Reinventing life...

Today I want to share with you a special post, I connected with Kate a year ago through Stroller Adventures and since then we've met up for smoothies in Costa Rica and she's moved back to Victoria and began a Life Coaching business and written an online course. So much has changed for Kate and also for me, in fact just a few weeks ago I had a Skype call with Kate in which she helped me figure out where I'm heading and where I am at. Which is why I invited Kate to write a guest post for you. 

Here's Kate:

1 year ago this month I was planning 6 month trip to Costa Rica. I was doing all sorts of research about what to expect and stumbled upon a post Maribel wrote about grocery shopping in Costa Rica. In her post she wrote about how pickleswere both expensive and elusive. As a pickle lover, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. Maribel and I actually had the opportunity to meet in person while I was travelling. She has been so supportive of my journey and I am so thankful she has given me the opportunity to share my story and new project with all of you.

My name is Kate Zealand and I am the proud Creator and Facilitator of a brand new online course called Lead Your Life: 6 Weeks to Learn Who You Are, What You Want and How To Reinvent Your Life. This course walks participants through a step by step process of defining personal values, creating a life vision, eliminating limiting beliefs and creating a personalized action plan to help them achieve success.

But before I go any further, I want to tell you a little bit about how Lead Your Life came to be. For 10 years of my life I was stuck. I was in a job I wasn't passionate about, I didn't have any drive. I guess if I summed it up in one word it was that I felt "unfulfilled." In my heart I knew there was something bigger and better out there for me, but I had no idea what that was or how to get it. Instead of dealing with these feelings I just stayed put, where it was safe and stable and where I living a life I didn't love.

It all came to a head when my husband and I decided to take a leave and travel through Costa Rica for half a year. I made the decision that this wasn't only going to be a big adventure, but this was going to be my opportunity to re-evaluate my life and its direction.

So I did.

I had just written my Master's thesis and so I was in full on research mode. I started investigating all sorts of ways to jump start a life, or get your life back on track or get on track for the first time. As I did this, I used my background in Values Based Personal Leadership to create a process I could go through. I wanted to figure out who I was and what I really wanted out of life.

I spent 6 months working my way through a process of self-discovery.  I came home with a vision, a plan and a new zest on life. I left my career, started carving out a new path and opened up my personal coaching practice, ZealandCoaching.

As my coaching practice began to grow, I started taking on coachees and talking with them about their stories. I was struck by how many people identified with my story and felt similar emotions. I found myself often referring back to the processes that I had gone through while travelling. There were so many aspects of my journey that were helping my coachees.  I wondered whether my personal journey  would help others too.

Looking back...

It's hard to believe that a year ago this week we were traveling for the last time in a while to SoCal and Baja Mexico. We traveled to visit family, friends and enjoy each second spent with all of them. 

It's almost been a year since the last time we saw 95% of our loved ones and today is proving to be a bit challenging, I'm emotional looking at pictures of our trip and thinking of each and everyone of them. Everything we did on that last trip was so soak up new memories and have them last us a long time, a year ago we didn't know when we'd travel back to visit. 

We still don't know when we will travel to visit family and friends. I still log on weekly and quote flights and make lists of what we want to do once we visit. Decisions like do we want to go visit here or see this friend or eat at our favorite restaurants or go to a theme park, how much time would we have on our first trip and will we have enough time to do it all? How will we make our 3-5 weeks long trip work so we can see everyone? We still don't know how it will work out when we finally get there but we will certainly make the most out of our trip. 

Picking up and moving to a different country is fun, adventurous and some may say brave but it's also bittersweet when you think of it. You leave everything you know, your comforts, your culture, everyone you love and even though technology makes it possible each and everyday for us to be in contact with our loved ones it just isn't the same as seeing them in person and giving them a hug.

We do love our life here, we have experienced different and new adventures. We've learned so much in the past 10 months, we've seen many new sights and grown so much. We have also have had our share of challenges like when our car broke down and we were car less in the rainiest month of the season or when my husband fell gravely ill and most recently our son got to ride in ambulance to the ER {something he is happy about, just not the IV they had to put in his arm}. 

Yes 10 months and counting, as I look out our window and see the winds of change are here we don't know what the future holds just like everyone else but we do know we are loving the memories we are making and the challenges we've endured? well we'll just have to file those in lessons of life because after each detour on our life we've learned we are stronger than we thought we were. Next June we celebrate our first anniversary in Costa Rica and I'm kind of looking forward to it, it is a big milestone for the 4 of us and we shall celebrate it after all I am where I was destined to be. ;)

As Costa Ricans say "Pura Vida"... 

Where have we been?

How was your New Year's? Ours was pretty laid back, we stayed at home and enjoyed a delicious dinner with family visiting from the U.S. then enjoyed listening to music while playing cards. 

Our new years began with a short trip to the beach little did we know that come January 7th our life would be take a turn in events. It started as a usual vacation day for my kids, family visiting and my husband had been experiencing acute abdominal pain since sunday evening. Monday was business as usual, he left for work as usual but came home barely able to walk in pain. On Tuesday I took my family and kids to the La Paz Waterfalls for a day of exploring.

When we arrived from our day of exploring, I took my husband to the ER and that is when it all started. After several tests, sonograms and X-rays it was determined on Wednesday that he would be in surgery that evening to remove his gall bladder. Little did the surgeon know he would end up doing 9 different procedures on this "simple" gall bladder surgery! He had several complications and we almost lost him. These 7 hours of waiting for news from the surgery room were not easy on me, for starters on that Wednesday I barely ate as I was too worried, stressed and preoccupied with my husband's well being. I completely lost my appetite.

My appetite didn't return until that weekend, when my sister kept asking me to eat something. Yes in just 3 days I had managed to lose 5 pounds, however it wasn't the best way to do so and that was the least of my worries to be honest. All I wanted was my husband to be ok, recovering and to have our family back at home.

These past 2 weeks were all about follow up appointments and tests. Instead of stressing about other things, I've been focusing on taking it a day at a time as my husband continues to recover.

We can't wait to get back into our usual routine with work and school. The kids have been on "summer" break as of December 1st, it's been a long break for them and us specially with the surgery.

I'm hoping to get back to my walks/runs and blogging in the next two weeks, I have so much to share with you as before the surgery we traveled a little around Costa Rica. So many fun and beautiful new places that I'm sure you'll enjoy learning about. Until next time, live each day to the fullest. 

Adjustments

Life after a big change or shall I say move is always an adjustment, looking back at last year it took us all about 3 months to get into our new routine. Have everything out of boxes and in place. Making new friends wasn't that difficult mostly because of school, our 7 year old made friends from day 1 in NorCal. She did miss her friends from SoCal and continued to stay in touch with them through snail mail, facetime and phone calls. Our 3 year old son made friends with neighbors that had children in his age range. For me it might've taken a bit to get acquainted with adults. I did meet moms in my daughters class, but still it wasn't as if we were very close. Two moms in particular welcomed me from day 1, one of them was a parent in my daughter's class and the other mom was from a different class. 

I was not lonely because I am a talkative and a social person, but I was longing for friends with whom to go grab a cup of coffee... have meaningless chat or deep conversation where we talked about parenting and who we were before children. 

I am still settling into our new life in Costa Rica, I realize that I have yet to make friends. My adult conversations are with hotel staff members, on the phone with friends, the cashier at the grocery store and my husband. I miss dropping off kids at school to join friends for a cup of coffee. I know it is an adjustment, but still sometimes you just want to have a few minutes to enjoy friend's. 

Today I am raising my coffee mug and saying cheers to my friends in Cali, you know who you are and I just wanted to let you know how much I miss you. 

Ever moved and have to start all over again? 

Time

Since I was a child I always wished to live in a place where I could see the seasons change, I've learned that the mind is a powerful thing and that wishes do come true for living in NoCal I got to experience a Spring with all the blooms, Summer with lots of heat, Fall with bare trees and golden leaves on the street {oh those leaf covered streets were truly amazing!} and a very cold Winter with snow on the mountains and lots of rain... Yes my wish came true. :D

Where were you a year ago? Do you remember? 

Ever have a day where you think of how time has gone by so quickly and reminisce on everything that has being happening in your life?

This week a year ago Adventure Dad and I packed our weekend bag and began an adventure that would forever change our lives and our perspectives. Since we've been married I always have had a gut feeling that we were not meant to be forever in San Diego, as if our destiny was elsewhere. Boy was I right! A year ago this weekend it was raining, it was the storm of the year, lots of wind and rain was coming and we were driving towards it to find a new place to live in a City we had not been to. 

You see a year ago this weekend our destiny brought us from Southern California to Northern California, 550 miles away from where we had been living for the past 11 years. We arrived to NoCal full of hope, open minded and eager to find a new place to call home. 

A week later we packed up our all our belongings {sold some of the big toys} and drove our family to our new home. Leaving the building we knew as home, filled with memories was tough. Every single corner was filled with something special. This home was where we brought both Adventure Girl and Adventure Boy to after being born. It was the home that saw Adventure Girl twirl as a ballerina, Adventure Boy run around. It was the kitchen that saw me grow as a cook, improving my cooking skills and learning from my mother and grandmother. It was very special. 

We know it was equally difficult for our family and friends to see us leave. Funny how destiny takes care of us and leads the way, for 2011 was filled with family gatherings at our home. It was the first Christmas in a long time that we even had extended family join us. 

It was truly a blessing and not only that, but it was leading the way for our new life away from them.

When we first arrived in NoCal we felt as if we were on vacation, a few weeks later it began to feel like home. Families at our new school were welcoming and always up to help out, everyone understood the transition we were going through. We began making new friends and our adjustment period was ending. 

Our first Spring here was amazing, cherry blossom trees everywhere. Fog on most days. Visiting the Golden Gate Bridge at least once a month was beginning to be normal for our family. 

We were all fascinated by all the differences we found, a simple grocery shopping trip is always exciting specially when you go into a grocery store that has all the Asian products you'd find in China, Korea or Japan. There probably are grocery stores like this in San Diego, but we usually went to chain stores or the hispanic markets. I must say it is a big adventure to find ingredients for my Cuban food or even for our Mexican recipes. 

Today as I write this I reminisce on this past year and all we have grown as a family. So many good changes and many more to come! In less than 2 months we will be packing up again and moving to a different Country. We are again excited and eager to find our new home. Our feelings are on pause for the time being and even though we do get sad to think we won't be seeing our family and friends as often as we do know we are happy for all the new opportunities that our destiny holds for us. 

If we are not open to opportunities, to new things we will never know what our true potential is! 

Nobody knows what the future holds for them, but it's exciting to be hopeful and dream of what you'd like it to be. 

Have you ever experienced changes like these? What happened and how did it go for you?