Sometimes it's hard to say Goodbye....Hasta Luego is Better!

We are returning to the USA after completing our two month trial in Ecuador. We have every intention of returning in order to make Cuenca our home. The following is an email sent to as many of our new friends as we could find email addresses for. We wanted to recopy here on the blog in hopes of reaching those whom we didn't have email adresses for (or who addresses were tucked away in luggage before we realized we hadn't put them in our ipad yet!)

It reads as follows:

Please forgive us for taking the easy way out and doing a group letter when we really should take the time to personally thank each and every one of you for helping to make our eight week stay in Ecuador a very special and cherished time.  Each of you in your own way contributed to making us welcome and helping us to adjust to a new and wonderous locale.  As we depart, it is with an assortment of emotions.  We are excited at the prospect of seeing family and friends and sharing more fully with them the adventure we've enjoyed for the past eight weeks.  We also have learned that we will have the opportunity to visit Thailand during our return stay in the US.  It will be an exciting time filled with many things to see, enjoy and do.

But there is a small sense of sadness as well.  We realized that when one of our new found friends in Cuenca asked how we felt about returning home. Without hesitation I responded we felt like we're leaving a home here to go visit where we used to live.  We hadn't really discussed it or consciously thought about it but in just a few short weeks, Cuenca had, indeed, become home.  We were comfortable in this wonderful city, delighted to be in our surroundings and among people who truly felt like neighbors.

Each of you who came into contact with us during these eight weeks played a role in creating that feeling.  We are humbly grateful that you did.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Please continue to preserve, protect and nurture the wonderful sense of fellowship and community that exists here.  Know that we are anxious to return and share in that community with you and look forward to the day when we add our contribution as well.

To our friends in Ecuador receiving this as an email....please pass along to mutual acquaintances. We discovered we missed getting many email addresses loaded into our computer and we hope our expression of gratitude will reach all we came in contact with during our wonderous time here.

Until we return, know we will think of you and Cuenca often as we continue juntos en el camino de la vida!

Roger & Suzanne Yazell