I felt the much needed love all the way from the US.
Then I had second thoughts about writing and documenting this journey. My goal was certainly not to alarm anyone.
I sat on my thoughts for a few days. I did become distracted by school projects, a nagging cough, and a grumpy toddler, but finally came to a better idea.
Why not write about WHY I'm writing?
When we started the blog a few years ago, it was an easy way to share pictures with family and friends. When we returned to the US, I made a digital photo album of our time in Germany for Drew. It was an overwhelmingly emotional process for me to see the kids grow, all the places that we visited...
...and what a journey I had made during that time.
I was proud of us as a family, of us as a couple, and of myself with small victories along the way.
We continued the blog in the US, but didn't add much commentary. I still found it a great way to stay in touch with family and friends who live all over the world. I was using Facebook as well, but for longer commentary, I didn't want to use Facebook for everything.
Then we moved.
We were up and running really quickly. My conversational German returned over a few weeks, and the kids were functioning in school. We found grocery stores, made IKEA runs, interviewed babysitters, and hung a few pictures on the wall. I started meeting neighbors and having friends over for dinner.
I found, however, that I wanted to share so much of this process with friends and family. We had requests to keep the blog going. People liked seeing pictures and following our adventure.
So I found joy in writing about daily life. Daily life here, especially this 3-6 month period, has many ups and downs.
It's like living life in in boldface print.
Things feel more intense.
Juggling when to get to the post office that's only open two days a week is a challenge.
Trying to make phone calls during Ada's nap time only to realize most offices are closed from 12-2 is frustrating.
Finding the time to mow the lawn within the approved noisy hours is an exercise in insanity.
But...
I rode my bike with Ada in tow 10 minutes from my house to see fields of rapeseed in glorious bloom.
The clerk at the meat counter saw Ada coming and gave her a piece of meat to chew on while we waited in line.
Our son saw our new computer desktop artwork and he asked, "Is it a Kandinsky?" Apparently they are studying him at school.
Life is full. Life is normal. Some days I am overwhelmed, some days I'm not such a great person, some days I really botch whatever phone conversation I'm trying to make in German.
But some days, I remember to try to live life with a little more grace.
