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Celebrating our First Awesome Year

                                     
We made it! One year through drought, mud, thunderstorms, sunny days and rainbows, we're here, fulfilled with the decision to build our new home here in Mindoro. Days were not always perfect but like a character in one of our favorite TV shows, Everwood, once said, "fine is real". Living our dream, having a farm of our own including all the surprises, challenges, frustration, hard work, and joy that come with it, has been both real and romantic.
                                        
     We don't know what adventures we'll get into in the near future yet. We have hopes and plans, chores and to do lists, and we just continue living as life happens. Growing and learning all the time, in a rich surrounding blessed with enough water, sunlight, and dirt to bloom and blossom and just the right amount of unpleasant experiences to keep us grounded, you know, the annoying
neighbors, loud, drunk, videoke singing and the on-again-off-again relationship between the boys and their playmates. 
                                        
     Most of all, this year has gifted us, more than anything else, resilience. It just pushed us beyond our physical, mental, social, and emotional limitations. It does not even feel like it had only been a year since we said goodbye to our city life. We went through a financial drain from having our home constructed from the muddy ground up. We had to let go of people, we still are in the process of letting go, of people we thought were not just friends but family. Our family of four also had to undergo culture shock and discrimination just because we and our ways are different and we are outnumbered. All this heavy lifting has been shaping the way we look at things and the kind of people we are and will become. We have pretty much, a good balance of awesome and annoying. But we can live with that. We have each other and that's what's important. We are living a life of simplicity. We try to be fair with the people we work with and compassionate to the animals we keep. All in all, it was a really good year!
              








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