Home Is Wherever YOU Are

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our 2^nd year anniversary. Two years of bliss and clash, and everything in between. I’m going to share with you a little background how we ended up in the place we call home.

Before we got married, we had to decide where we were going to live since we were living in two different countries. Me in the USA and him in Guatemala. With a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided to move to Guatemala. After our honeymoon in May, we packed up, said our goodbyes and bought a one-way ticket to my new home. We had nothing lined up. Only faith and love.

Maybe I’m being a little bit dramatic. My in-laws gave us the apartment they lived in with Edwin and all the furniture that was in it. They gave us everything they had, and a place to call our first home together.

Unfortunately, the apartment we lived in was out of our budget—our no job budget. Luckily, I was still working for the company I had worked for in San Antonio through the internet. That was giving us a little income, but not enough to continue living in the apartment. So we began searching for jobs and apartments.

I felt the time was going by really slow, and when one month passed, and then the second month in our marriage passed we were still searching. But we were also taking advantage of just being together finally after two whole years apart! We went to the mall to walk around, we spent our evenings going to ballets and symphonies, we explored the city and different parts of Guatemala. We were really enjoying our times as newlyweds.

By the end of our first two months I got a job as an English teacher at the university nearby. We were making progress and we moved into our second home. The new apartment was the tiniest place, but with an amazing view!!! Honestly, that’s what sold me. We rented the apartment and began our new adventure. But… we hadn’t thought it through very well. We had rented this tiny apartment that didn’t fit all of our furniture. But we are always positive and optimistic that we thought this was a fun advantage for us to purchase our own furniture as a couple. So we went furniture shopping for our new apartment.

We found beautiful pieces of furniture and began creating our own style for our new home. It was the start of something new. I felt proud of ourselves because we were starting our new life together. I knew that in the beginning of a marriage not everything is easy, so I was excited to be living somewhere beautiful and humble.

But not everything always turns out the way we plan. God had a differently plan for us.

After living in the tiny apartment for almost a week or so, I began having breathing problems. When I was a teenager I got into a car accident that resulted in a collapsed lung, among other things. Therefore, my breathing wasn’t up to par. I felt I was always trying to catch my breath, I couldn’t sleep at night, I had to take deep breaths very constantly. It was terrible! My new home was making me sick. We had to get out of there quickly. But I didn’t want to admit that we already had to leave. I had convinced my husband that this was the home I wanted to live in because we were just beginning, we needed to be humble and pay very little on rent, blah, blah, blah…

About two months later on a Monday morning, my mother-in-law, who is in real estate, called us to tell us there was a house in our neighborhood that she was showing to a client. She wanted us to check it out because she knew that I was having breathing problems in our apartment. I didn’t want to go because I knew that I was going to love it and the reality of me leaving the home “I loved so much” kind of scared me because we were on a lease.

We went and of course, I loved it! It was big, I was able to breathe, there was a beautiful view (even better than our other apartment), it had a yard and a big parking area. I was in love. In that case, my amazing husband did everything he could to end our lease and leave the apartment that was causing problems to my health ASAP. We moved at the end of September with all our furniture, old and new, and starting our new chapter (once again).

Now almost two years later, we are still living in our lovely home. We have so many memories here that I want to start documenting the following memories here in this blog. We began working at a non-profit as English teachers in January of 2017, we traveled to Texas to visit family for Christmases and weddings, we vacationed in Europe, and many more things.

In the books we aren’t newlyweds anymore, but I still consider we are in the newlywed stage because its only the beginning. (Actually I want to be in the newlywed stage the rest of our lives.)

The time flies and I cannot believe it’s already been two years. From working together to making money mistakes, I wouldn’t want to spend those times with anyone else. I want to thank my husband, Edwin, for loving me, supporting me, helping me become humbler, showing me how to live a life for Christ, making me eat healthy, going with me to all of the crazy events I find on the internet, and so so so much more!

We’ve spent two years with two thousand plus memories. It’s been a journey in this year alone, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next. Let’s keep dreaming, making goals and working towards our future we want to build together. I love you so much, mi amor. Happy anniversary!

P.S.

Yesterday was our anniversary, but it was just a normal Monday. We had to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., I had to teach a class in the evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.—therefore we hadn’t planned to celebrate our anniversary until today (Tuesday, May 1^st). Luckily, May 1^st is a national holiday here in Guatemala, so we didn’t have to work today. But, the romantically crazy husband that I have, surprised me with an elegant and gorgeous dinner set up in our very own living room. I walked into the house with my backpack, sweaty face and droopy eyes to a stunning set-up for our 2^nd anniversary. We both went straight to the room to change and get ready for our anniversary dinner.

He always knows how to surprise me. Thank you mi amor for everything. Te amo <3