The Value of Trust

There are good people everywhere. Sometimes angels cross your path, and out of the blue you’re gifted with a generosity you couldn’t have imagined. We are still in the process of getting our Portuguese tax ID. We have to wait until the first appointment at the tax office on Wednesday to get it issued. There was no way around it.

Has this house purchasing process felt like a lot of ‘Hurry up and wait’? Yes. Yes it has. And as the storm clouds of the rising 2nd wave of COVID cases in Spain looms on the horizon, we have been increasingly concerned that when the time finally comes to meet up and sign the papers we won’t be allowed to leave the Valencia Communidad. Let alone driving across the border from Spain to Portugal. Aragon and Catalunya and Navarre are already on lock down, again. That’s due north of us.

The purchase process in Portugal is so much less understood by these two Americans that this morning Jeff had a ‘what did we sign and who are these people and what are we doing?’ moment. Which meant that I had a similar moment. Two people, in a two person household, having this moment simultaneously isn’t a recipe for a good mental outlook. We just looked at each other with shear panic. And then we read the Valencian news and it was not good.

I reached out to the sellers to check on how things are going there. It was then they did something I couldn’t have imagined them doing.

‘It is safer where we are, Kelli. You should come now. You don’t need to pay us rent for the house. You can stay there – just come and we can sort out the documents and closing when you’re here. It’s better so you stay safe and you don’t get stuck.’

Now we are heading to Portugal on Saturday. We’d go sooner but I have to see Sofia – my lovely dentist- about my tooth a couple more times this week. 2020 has been a rough year for us, so we appreciate what we have even more than before. And the kindness these relative unknown people are extending to us is extraordinary. You would never encounter this during a real estate purchase in the US. Or anywhere I know of, for that matter. I hardly know what to make of it. Jeff’s take?

‘They’re our first friends in a new country.’

And he’s right, of course. They don’t know us but said ‘It’s not normal to do this in Portugal – but we trust you, Kelli.’ So lovely. Maybe that crazy banking-wire-money-transfer-fiasco thing was a blessing in disguise. Without it I wouldn’t have gotten to know their son, Pedro. And he wouldn’t have gotten to know me and my penchant to doing things above board.

Tonight we’re making our list of what to pack in the car. A giant bag of gratitude will be the first thing I’ll be tossing in the back. Because we have so much to be grateful for and that includes friends we just discovered. That, and the espresso machine. Cause I’m grateful for that, too. 😉🙏