the reason, since we made the decision official and put the wheels in motion, I have had almost no doubts about our decision. Craig calls it "our family sabbatical" and I love that!
The most common question we get these days is… why Ecuador? Craig is a very passionate person and he channeled this energy into researching the perfect place for our adventure. The wish list for our new home included a Spanish-speaking country (I speak pretty well and it is the language that Craig and the kids are most likely to pick up easily) that is relatively inexpensive to live, safe, with a stable political structure and cultural diversity. Cuenca meets all of these criteria with the added benefit of a temperate climate and a family-friendly attitude.
We have accomplished several milestones over the last few months on our way to becoming "ex-patriots" (I think that word deserves a separate post in the future, as I'm not sure I completely embrace its meaning, but it is a convenient term none the less): purchasing 1-way airplane tickets, last days of work, moving out of our house, saying good-bye to friends. Yesterday marked the completion of perhaps the biggest logistical hurdle: we obtained our residency visas!!
The next few weeks we will spend slowly making our way south: Texas for Christmas with my family, Florida for New Year with Craig's family, then touchdown in Ecuador on Jan 6!! Thanks for reading and hope you continue along for the ride!
-- Ileana
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