The Adventure begins...

Well here we are in Statia and ... wow. I think we are loving it. It's our first week, and school hasn't started for Josh yet, but it is B-E-A-utiful here. Packing up our house was... nasty. Ha. I used to say that i loved moving. That is now not true. It's stressful. ANYWAYS... we had a huge sob-fest at the airport with both our families. It was super sad and super hard to say goodbye, for now. :(

Our flight's were good and uneventful. Everyone was super nice- it totally helps to have two super adorable babies ;) The flight from St. Maarten to St. Eustatius was a white knuckle flight for me.
Noisy, little 20 seater flying over the ocean- YIKES! But, alas we landed and we survived. Ha.

We were welcomed at the airport by Lyndsey (our new neighbor...who is awesome BTW) The Wolseys (Joel, Kayleigh, and little Remy-who are also awesome) and Steve Becket and his two kids, Stewart and Amelia- who are super nice) We had EIGHT suitcases, 2 boxes (cribs) 2 back-packs, 2 carry-ons, and a diaper bag...and a little cooler. That's all. ha. So the wonderful people loaded us and our luggage..oh and our double stroller into their cars and we headed to our new home.

We were grateful to everyone who helped haul all our stuff over and for the cheerful chatter and welcoming that we received. After the last person left, Josh and i looked at each other and were like... um what the heck are we doing here? I think we both felt a little discouraged and confused and down. But after such a long day of travel and the emotional and physical exhaustion, i think those feelings were rather normal. So ... we went to bed wondering what the heck we were doing here.

Fay and I were the first ones up the following morning. My eyes opened, the sun was out, and excitement filled my fibres. (haha.. fibres) Anyways, it's true. I woke up so excited and so happy. Fay and I went outside and had the first glimpse at our new view. And man, oh man, was it ever breathtaking. I couldn't wait for Josh and Eden to wake-up so they could see it too! And so that i could ask Josh how he we was feeling about things. ...And by the way, he was excited and happy too. ... SO we had breakfast (some sisters from our church group had box of food waiting for us so we wouldn't starve... SO SWEET) .. we had toast with this delicious, homemade guava marmalade. You should be very jealous because it was sensational. Then we got ready for the day and our fabulous neighbour took us to the local grocery store, Duggins. I'll have you know that it's not as deprived as i thought it would be. We won't starve here, and it's not just fish. They have all the necessities and then some. Upstairs of the grocery store is the 'department' store.. which is kind of like a glorified dollar store/a not so glorified fields store. But alas, they have some essential things in there. So we loaded up on groceries, and i'll have you know that i did not cry when we got the receipt like i thought i would. Success! haha. The prices are a little higher on some things than back home, but not too shabby, no, not too shabby.
We also went to the beach that first day. :) Yes, you can be jealous of that too. ha. I guess y'all will just have to come and visit. The girls liked the water at first but then not so much, it'll take some getting used to. I'm happy to report that the only thing i've been burned by so far, is NOT the sun! ha, just my glue gun. Yes, i did bring my glue gun.

The next day, Saturday, April 28th = Fay and Eden's first birthday! We had a birthday party for them at our house :) it was a success, i'd say. We had the Tolmans, Wolseys, and Bridges over. I made cupcakes in our little oven, Mille. And constructed a cupcake tower using paper plates, mason jars and tape. It held out pretty good for the most part. It later collapsed. We had fun visiting with everyone and watching the girls eat their cupcakes in their party hats that i 'reupholstered' for them. It's so hard to believe that Fay and Eden are ONE! Growing so fast. They make us sooo happy :)

Sunday. We met with our church 'Group'. It's too small to be a ward or a branch, however our family and the Bridge family just about doubled the numbers there. We meet in a rented room from the school, which is nice because there is air conditioning. Steve Becket is our group leader and Dustin Tolman (our neighbor) is his councillor. I've been asked to talk in church on May 27th ... so feel free to come to that. HA! Ahhh! Later that afternoon we went with the Tolman family to Crook's Castle in search of seashells, little crabbies, and blue beads. It's been quite interesting to learn about the blue beads. Blue beads are what the slaves used to get paid with, so they are 300 years old and pretty rare to find. It's everyone's goal here to find a Blue Bead (aka Statia Bead) while they are here on the island.

Monday... Monday morning we went to the beach. We walked to the beach- which isn't too bad. It's all down hill (you can begin trying to imagine our walk back home...) There's a path here called 'The Slave Trail. It is SUPER steep and cobblestoney, one needs to press the brake on the stroller the entire way down.  Josh snorkelled for a while and i sat on the beach with two sad little girls. They didn't like the beach and didn't like being covered in sand. Time to climb home. BAH! I am SOOOO glad that I had Josh with me on this walk. Holy Nelly! I really can't imagine pushing our girls in the stroller all the way up that trail! I don't understand how my neighbor, Lyndsey used to do that! When we were talking about moving here to Statia, i had it in my head that i would be walking with the girls everywhere and that we would have no need to buy a vehicle. That is out of my head now. HA. I'm convinced that there is no way to survive without a vehicle here. How did those pioneer woman do it? As soon as we got home Joel Wolsey and Todd Ericksen invited Josh to go spear fishing with them. They were gone for 4.5 hours! Josh had a blast. That night Ericksen's invited us to their home for dinner. Any guesses on what was served? ... If you guessed chocolate covered scorpions you are wrong. If you guessed freshly speared FISH you are correct. If any of you know me, you know that i am x-nay on seafood of any kind. I do NOT eat fish. No tuna, no salmon, no nothing. Well, ladies and gentlemen... to be polite and to appease my husband i tried a very small piece of a bar jack fish. I put it in my mouth, chewed it, tasted it, swallowed it, looked up and announced, "Huh. Well, i'm really upset right now." You see, i thought it would take me months to even think about trying fish and alas, IT WAS GOOD! How ever i tried another type of fish called a glass eyed snapper, and it had a fishy taste to it and i didn't like it so much. But the bar jack fish doesn't have a fishy taste. It's almost like chicken! So there you have it. Todd also made mango smoothies for us. Delicious. His wife is Tiffany (Bishop) She is super nice! We had a nice evening over there.
Josh and i also got our first sunburns this day. :( SAD FACE! Having a sunburn on your shoulders is one thing, but having a sunburn on your shoulders and two babies that hold onto your shoulders is another. We have yet to try an actual aloe-vera plant that are around the island, we are looking forward to that!

Tuesday, Josh, the girls and i ventured to 'Duggins,' the grocery store. The shopping isn't as 'slim-pickins' as i thought it was going to be, and i don't find the prices as crazy as i was expecting, so that's a plus! We walked down to the beach again, and this time we remembered to bring the presents that we got the girls for their birthday...which are.. water floaties! One is a turtle and one is a rhino i think... Anyways! Those were a HUGE success! The girls loved them! AND they loved being in the water with them. Good day!

Now here we are on a fine, sunny Wednesday. Today i gave Josh a hair cut! If you are Nathan, Gen or Jodi, you know that for me this is a big deal. AND i did a pretty good job if i do say so myself! :)
In talking with our neighbors, they've informed us that the weather here lately has been strange. It's been cloudy and breezy with an occasional rain pour, which i guess isn't the norm. I see this 'strange' weather as a blessing from Heavenly Father. I can't imagine trying to get acclimatized to the 'normal' weather, which is no breeze, scarce clouds, and less rain and hot hot hotty hot hotness. It's interesting to see what the humidity does here... within seconds of pulling something out of the fridge, like ketchup for instance, condensation is BAM, right there. The humidity has done some 'happy' things... Fay and Eden's hair is super curly, it's rather adorable :) The dry weather back home and the constant hand washing that comes with raising babies caused my hands to be quite dry, like to the point where my knuckles would crack and bleed (disgusting i know) ... but alas we've been here just under a week and BAM! My hands are model worthy! ...Well...maybe not model worthy, but they are nice and soft now :)
We brought along some mini-cribs that Josh found online and we are trying to sleep train the girls. ... We just started today and ... i don't like sleep training :( .. can't you tell? They're one year olds and are still sleeping with mom and dad. Ha... But alas, i know that they should be in their own beds in their own room, and that's what we are working on currently. We'll keep you posted on how that goes this next week.
So hard to believe that tonight marks a weeks time that we left home for our crazy adventure. So far we are liking it a lot. Still a lot of things to get used to and learn but so many things we are grateful for. Thanks to all of your for your continued love and support. Sure miss you.
Love,

The Farrell Family