One more week

 Hello hello! What a month August was. Very busy for us. The first half was spent cleaning and organizing and moving all our things around. The middle was spent packing and clearing the house. And the last part was spent figuring out how to live without all those things/ wondering if we really need all our things.

We got to enjoy one last Strawberry season! This time the strawberries came to us!

Sister bonding time.

Enjoying homemade bubbles.

Pretty Paraguayan flowers.

So yes our house is packed away and we are living off our essential items. And yes, that means we finally have a departure date: September 16! It's a direct flight to Miami and we are thrilled about that. We've even got a decent trip planned to handle the quarantine portion of the home leave. We'll drive up the Florida coast through Melbourne, Kiersten's childhood hometown, then stay at the beach on Amelia Island in northern Florida for about 5 days. Then we make our way to the North Carolina mountains for a cabin and another 3 days before rounding off the trip at Kiersten's parent's barn in Winchester, VA.

Everyone getting a little extra love during this big transition.

La montana de cajas after the first day of pack out.

Finley's room now full of boxes.

Playing cards in the giant box house made from all the boxes.

And now everything is packed up! Only took 2.5 days!

As we come to the close of our time here in Paraguay we have been reflecting on all the memories. We both agree we've enjoyed living here 10 times more than we originally anticipated. Paraguay has been a terrific place to live and raise children and the Embassy and Church community were a major factor in that as well. We have loved, loved, loved our time here are are genuinely sad to leave.

However! We are looking forward to coming back to the States for a short time and having some familiar comforts! And then, eventually, moving on to our new home in Kuwait. No firm date as to when we'll be headed that way.

In general though, time has passed as it always has. Scott has been training his replacement at work and he is ready to check out. We also celebrated his birthday last week! The girls have been learning and playing with Mommy and Nanima at home. And Kiersten has been working, cleaning, purging and cooking. The girls got some shots in August and Mackenzie is due for a few more tomorrow. We've gone to the Coastanera a bunch to get out of the house and discovered a great park a few miles from the house. The weather has been fluctuating between wonderfully crisp to down right hot and merging on disgusting. And Mom and Dad took advantage of the Labor Day Holiday by having lunch out at a churrasquería one last time before our departure.

A beautiful sunset at the Coastanera.

Welcome to Mackenzie and Finley's restaurant.

Playing peacefully with colored rice.

Scott's second birthday in Paraguay with homemade decorations and minimal things.

33 years old and a Tres Leches Cake.

The Mackenzie Update:

• After saying good-bye to her teachers and classmates of Small Seeds Preschool, Kiersten has taken it upon herself to homeschool Mackenzie as much of the basics as she can. Really focused on numbers, letters and reading and then playing, creating and imagining as much as possible.
• She is essentially nighttime potty trained! Big accomplishment.
  
  
  
• She continues to say, "I don't want to move." And recently has accepted our future and now says, "I'm really going to miss this world." To her credit, this is the only place she's really ever known.
• We were gifted some unread kids magazines by another family and she loves looking through them and doing the activities. 
• We recently started taking her for horseback riding lessons. Her first time on the horse she had no fear and even rode by herself for a few minutes. The second time she was a little more afraid and just spent the time getting familiar with the horse. Mommy has been learning too!

  

  So brave!
  

  
  

  

  She loves this little playground.
  

  
  
  
  
  

The Finley Report:

• Finley is becoming more and more independent. She plays on her own, wants to do things by herself (for the most part) and doesn't want to be left out of anything.

  

  Recreated this photo with Finley. Baby Mackenzie is on the left.
  

  
  
• She is just barely tall enough to open doors by herself.
• Finley has had the hardest transition to the pack out. She got a new bed and a new room and the first few days were tough on her but she's settled now. Just in time for a really big change!

  

  But just look at that adoration she has for her sister. She'll be fine.
  

  
  
• She has some new words in her vocabulary! Buba = buubble. And she's can trumpet like an elephant and "twitter" like a bird. She really just goes, "la-la-la-la" with her tongue out and flaps her arms like wings. And she meows like a kitty and crawls around after kitty Mackenie.

One more week and that'll about do it for us here South of the Equator. We're not sure if we'll ever come to this part of the world again which is even more surreal. Thanks for the love, support, video chats and messages while we've been away. We can't wait to see as many of you as we can during our brief time in the States, at a socially safe distance of course.