Nicaragua Adventures #4: Leaving My Baby in Nica (Jun 5, 2021)
Welcome Back My Trusting Passengers:
This is Finn, my second child. They are 16 (almost 17). When I was pregnant with Finn (known as Rachel at the time and until a few years ago when they renamed themselves), I didn’t think I could love a second child the way I loved my first born child, Adam. This is an irrational worry and common with a lot of moms as I quickly learned once Finn was born.
The heart has the capacity to expand in unimaginable ways.
If you’ve been following our Nicaraguan adventures (#adventureswithterriandfinn), you’ll know that while I will be returning to the Bay Area on June 9th, Finn will stay on with my friend Christy until June 27th at which point Finn will return with my friend Amy who will be here for Christy’s retreat starting on the 19th.
Last night I did not sleep well as I kept waking up with anxiety about leaving my baby in Nicaragua. What if something goes wrong? Will Finn be well taken care of until we can get to them? We will be at least a day and a half and thousands of miles away. I shared my concern with my husband Zeke via text and he responded that he too was nervous. This surprised me.
Zeke tends to go along with a lot of my harebrained schemes with the kids because he knows I am more risk averse than he is and he assumes that I’ve thought through most of the angles.
We facetimed this morning to talk about our concerns and he raised a really good point about the benefits of this trip for Finn. I often get so caught up in the risks and things that can go wrong that I can forget the benefits and why we came on this trip in the first place.
We had to get Finn out of our Silicon Valley bubble during Covid.
Their world had become so small that it had become an echo chamber.
Finn is a smart, creative, sensitive, resilient, kind kid but they weren’t thriving the way they should have been.
In a little over a year, Finn will be 18 and they will be heading off to college (Finn graduates early in December) and has missed out on building normal and necessary social and life skills by being cooped up during Covid in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’ve had a lot of people look at me funny when I said we were going to Nicaragua. If it weren’t for Christy, this would not have been on my list of places to go. Thanks to her, I am here with Finn, at Hacienda Iguana, where there are international ex-pats with businesses or working remotely or fully retired. People who came for the surf when they were younger, have grown up and have started raising families here.
We’ve learned over the last week that this is a community of people who support each other.
Some people refer to Nicaragua as the next Costa Rica. Others only know it through negative news and look at it through a lens from 10–20 years ago. Or even the more recent political uprisings.
I am confident that Finn will be well taken care of as they step into their own here with Christy and the Iguana community.
Finn will be taking Spanish from Harold on Mondays and Fridays. They will be working at Jade’s farm on Mondays and Thursdays. I am hoping that others in the community see Finn walking around or hanging out at Pili’s place and ask Finn to join them to do things that are just part of their normal days.
Christy is connected to the mamas in the community and I’ve told Finn, that if something goes wrong or doesn’t feel right, find the mamas; they will know what to do.
We mamas take care of more than our own and our hearts have the ability to expand to accommodate more than our first child, and even children that aren’t our own. If you are a mama, you know.
With much love and gratitude,
Terri
P.S. Take the controls and be the pilot in your own life. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and you are cleared for takeoff.
Song: Chiquitita from Mamma Mia
terrihansonmead.com
Piloting Your Life (the book)
Terri Mead YouTube Channel
Piloting Your Life (the podcast)
Twitter: @PilotingLife
Instagram: @PilotingYourLife
Facebook Group: Piloting Your Life (the book)
Facebook Page: Piloting Your Life
