well, Holly, I'm not sure how *detailed* an answer ya want...

I guess, foremostly, it was an issue of... "If I'm gonna be mostly-housebound, I should at least have a nice view.", and Belize is beautiful.

secondly, the life I wanted to have was no longer affordable in the US, on the scale I wanted, around 10 acres, raising free-range animals (goats, pigs, turkeys, chickens, ducks, rabbits, geese, guinea pigs), an orchard, an organic garden, blabbitty blab blab blab...

thirdly, I wanted to have my own rainwater collection and storage system - and not be dependent on some company for my water:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/thirst/about.html

I now have a 15 thousand gallon underground cistern, and it's FULL!

fourth, land and construction costs here are a fraction of the cost in the US.

fifth, I thought long and hard about the effects of food and lifestyle on my MS, and decided live more healthily, despite being where there are no DMDs available, and only one neuro in the whole country.

six, I lived through the rolling brownouts and blackouts in California, and wanted to be responsible for my own back-up power - difficult in CA, as our WELL was electric, (so, no water), and with the MS, no fans or A/C, (not so good!) now, we have generators, batteries, and solar power arrays.

seventh, there were financial considerations... living in the Sierra Nevadas, way back in 2004, we had a bird's eye view of the impending mortgage crisis.

Stockton, CA is the EPICENTER, with the highest foreclosure rate in the US:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/...l.1-113806.php

so, I knew the crisis was coming, and sold out at the top of the market, and got my money out.

eighth, I didn't much care for the direction the US was headed politically.

lastly, my 3 children were all off to college, and I could finally follow my dream.