Paradise.

WE'RE BACK!

There are many, many things that I could say about our trip.

I feel like my soul was singing the entire time we were there. It was intoxicating. It was purifying. It was renewing, beautiful, and life-changing.

It was fun!

Some lessons I learned:

* This was my first time being fully immersed in a different culture. I got in my groove and embraced it all eventually, but I was initially uncomfortable in places I don't understand and felt vulnerable. I felt out of control, but that feeling harnessed itself into growth by the end of the week. It built character, as my mom would say.

* If given the opportunity, I will eat guacamole for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A diet of burittos, cassadores, and quesadillas is FINE by me.

* Once I get over the initial shock, I can handle showering with crabs, birds, lizards, and monkeys. Handle it, embrace it, and love it, even!

* I like being back in the U.S. where you are allowed to let your toilet paper go down the toilet and not into a trash can next to you.

* My husband and I can laugh and play in a swimming pool for hours. Unbridled laughter. Goofiness with reckless abandon.

* Sometimes silence sitting next to an ocean is more healing than any amount of words.

* Life unplugged is refreshing. The first place we stayed at had no clocks, no tvs, no internet, nothing. The second place at least had clocks, but that was it. I turned my cell phone off when we left Denver, and didn't turn it back on until we touched back down in Denver 9 days later. Unplugging created space for us to breath, to have long, meandering discussions without interruptions, and be available. Available for my husband, for my thoughts, for my God.

* Everybody's body is beautiful and exactly how they were created to be. I spent the three months before we left stressing out about living in a swimsuit and how I would measure up next to all of the rest of the girls on the beach. They would all be supermodels, right? I would, of course, shrink in comparison. However. We got there, and everyone was not, in fact, a supermodel. They were all just regular, normal girls like me. With curves, with beauty. There's not a certain prototype of how you need to look in order to be beautiful. Everyone is.

* I really, really like Costa Rican beer.

This trip stirred up a lot in me. A lot more than I expected, I think. You'll probably be hearing more about it in the coming days. And also, the pictures are coming. It was breath-taking. Paradise- I found it! Maybe a glimpse of it, at least.