Fast Forwarding

 Time is moving fast and I am going to the US on Sunday.

So much has happened and I am in awe once again of the power of letting go.

My son and his love made it here a few days later.

I finally met the judge and got the banner off the house.

AND a friend mentioned a building crew a friend of ours had been working with and that he was super happy with them.

I contacted them and during our first meeting I was assured that all of this could be fixed. A team from a different state, totally different energy and they went straight to work.

We are crafting a plan in these stages:

- make sure the house is not further damaged: FIX THE ROOF immediately.
- make sure the house "works" (plumbing, electric, gas etc...)
- make sure the house is pretty (so many things to fix, I have to stay focused so I don't slide backwards)

The first week, the roof got healed and while it cost a lot of money (that I had already paid to the first crew), it is shocking to see the difference. Incredible, actually. The original roof was full of dips and valleys, and was ... get ready for this... draining in the direction opposite the gutters.

This one looks like an ice skating rink.

 These discoveries have showed up over and over again and I am doing my best to not go backwards in my head, but rather to go forward. SO MANY things to fix - and they are all getting fixed, one by one.

The first day that it rained hard and the house was totally dry, I felt something re-open in me. Hope, I think.

The welder came and installed the beautiful iron doors and windows. And ... did not do a great job of installing them. I am not going to make a list of the ways that I cringed but I will say that there is some spray paint on my brand new bedroom floor. I told him we would finish without him.

Ibis, who has been making my wooden frames for my Hearts for the last year made me a rustic pine door with a beautifully rounded top.

I am paying attention to what happened, to the times when I knew something was not quite right but also something in me - a dysfunctional brand of loyalty, I think - couldn't take action. I am learning, I am hurting as I am learning.

But also, I feel darn lucky. This lesson has been expensive and hard but I think it is leaving me transformed in a way that is crucial.

My kids were kind enough to plant the garden for me and my goodness, that is so delicious. Just in time for the sky to water each and every plant for many weeks. Banana trees, passion fruit, wild ginger, gardenias, palms and more. It is beautiful.

 And now, because Life likes to not always happen according to plans, I am getting ready to leave this house before I even spend one night in it. That's weird. It's weird that I won't be here to guide the passion fruit plant up on its arbor. It's weird that ... well, all of it.

But it's wonderful also.

I am leaving it in good hands and some more work will get done while I am gone. I know I will get photos, too.

And then when I return, we will put the solar panels up. And then, maybe then, Casa Sama and I will spend some quality time together.

We will have earned it.