Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends in the U.S.! Today looks just like any other day in Mexico, no mention at all of turkeys.  There are turkeys that just roam around my yard a lot, though.  I keep telling him he wouldn't survive in S.C. like that!  But, despite the delicious feast, we are always thankful for all of the blessings and mercies we receive every day.

 

 

It has been 'drizzling' for the past few days so I couldn't go out in the middle of the yard to find signal like I normally do.  It was a non-stop, strange, drizzle.  It floated toward us just like snow does in the headlights at night, so much so that I opened my window to check. Nope, it was warm.

Yesterday and today, it has been "cold" enough to where if you wanted to wear a long-sleeved shirt, you could, without burning up.  I am, as usual, in a short-sleeved shirt and flip flops.

 

We have now made four all-day trips to the big city to the equivalent of the DMV office.  I will never, ever, complain about the SCDMV again.  It now looks like pure efficiency.  Every time they asked us for a new paper or gave us a new stamp, we were sent down street to the copy shop to bring back so many copies and wait again.  Got sent to the bank to pay one of the fees, come back with the receipt, where they stapled it to our paper and said "bring back one copy."  Ahh! You should have told me to go pay at the bank and bring back one copy of the receipt, all in one step!! But it's okay, all done now, we can now drive legally.

 

Yesterday, something strange-to-me and normal-to-them happened.  I have never been to a Mexican funeral (or the night of the death when they stay up all night at the family's house, a really long "wake"), but I have heard stories from Papi. I realize that Mexicans treat death very differently, but I still was not prepared for this, though.  While we were waiting in the "DMV" office, everyone gets quiet and Papi pulls me back away from the desk and towards the chairs, says "shhh" to Sofi and tells me to keep standing.  Ohhhhhh kayyyy?  In comes men rolling a coffin, and with a large group of family crying and recording on their cell phones.  Now, I'm really confused.  A BODY??  All of the workers get up without saying anything and follow the family to a back room.  We could hear some talking and then clapping, talking then clapping, and then everyone came back out with the coffin after about half an hour.  Papi tugged my shirt to stand up again.  Shushing Sofi was pointless because she kept saying "What is that?! What are they doing?! Why are they crying?!" But, I don't think anyone understood anyways.  They all left and the workers returned to their desks and resumed work as normal.  Apparently, the gentleman was working there until his death.  This was one of those "only in Mexico" moments.

 

Today and every day, I wake up thankful for my life, another opportunity to love on my sweet family.  We always have food on the table, even if it's not turkey tonight.  Some things are more difficult than expected but we have run into so many "this is not a coincidence, this is a God-thing" that I don't even get bothered much when things don't go as planned.  We are working hard to finish our house and make it a home for us and our "missing piece," my Estela bug.  We love you and miss you Estela... don't eat too much of Grandma's good cooking tonight!