Terciera – Rocking Bryces

Island life is slow, but the days are flying by.

Terciera, Azores, Portugal…. WHAT? WHERE? Lajes Air Base… HUH?

When I found out my husband was going to be here for a year, I had no idea it even existed. It’s a little dot on the map in middle of the ocean.. actually, on a regular map it probably doesn’t even show up. You need to google map it to actually see the dots. If I didn’t even know about this place, what does the rest of the world have to offer? What else am I missing in life? ALOT. This place was unknown to me a year ago and now its my life! We live here? Unreal… Our daily life has changed, duh! It’s something I never imagined living on. But it is a year I will forever remember.

We live on 1 of the 9 Azorean Islands. 2 hours from Europe and 5 hours from the US. The particular island we are on is named Terciera. Our little village on the island is called Fontinhas. Population 1,500! Total population of the island is 56,000. A lot of little villages and two main towns- Praia and Angra. 1/4 of the island is mountains and 3/4 of the island is farm land.

Fontinhas is small, quiet and PERFECT. It’s 101% rural. We see the ocean in front of our house and we see the mountain behind our house. Flowers and Green are everywhere year round. This is the view out our kitchen window when I wash dishes and make coffee. Gardens, Cows to be milked, bright houses, and the sky. B.E.A.U. tiful.

Theres only 1 main road through the town with little side streets that are dead ends. There are no stop lights, no gas stations, and only about 4 little markets perfect distance apart from each other. No restaurants just coffee shops inside of the small markets. Just houses, 1 church, land and animals.

It’s difficult being stuck at home all day with such small markets. Little to do. It’s a lifestyle change for sure, but we are embracing it. Harper mentioned in the car… “MOM, Where is PJ Maxx at?! I miss it!”

(PJ Maxx= My favorite store in the whole world, TJ Maxx)

Harper and I try to walk the road every day to get out of the house and I decided to finally take our camera. We say hi to our favorite animals- especially this ADORABLE little pup- on the busy road. When I say busy, it’s not big city busy but tractors and speeding cars. There isn’t a speed limit in town… I feel the wind from car mirrors just about hitting us when we walk. The biggest downfall of Fontinhas is no sidewalks. But thats what makes Portugal unique. Dodge the cars lol YIKES… I make sure Harps is always touching the wall.

We make sure to hug the wall to also not get run over by tractors. Talking about speed limit again, the tractors ARE NOT going slow. The farmers work all day long, and the work hard. When we watch the farmer work behind our house, it is fascinating to see how much he can get done in an hour or two… They feed, water, move cows, goats, chickens, sheep, check fences, check gardens, spray weeds, do it all. The farmers tend to not speak english because they don’t interact.. We just wave and smile! Im waiting for the farmer to look at the kids and point at his tractor and give them a ride- they would DIE! By the time we leave, it’s going to happen!

Our walk is about 2 miles long. A mile to the school house and a mile back to our house. We oddly love to find snails on the walls of houses. We bring them back to the house…only if they don’t come out of their shells and touch us- then we end up throwing them because they are gross. Harper loses her mind screaming when they come out of their shell and touch her. I know she wont forget these dumb snails!!!!

Fontinhas has a church that is GORGEOUS. We walk past it and Harper loves to go in and say prayers for everyone in the family. “Please keep_____ safe”. We aren’t church goers, but we believe and love reading kids bible stories. Being in here is serene, weirdly still and quiet. The Sunday sermons are in Portuguese language. OBVI! SO we probably wont go for service. The pictures don’t do the Fontinhas church justice.

Last but not least about our life in Fontinhas, we have met the COOLEST people already. Most of them are Portuguese adults who love my kids, with the exception of two younger girls who work at the market across the street. We are meeting people who go in and out of the market and on our walks. They may not speak English, but for example, one of the old men we love always motions his hand down by his knees, showing us a height. It’s his way he asks where Nash is. When he sees Nash, he gives high fives and rubs his head. Nash will say Ciao, but no other words. Love is shown no matter barrier. We love our little Market owner who teaches us Portuguese (our landlords sister). We have met our landlords brothers who happen to be farmers too. They come in and out of the market when we are there. Theres old women who walk up and down out road carrying veggies who we always wave at, as well. I need to take pictures of them all so we forever have their pictures… I only have one picture of one of our new friends…

well… Its not exactly a close up because half the time I’m scared of her. I thought she was dead the other day!!! It’s an old frail nun who does not move from a window in her house. She watches out the window all day long and doesn’t move her head side to side. She has tunnel vision. I found out that she falls asleep actually on the window. I really thought she was dead and leaning up! No joke- So we have started to make sure she always waves back. We will wait until she sees us. Here is harper waving across the street to her. She has started to smile to us… Making progress. Maybe by Christmas we will be able to actually see her up close and we can give her a present. Im again, oddly, attached to certain little things like this in our daily life.

Especially this perfect little cow behind my house. The kids and I check on her every morning! WE AREN’T IN KANSAS ANYMORE, TOTO! This is definitely not Virginian living anymore when we are hanging onto entertainment like this!

We get to pick fresh fruit from our landlords backyard. Apples, Limes, and Figs. We have learned we all hate figs, we like lime water, and we continue to love apples!

Ciao,

Just Go

Just Go… Even if you are not allowed to. Just Go… Even if you have never been there before. Just Go… Even if you are already settled in life. Just Go… even though there is a long list of things to get done before you leave. Just Go… when your mom and mother in law say so. (They always know best)

“Just Go” has been my go-to saying for the past two months.

My husband, Del, is in the United States Air Force. He has been in since December of 2014. We were married in June of 2014. We had our first baby June of 2015 and our second baby August of 2017. Being in the Air Force, we have been apart a lot. We have only celebrated 1 out of 5 wedding anniversaries together. He has missed birthdays, holidays, recitals, concerts, moments I needed to celebrate for my career. Simply put, we have been apart a lot. This comes with the commitment to military.

In November of 2018, Del was told that he would be leaving on a short tour. The words short tour is totally opposite of what it means. It is not short, and it is not a wonderful “tour” of somewhere you have never been. It is a yearlong assignment of working full time in a foreign land.

In this case, the foreign land Lajes Air Base. In the Azores. In Portugal.

Praia de Vitoria, Terceira, Azores, Portugal. Where he was going.

Where the hell is Lajes. What are the Azores? And how do you even pronounce “Lajes”?

(It took me a week to get the word out fluently)

When he received this assignment, I kept it to myself for about a month. Being in the Air Force, you learn that nothing is real until it happens. Not to get your hopes up or hopes down. He was excited (of course- men don’t understand a woman’s emotions). Everyone told him this place was a once in a lifetime place to live. I was dying inside though.

It finally became “orders”. Official orders. We were really going to go through with this job assignment. His follow on, where we will meet up after the short tour, was also attached to the orders. We would be meeting up in Kaiserslautern, Germany after the year being apart.

The official orders broke me down to tears. HUGE CHANGE is coming.

I haven’t mentioned that I am a teacher. No matter what, I show up to work with a smile and excited to turn on lightbulbs with 5-6 year old kindergarteners. I was energetic, happy, reading books with so much character, making the kids laugh and giving them as much love as I could… But deep down I was depressed. I would put my face in front of my air vents in my car to dry my wet eyes before walking into work about 3 out of 5 days a week.

How am I supposed to live a year without my best friend, my lover, my protector. How was I supposed to work full time, get the kids to two separate daycares every morning, pick them up after a long days work, get them fed, bathed, asleep WHILE taking care of my self. How was I supposed to stay home and keep to my introverted self when I have fall of my in-laws 5 minutes away and I desperately needed loving interaction. I was depressed thinking about it and it hadn’t even started yet. I didn’t want the day of him leaving to come so I ignored everything about the Short Tour. I refused to google Lajes. I refused to google the island. I refused to bring it up on my own to anyone asking how I was.

But the week of him coming eventually came.

I was depressed and panicked about “when am I going to see him again”. People would ask me that question, which is not easy to answer being a Military Wife. The answer was I DON’T KNOW WHEN. Which people would look at me like… How do you not know…

So being panicked, I booked a flight to see him a few days before he left. It was my first moment of Just Go. I booked it for the end of July. A month before I had to go back to work. I would be there for a week while my amazing In-Laws would be watching out 2 kids. I am more than lucky to have them 5 minutes from me. No one had to travel to me to help me out. I literally dropped the kids off at their house the night before my flight. Which made my decision of “Just Go” more simple.

But there is more to this blog post than “Just Going” for a week.

Like I said, I was depressed. I love Del more than myself. I love him unconditionally. I love him in my dreams and when I am awake. I cannot say it enough. I love him. I was depressed that I would be going 52 weeks without him.

He left for Lajes when I was in my last week of teaching for the school year.

Norfolk, Virginia. Tough to smile when he is leaving for a year.

That week went very smooth being alone. My mom came the day school was out for the summer. Long story short with my mom- She was battling a blood infection when she came to visit me and the kids. We didn’t want to go out a lot because she needed to stay healthy and let the antibiotics work their magic. So I stayed home all day with her. The kids loved having Gaga there, I loved having my momma there, but it wasn’t my husband. She saw that I was depressed.

There was one particular night that I was trying to cry myself to sleep but I couldn’t gather myself. I went to our spare bedroom where my mother was. She saw how BIG OF A MESS I was, and it was only week two. I laid it all on her. I laid all of my pros being alone and all of my cons being alone. She sat and listened. She’s honestly one of the only people I know who sits backs and listens. Awkward silence doesn’t exist with her. She lets me talk. She knows when I am done and them speaks up. This night, when she spoke up she said….

Just go.

Move to Lajes. Who cares if it is unaccompanied orders. If you can move there, Just go. Pay for it. Leave your job to be with him. Just go and be happy. Just go and be with your family of 4.

That was the beginning of this story.

I CHOSE TO GO. I CHOSE TO UPROOT MY LIFE AND MOVE TO PORTUGAL. WHY NOT?!!

Last hugs in the home I brought them to as itty bitty newborns.

I put the house up for sale with a realtor on a Friday morning. By Friday night, my house was under contract. HOLY MOLY- What a sign from God. We agreed to close in a month. Houses usually close around 60-90 days. Mine was 30 days. Perfect. What did I need to deal with next?

When I found out the house was under contract that Friday night, I had a garage sale that Saturday and Sunday. JUST GO for it. I didn’t hold back. I thought about shipping everything to Germany when the time came. I thought about possibly having damaged goods, broken goods, stolen/lost goods, and I realized I didn’t want to have to deal with filing claims and not getting the money we deserved back. So, I sold everything up front. I made enough money to buy 3 international one-way flights to the Azores. I made enough money to even pay off a little bit of debt.

All we packed for the year. Hint: ALWAYS get a luggage cart. Don’t “Tough It” through an airport. ALWAYS make things easier.

I got rid of everything. Everything but our items that we are emotionally attached to. Our storage unit only has 2 mattresses, 2 bed frames, and some memorabilia that I won’t ever hand off. I legitimately sold everything and then took a couple car full of items to the storage unit.

I went into my school district office and turned in my badge and computer and then went into my school and said an emotional goodbye to my amazing principal and my amazing teacher’s aide who became my best friend over the years.

As far as selling the house, it was not easy and was not completely smooth. I had to sign everything with a Power of Attorney since Del was not present. Furthermore, the buyers wanted to fix dumb little things. I don’t have time for little things. I don’t have time for contractors to work on the house we aren’t going to be living in anymore. So, I used the excuse “Alone with two kids” and “Time crunched to move to Portugal” and the buyers agreed to by as is. I even sold the house without front door keys. Who knew where they went? Not me. We never locked our door. All I turned over was the one garage door opener!

I got last appointments scheduled and taken care of for myself and the kids. Shots were all up to date. Medications were picked up for the year. And any important medical paperwork was in my hand.

I went to the local library and got passports for myself and the two kids. I expedited the process, paid extra to receive them faster, and prayed they would get here in time for our flights.

The worst part of this story. Our dogs. Our two black labs that we have had for 8 and 6 years. Our two dogs that we bought with they were 8 weeks old. Our two dogs that my kids love so much. My kids lay on them, pull their ears and tails, kiss them, play with them. What was I going to do with my dogs?

This is a part of this story I have failed to mention to anyone because I still cry over what I have gone through. I feel like less than a person but hey, now that I know it worked out I’m opening up about it. I asked everyone in my family to take them. No one would. Everyone already has dogs. My two dogs would be too much for anyone to take on at a spur of the moment.

We could take the dogs to Germany after the year short tour but finding a house to rent in Germany was near impossible with two big dogs. Also, we are travelers. We are planning to travel every weekend while we are overseas. Who is going to dog sit? Would the dogs be okay on a 10-hour flight? What about being in confinement in Germany- the German vet withholds them to make sure they aren’t bringing any diseases into their country. What about the cost of having the dogs fly? Is this a little too much for a dog to be put through? I made this decision with Del over the phone. They simply had to be adopted by someone who will love them in the US. I was going to have to do this alone.

So, I bawled my eyes out filling out Lab Rescue forms to surrender them to new owners. I COULD NOT drop them off at the pound. I had to have them in good hands. I had to choose who took them. I had to give the people their dog food bowls, their balls and beanie babies, their kennels, their leases and collars. I had to find someone fast to help me out.

The Lab Rescue of Greater Richmond contacted me through the forms I filled out and set up an in-home visit. A lady came to see our puppies at home and how they were behaved. She said she never has seen Labs be more impeccably behaved. They sat, they kissed, they high-fived and shook, they layed down, they showed the lady that they go outside to go potty. Made me cry because the pups didn’t know why the lady was there. I felt so guilty. When she left, I laid on the floor hugging them.

They were put up on the lab adoption pages on social media and emails. There were over 100 likes on social media of strangers loving my dogs, and over 40 comments of mostly women begging their significant other to let them get the dogs. No one came through, however.

We were down to my last week of being home. I had an empty house, I had my passports, I was about to close the house at the lawyer’s office to hand over our 1 garage door opener, our suitcases were packed, yet I still had the dogs. What was I going to do?!

God came through for me. A girl named Haley was so very kind enough to Foster my dogs when I left. When I met her, I had such a good vibe with her that I 100% trusted her. She took the dogs to her home a few days before our flights. A few days after our flights, the dogs were adopted into a forever home.

I keep telling myself, people who adopt old dogs have the biggest hearts. People who want someone else’s dogs rather than puppies truly are special people in this world. Our dogs went to a Navy couple who were expecting their first baby and wanted trustworthy dogs. My dogs couldn’t have been a more perfect puzzle piece. I PRAY that the new baby loves on them like my babies did.

I feel less of a human being after that situation. I never in a million years thought I would be able to do this to my dogs. I am in contact with the new family and they send me pictures. I cry. I dry my tears. I will always think of them as MY dogs and get choked up. They are my fur-babies, but my husband and my own kids mean more. The dogs will be okay. As long as I keep getting pictures of them laying in these people’s beds and on their couches! They definitely are well taken care of.

So I sold the house, paid off twenty thousand dollars in debt, resigned from teaching, surrendered the dogs, booked international flights, and now here we are…

First day back with Del. Standing on our new house’s beautiful patio.

A family of 4 in Azores, Portugal. I have never been so happy in my heart with this huge decision.

I texted my mom and mother in law a few days after I got here:

“I truly am proud of myself for doing this all by myself. I have been though a lot the past month, and I feel like I deserve this piece of paradise. I have felt myself transform as a woman. Other than my wedding day, my two children’s births, this has been one of the happiest moments of my life. I am so in love with Del and I am so happy to be back with him, with the kids, in a once of a lifetime location.”

We will be here until June 2020, and in Germany July 2020.

Keep an eye on our travels! Now that we are in Europe, our goal is to save save save and travel travel travel. I will teach you my ins and outs of making it to new countries within budget- EH- A little bit over budget!

Ciao,