Life Less Ordinary

Ever dream of selling everything & moving to Mexico? We did it … loved and lived it for six years. We’ve returned to the States and the culture shock is real folks. Below are some of our stories about what it was like to live and work in Mexico and what it’s like to be ex-expats building a small farm in the Pacific Northwest.

Muchas Gracias

My daughter was born with a defect. There's a faulty valve between her bladder and her left kidney. We knew there might be something wrong when she was in utero. When she was three days old, it was confirmed and she's been on antibiotics ever since. The antibiotics were to fend of infection until she was big enough - old enough - to have surgery to repair the valve. 

The antibiotics stopped working soon after we moved down here. She was infection free for 10 months and then boom, in Mexico she's had 4 different UTI's. Her pediatrician here encouraged us to meet with a pediatric urologist, our doctor in the states concurred. So we did and surgery is scheduled for Nov. 10. 

This is a very condensed version of a very long and involved story. 

Sydney's surgery is coming 8 months sooner than the discussions about it were even supposed to begin. In the States, this condition is treated, usually effectively, with antibiotics until kids are two. In Mexico, the rate of infection is higher (for reasons beyond my language skills allow me to understand) so kids are eligible for the surgery when they reach 9.5 kilograms (about 20 lbs.). 

Our infected little bug weighs enough but our bank account isn't deep enough to cover it. Well, it wasn't. It is now thanks to crowd sourcing. 

When we got the news that Sydney needed the surgery as soon as possible we had a real long drive home from Guadalajara. The news was followed by a price tag and the price tag was just as intimidating as the surgery. 

I'm at an uncomfortable point in this story where I could disclose too much personal information about our financial situation. We might be friends or strangers, so I'm not going to go into detail. Just know that there were hours in a car in which we discussed the options and the one we went with was crowd funding.

I went with giveforward.com. The concept is simple - tell our story, upload some pictures, send the link out and hope people contribute. In less than 5 days, we reached our goal. It was unbelievable. There was a time where I looked at my husband and we were at a complete loss of what to do, there was not an immediate solution to taking care of our kid. That's what parents do, right? Just imagine that relief, that disbelief. To put our need out there and have it taken care of, more so every hour, by friends, by friends of friends, by people we haven't seen in years, by people who don't know us, by folks who've never met our sweet baby. 

My husband isn't a big fan of asking for help. I was hopeful that we would get some help but certainly didn't anticipate such an outpouring of generosity. There are not enough thank you's to express our gratitude. There is nothing we can do but say over and over, thank you. We appreciate everyone who contributed, shared the link, sent us positive energy, included us in their prayers ... every effort is well received. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.