At least that is what we are trying to do, but for now I just want to write to you;
The dreamers, the ones who have high aspirations and are ever reaching for them, I hope to inspire you.
The homebodies, who love thier home and where they live and cannot fathom leaving, I hope to become like you.
The ones who cannot leave, where it is because of family, illness, or the like, I hope to encourage you that the road you are choosing, though it is not well traveled, it is wholefully worthy of all of your sacrifice and loyalty.
Ultimately, this is why we are moving; to pursue dreams, find home, and create a family culture of loyalty and love. All of which are totally possible where we lived, but we were having trouble achieving in suburban America.
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So if you know us, you are probably wondering, why now?
We are kind of wondering that too, but also we are mostly asking why not now?
Stephen and I have always had big dreams. I remember when we were newly engaged we were kayaking around a lake in the White Mountains of Arizona talking about everything we hoped our future would hold. Amongst those dreams we had a shared dream of opening a coffee shop and committing to our community that we became a part of through that shop.
Jump forward a year, and we are newlyweds landing in Puerto Vallarta. We immediately loved it, I mean of course we did, we were annihilating tacos at 2am under twinkly lights on a cobblestone street in downtown. Near the end of our trip we were spontaneously wandering the streets of Sayulita and both felt the utterances in our spirit of home, home, home.
That was 3 visits to Mexico as a family ago, and since then we have seen new areas, new seasons, and still have loved it in different ways, and each time felt those same utterances of home, home, home.
At the end of 2021 we felt strongly that we were going to move, and we thought "you know what, maybe we should move to Mexico." But instead, we moved to Mountlake Terrace, WA. *record scratch*
Over our time in Mountlake Terrace we had a lot of life crammed into 2 1/2 years. That included a baby born at home, a hard battle with postpartum depression, new deep friendships, gaining and losing jobs like they were bad stock investments, learning to walk through grief with care, flittering in and out of debt, and being a part of an amazing and growing church.
After about a year and a half living in the Seattle region, we both were wondering why we made this detour, but we were choosing to trust God that he had our back even if life didn't make a lot of sense to us. Looking back now, as I am writing this, I am fundamentally changed by our time in the Seattle area, the friends we made, the hardships we experienced and walking through the hardships of others. I wouldn't trade our time there for anything. My hope in God, church, community and friendship were all stretched, refined, and restored. I know we were there for a purpose, just as strongly as we know our time there is finished. Cue the crying.
May 2024, everything that was had for us in Seattle was coming to a natural close. We realized this at the end of March, after another* company Stephen worked for went out of business and we were without sufficient income... again *(yes this happened multiple times over our short time in Seattle). So here we were, forced to make the decision to stay and try and find new work, new housing, and yet somehow afford it all and put our dreams of a coffee shop on the back burner...again. But through prayer and talking we were tired of trying again and again for something that was not even our dreams and long term goals. We decided that we want a slower culture for our family, we want to serve our community craft coffee and make an impact on a large scale, and ultimately, we want more than 152 days of sunshine per year. At this point, we have been throwing around the idea of moving to Mexico for years, so we both decided... why not now?
So we made the decision at the begging of April that we were moving in a month. We told our families and friends, sold everything, packed up our car and moved to Arizona for the summer to live with family while we begin navigating the visa process, saving money, cherishing family time, and humbly accepting whatever this summer holds for us.
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Now here I am, with a heavy and expectant heart, writing this to you.
A letter full of collaged bits of our story, pieces of pain and beauty, of those utterances of home, those dreams and pauses, the unexpected blessings and hard lessons. I am not expecting this to make total sense, as no words can fully display the vastness of another's experiences and decisions. But I am hoping that you got enough of the picture to see the future we are pursuing, through relocating our family to Mexico for the next stage of our life.
We also only see in a mirror dimly, and cannot understand the whole picture, we can only scrap together the pieces that feel right and worthy of pursuit and glue them together. Yes it will be messy, and probably not straightforward, but even suburban Seattle was that for us. A place that was supposed to be straightforward and easy, was immensely complex, so why not give this Mexico dream a shot?
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I want to regularly update this blog with what is going on through my mind and our family as we are making this move. For those of you who are disciples of Jesus; we hope that you will pray alongside us, for those of you who are not; we hope that you are inspired by the steps we are making and that you'll laugh alongside us as we fumble through, and for our friends who are reading, we miss you so freaking much.
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What Now?
The Vital Fam will be living in Northern AZ until early fall
Abbie just got a part time job at a smoothie shop for the summer for supplemental income while she pursues doing freelance design and writing work, and doula certification training.
Stephen has ample construction projects to work on for his family
Esther and Oliver are loving all of the family time so far
Stephen will be roasting and selling coffee over the summer to save some money for our move!
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers regarding:
Our upcoming visa appointment, that we have all of the documents correctly gathered, and for favor and wisdom during the whole process.
The homesickness is already setting in and we have only been gone for a couple of weeks.
Wisdom with our short few months here in AZ, to spend our time well.
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