Getting ready to return!

My intentions were to keep up this blog as a journal and document my thoughts and our activities here in Málaga and unfortunately, or fortunately, there were more activities and I wasn't able to keep up. Now we are getting ready to return and I'm full of mixed emotions. Esteban is very excited to go back and complete his junior and senior year of high school in Monterey and David is very sad since he's gotten so attached to his grandparents. Pablo is only speaking Spanish and it's wonderful but he'll be starting Kindergarten when he returns and it'll be an adjustment for him. I can only imagine how Juan must be feeling. He's really going to miss his mom and spending time with his sisters Ana and Natalia. I'm going to miss them too, terribly. They took me in as another member of their family. I was in a book club with Ana, I had girls' weekend out with Juan's sisters (a tradition I introduced but which they perfected!) Paella every Sunday with the whole family at Melina's house.... My ESL students have also been very sweet and wonderful to me. I'm also going to miss them! Most of all, I'm going to miss the time I have here to play with the kids and the slower pace of life. I'm going to a full time job where I won't have a long lunch break in the middle of the day to sit and eat with the kids and hear about their day. I won't have the freedom to go into town walking and talking to people along the way. I'll be back to driving the car everywhere because the distances are too big to walk and there's not enough time to get to where I need to be. Once again though, I feel grateful. Grateful for having had this experience - we have all grown together as a family. We are all taking back some wonderful memories.