14 Years of Wedded Bliss!

Enter a 22 year old woman with nothing better to do in her life than pack it all up into one back pack (that she still has mind you) and head off to someplace called Guyana (not Guinea or French Guiana). In this land that was hotter than Hades, she met a Mr. Right for Now who she felt was all wrong for her but who made her laugh until her sides hurt (and he cooked a mean spaghetti, too). The relat...ionship was based on attraction, friendship, fun, a crazy mini-bus, and a small country. But the thing is…things changed and the couple continued to grow together and believe it or not they stayed together (to the amazement and disbelief of many people). In fact, they not only stayed together but they thrived together, each making the other a better person. He made her find peace in chaos, she made him appreciate a decorated house. They have journeyed down a path that includes amazing friends and family, a son beyond compare, unconditional support for an unconventional life and blessings wide and deep. They walk together as equals and today celebrate 14 years of love, laugher, adventure and the never-ending search for the perfect beach vacation. I love you my sweet green funk!

Gaetan S Greene, Hawke Yoon, Pamela Shin and 81 others like this.

Denna Garretson-Garcia congrats! miss u guys! ((hugs))
Henderson King woow congrats to both of you!
Michael Tutt hear hear!!!
Kellie Ross Carpen Congratulations!!!!
Cynthia Chavez You two are an inspiration! We love you!
Becky DoRan-Radvilas Happy anniversary!!!!
Nicole Woodruff LOVE you and your true romance story. Your relationship is certainly one I admire.
Jennifer L. LaVallee Congratulations on your love and strength of love for each other. I have no doubt you guys will continue to hold that bond forever.
Jo Schellenberg Happy Walking down the road as partners - Day! Love to all three of you. Always, Jo xo
Maureen Gibbons Kishna I remember amusingly your Mr. Right for Now warning me about my crush in Guyana. What a crazy and wonderful 15 years its been! I think when ones love and bonds form in a place like that you know you will never be bored with one another.
Mitzi Mitchell That is beautiful Eric. It brought a tear to my eye. I am so happy you found each other in this chaotic world we live. Bless you both on this very special day.
Dawn Hardley JUST beautiful, congrats!!!!
Paul Talan amen! Love to you brother and you Stacy. Ooo and the wee man too.
David Chavez One love. Love you guys so much, give O a hi-five for me.
Shevonn Slinkey Congrats to the both of u :) very blessed union.
Cammie Oster What a great love story...happy anniversary Eric and Stacy!
Amy Brown happy anniversary!!! Love you both!
Colin Andre Jackson Congrats to you both. I will take a drink for you shortly. CHEERS!!!
Michael Ketover ‎14 years!!!!
Sonya Justus Wow, awesome love story. Congrats on your life and love together!
Soca Muse It was a pleasure to meet you guys all those years ago and i'm so happy to have found such beautiful friends that make me 'believe' i love you guys soooo much, Happy Anniversary and here's to an eternity of happiness and joy for you both xxx
Katy Hanson Happy Anniversary!!!
Stephen Berlinguette very sweet. happy anniversary to you both.
Rebecca Wharton Peil Beautifully written -- happy anniversary! If I hadn't been interrupted by a 4yo twice while reading, it prob would've brought a tear to my eye.
Lisa Ribail Loomis Congrats! Good story.
Karen Schlosser Happy anniversary you two!!
Teresa Wrenn You tell a great amazing story! And are so lucky to be living it!! Love you!! :)
Chase Elenz Umm.. I havent known Eric for 14 years, silly. Still two of my favorite people ino the world. Miss you both.
Kristin Haber Wow, so beautiful! You are magical, magnificent creatures.
Carol Olson Wow...and what an amazing day that was...so many years ago! I miss you both like crazy. Congratulations!!
Michelle Holmes cheers neighbors! still have Orion's photo on my wall.. some nights I can even see the constellation outside my window (above his photo) heart, mic
Costa Fiorillo Eric my friend, that was beautiful!! Haven't spoken to you since Highschool, you always had a special way about you, our President.
David M Miller happy anniversary to you stacy and eric !! i will also never forget guyana , meeting you eric and good old Rough Rider,[ minibus ] one love always D !! xo
Gina Nez A beautiful story and more to come! Sending you tons of congrats, happiness, peace and love that you both deserve. Miss ya...
Corrie Carstens My hope is for continued love and living your life the way you do! And that you might tap that sentiment in your own writing for O so that it doesn't disappear in technology and he can reread in the future how truly happy his parents are!
Patricia Thomas ‎..... and it became "legally official" and the celebration was where????? hosted by????? you guys are so so beautiful together!!
Megan Dean Osorio Congrats! Remember our time together at the old Baha'i house fondly! Hope to reunite some day for some crazy stories!
Jessica Harleman-Underdown Happy Anniversary
Tina DoRan Criste what a great thing.. mr right for now turned out to be! I remember those letters about E.
Ginny Baresch ahhhh Congratulations
Francoise Debeaumont Bravo to you both
Nate Tsosie Happy Anniversary Brtha may u 2 be blessed by thee almighty n mother earth n father sun walk n peace n harmony my brtha ...
Barbara Downes-Torino Congrats to you both!..God's richest blessings for a long life of love, peace & happiness together!..Eric, I am so proud of you bro! xxx
Jim Bennett Congratulations you 2 may you always find the peace and happiness you deserve
Kelli Ketover you guys are awesome!
Patricia Maierson Congratulations! We miss you guys, but joy in the adventures you share here! Many....MANY happinesses! Blessings!
Denise Johnson-Hoelscher Smiles. Loved reading this and wishing you years of the same.

Happy 39 #1

To celebrate my 39th birthday I planned a road trip up North over the border and into Uganda. I had an itch that I wanted to scratch. This itch was the itch of a road trip. I have loved road trips since I was a kid and we would drive cross country from Seattle to Philly to see my grandparents. Living on the rez only made me love them more - as we trekked 34 miles to the grocery store and three hours to the airport. Something so freeing about these trips.

I invited a family we had met on a holiday in Mombasa - they were living in Kampala and I thought it would be fun to meet up again and let the kiddos hang out. Not to mention it was Easter weekend - who needs any more excuses.

View from our front door - also from the bed when I was laying down napping! Cause that's what every 39 year old woman does.

This was our little cottage called Heron...it had a king sized bed, a little toilet and shower. Hot water on request when the fire was lit under the "hot water tank"

Crazy steps down to the dock to catch our boat to the Jajama Panorama Lodge!

The Ugandan border...see the stripes on the road block? It looked like old Christmas ribbon wrapped around the metal pole.

Love the bumper of this truck that we passed on the road - Rwanda T Boys - I love my culture!

Swimming with the pooches

While in Cape Town we caught a live reggae show at a little neighborhood park. It was super kiddo and doggy friendly. There was this nice fountain in the middle of the park that was full of dogs and then before you know it full of kids! Yes, O got in, undies and all, and, yes, I had a moment of panic at the thought of all the germs!

Feeling Fishy!

The aquarium in Cape Town was pretty cool. Needless to say, O loved this display of "nemo" fish!

Happy Almost Easter!

So O and I were making Easter Cards and look what came out...his first drawing of a person. This one has ears and toes (but no feet) and the scribble on top...why those are hair of course. I think this is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Here's wishing you and yours a boatload of chocolate from the big bunny himself!

Haircut in Cape Town

Orion got his hair cut while we were in Cape Town. After O's first hair cut, I have never really been very organized about where and when these toddler boy hair cuts happen. This one happened while I needed a coffee and we were walking by the place. We walked in and the guy who cuts the hair (probably a barber) was sleeping and the place looked like it was straight from the 1950's. Check out his serious look as he's cutting O's hair. I gotta say this - it is a great hair cut.

Two Faves

I took one tuk-tuk ride while in BKK. From the Royal Palace back to the BTS skytrain - its probably about 5 miles and I think the ride took me 45 minutes.

This is a pomelo. I have seen them before but never eaten them. They are amazing, amazing, amazing fruits. I think I ate 15 of them in 9 days. This one was sold by two kids on the streets, covered in plastic wrap and served with salty, spicy, sweet dipping crystals. My friend Jenn, bought me a whole one and I smuggled it back to Rwanda in my luggage. It's waiting for a rainy day.

Fabric Hunt

I love textiles and was on hunt for some cool lookng Thai fabrics. While checking out the weekend market I thought I spied great stacks and was excited to check them out. I walked up and thought the fabric looked strange. I touched it and opened up an edge, turns out this was not fabric at all but PAPER! All different cool types of paper...some handmade, some machine made.

One Night in BKK

Dragon fruit split open, golden pears and an ordinary apple in the background
this was the table where I had lunch. You get a steaming bowl of soup (kinda like pho) and then you have all this stuff in front of you to put into it - there was sprouts, basil, onion, cucumber and some sort of wierd green veggie.
pre-sliced fruit. saw this at a whole-foods type store in a mall. these were amazing...carrots, pineapples, mangos...delish!
My mouth still waters when I look at this juice picture. I drank at least 50 glasses of street juice in my time in BKK. I never once got sick even though I thought about the quality of the ice each time. These are all fresh squeezed and mixed with water - no sweetener - this is added by the customer from a giant vat of simple syrup...the lemon/lime was far and away the best tasting.

OK...so maybe its really 9 nights but still, I can't stop humming that song and the really sad thing is that I only know one line of the song. I am in Bangkok for work. It's my annual work conference and so far it's pretty good. Surprising to write that but it's true. This is a great chance to meet my colleagues from all over the world and "compare" notes. Not only do I get to hear how life is in places I have never heard of, like Conikrey, Guinea, but I also get to be continually surprised by how similar our stories are.

Bangkok has been a feast for the senses. I have never really been keen on exploring Thailand but this has changed in the past few days and I think we will have to come back for a proper vacation. Keeping in mind that we have been living in Kigali my top favorites have been:


1. street food and drinks - this is illegal in Rwanda and ohh how I miss it. There is something so magical about seeing people prepare tasty, spicy, authentic food right there on the street. The best I have tasted was yesterday, chicken kebabs with amazing peanut sauce.
Heavenly! I am also in love with this lime-type juice. It is made with lime juice and water and NO sweetener. Then when you get the juice it comes with a little pack of simple syrup to sweeten as you desire. I have also had fresh pineapple juice with mint and ginger, coconut water and a rose iced tea.

2. The city never sleeps. For anyone with younger kids at home this is a biggie. There is nothing more frustrating then putting your kid to bed and trying to go out and having everything close within the hour. Here, every mall is open to at least 10pm and I dont think the bars close till the sun comes up. I was at dinner last night until midnight.

3. The hot humid weather. I know I know...I would probably hate to live with it but a piece of me LOVES this type of weather. It reminds me of my time in Guyana and there is just something sexy about a sweat-stache!

4. The local drugstore. I am still a drugstore whore and I love checking out cosmetics, medicines, snacks...all the stuff that they sell. I bought some face cream here and every single type of cream touted its whitening capabilities. Just different standards of beauty.

I have some great pictures that will get uploaded soon!

Who is stealing the Guava's?