Busy life in Mexico

It's been hard to focus on the normal things of my life this week (Like blogging) because so much has been going on in so many fronts. For one thing, all the possible reasons to have to deal with paperwork manifested themselves in the same week: signing up for Social Security (great timing, eh?), sending in an amended tax return, getting our permanent immigrant cards renewed, and revising our estate plan. All these things needed my attention this week to make sure that they move forward.

Here's an interesting tidbit for those of you wondering about living in Mexico: to send tax returns in - and be certain that they reach the taxing authorities - you cannot rely on regular mail, so they have to be sent via UPS or FedEx, but neither of those companies deliver to post office boxes, so I have to send such things to a daughter-in-law to turn around and re-send. AND...it costs about $45 to send a flat containing a letter. Hmmmm.

On to the next bit of news....we made an offer on the house across the road from us, and it was accepted!

We've both really loved this humble rancho-style house, and we plan to fix it up and rent it out as a vacation rental. The owner is from an old family around here, and although she lives in La Paz, she comes down here to make the dulces (sweets) that she sells. She'll be using some of the money from this house to buy a parcel next to her sister's house 2 blocks away, which she'll set up with her dulce-making equipment. The great part is, not only do we get to own this house, but we've made a new friend as well!

Although you'd think that this by itself would be reason enough to rejoice this week, there's one more thing that caps it all: we are in the midst of 24 hours of adoration at the church, which only happens 4 times a year (although we have weekly adoration for an hour each Thursday).

David and I took the 3:00-4:00 AM hour, since nobody else signed up for it. But when we got there, there were 3 people already there, and by the time we left (at 4:30am) there were NINE people! Clearly this is a congregation that takes prayer and time with God seriously.

It looks like there will be a feria (small-town weekend fair) this weekend, along with other events that the church is having to celebrate our patron saint (Nuestra Senora del Pilar), and I'll be posting about those on my Week Ending post. For now, que tenga un feliz fin de semana (have a great weekend)!