Christmas 2017

 Our Christmas this year was amazing.  Grandma and Grandpa Dexter and Uncle Allen came to vistit and celebrate Christmas with us.  We had a formal dinner on Christmas Eve, and we relaxed on Christmas day.  It was a great holiday.  We all feel spoiled.  Uncle Allen wins for giving Thomas the life sized panda.  I'm excited to see how the movers pack that up. 

Hello Greensboro.

We made it. As we speak I am sitting in our hotel room and it is raining. We can't go anywhere because poor Jack is sick. Throwing up several times yesterday, he is currently hiding away in a very comfortable bed watching movies. 

The good and bad so far:

 

BAD:

1. Jack is totally sick, and hopefully NOT contagious. 

2.  The first house we went to was less than epic, and made me a bit discouraged. 

3. Ben is going out of town next week. 

GOOD:

1. Greensboro is beautiful and green, and the weather has been nice and cool. 

2. The second house we looked at was more encouraging. 

3. The people here are super nice. Yesterday when Jack threw up, a lady gave us all sorts of supplies to help us out. And there were others that offered help. 

4. We got a car! Driving is pretty sweet. 

Greensboro. I think I like you. 

We just need to find a place to live. 

The time is coming.

The airplane isn't very far away.  As I type, we have less than a week left. I am unable to clearly identify my feelings, but here are some of them.

I am sad to leave friends here.  I have met some extraordinary people here, who I will be lifelong friends with. Then there are other people who have meant a lot to me, but realistically, I probably won't see again. 

I am nervous about home leave.  We have 30 days of vacation, which is great, but I keep having these really bad dreams about fighting with family and not having a place to stay. 

I am excited to move to North Carolina.  I have only been thinking of the good things, and haven't even considered that there are any negative possibilities.  I am pretty confident that it is going to be great, except for the dream that we had to move into a converted garage that did not have a working toilet, only a squatter out back.

I am relieved that we are leaving Colombo- as Dengue has hit here really hard.  It has always been a problem, but in the last few weeks, several friends have been affected, and one family had 3 of 5 members of their family in the hospital.  Let's just say, in every single one of our prayers, we pray that we won't get it.  And we start each day with a good dose of deet.

I can't wait to have a car.  Two years of tuk-tuks and taxis have had a lot of benefits, but there are also frustrations. It will be fantastic to have a car, and not have the unorganized chaos that is traffic here.

I am leaving here a different person.  I think mostly for the better.  I was able to do most of what I wanted to do.  I got out of it what I put in, and for that I am completely satisfied.  

Sri Lanka will now be a part of me, and a part of my story.  And for that I am grateful.

Here are a few pictures of our time here.  In no particular order.

Farewell Tour.

Absolutely lazy.

That's what I am. I had to upload pictures from multiple sources, and so these are in no particular order. 

Here is the story.

We were supposed to go to Bangkok last weekend, but there was a little bit of political unrest, so we changed our plans and stayed here in Sri Lanka.  I think all of us are really glad that we did.  It was a lot of fun.  We saw all sorts of awesome sights, and everyone had a great time.  It was great seeing what a beautiful and diverse country Sri Lanka is. This was the first trip that we have ever had that the boys did a great job, and we didn't have any major meltdowns.  It was pretty awesome.

We went to Yala National Park in a jeep, and this was our view during our "Safari".

This was the site of a villa, but it was destroyed by the Tsunami in 2004.

This is a memorial for the Tsunami, each of the metal sheets represents one of the waves that hit Sri Lanka.  It is incredible to see how high the water was.

This was at the train station- I am not sure why they had a separate wash room, but I do know that this was the only non-squatter toilet available. 

On the train.  We stood in the door for a long time, because it was fun to see everything pass by.

When we woke up, there were wild boar outside our room.  

Our first family hike.