Now

It has been such a whirlwind since we left Switzerland.  This week, actually if I'm honest, the last couple days, I feel like I've been able to sit and feel generally settled at home.  There's still a lot of organizing to do, we haven't hung any pictures or decorated, but we have no more unpacking of boxes.  We are eating at our dining table and sitting on our couch with area rugs.  We are taking walks getting to know the neighborhood.  It feels good to be "home" even though in some ways it feels like we left a little bit of "home" every where we have lived.  I was just thinking over the holidays...Maddie is 3.5 years old and she's lived in 4 homes now.  That's crazy!

Anyways, this is what our life has looked like up until now: the kids and I left Switzerland on December 13th.  We were at my Dad's in North Carolina for a week.  Bryce joined us and we spent the following 2 weeks in West Virginia with his family for Christmas.  We drove back to North Carolina for New Years and the following 2 weeks.  Then the four of us flew to Oregon.  The time with our families was really good, but also very tiring.  None of us have been on a normal sleep schedule until the last week or two because of all the travel.  Basically meaning, the kids weren't sleeping well so we weren't sleeping well.  Besides that, it was such a blessing to have quality time with family.  We were also reminded what it was like to have a break!! (thanks to a few date nights and times that we individually got to slip away)

When we arrived in Oregon, Bryce and I immediately got sick.  We just got really bad colds and coughs, but man, I can't remember the last time I felt so sick.  We were in temporary housing for the first 3 weeks that we were in Oregon.  Finally, without our Switzerland shipment yet, we just bit the bullet and moved in to our new house.  We bought an air mattress and we had some random things from a storage unit that we had.  The storage unit had a few essentials that made it easier--an entire kitchen's items, lots of toys and kids books, pack n play, crib, linens, and a high chair.  We also just came to a breaking point.  None of us were sleeping well and it was the first time I saw any repercussions in the behavior of our kids.  All of a sudden, Maddie's behavior started changing and it had me worried.  For that last week in the temporary apartment, her meltdowns were more often and much worse, especially at bed time.  It was awful.  After 3 days, Bryce and I were laying in bed trying to figure out what to do.  I was in tears wondering what was wrong.  I even asked the pediatrician about it.  That's when I said, "That's it.  Let's just get into the house and stop sleeping in all these different places all the time."  We lived in our house for 2 weeks before our Switzerland stuff arrived.  Now THAT was a great day!  No more living out of suitcases, no more eating without a table, and no more sleeping on temporary beds.  Maddie's behavior almost instantaneously improved back to normal.  That day that our stuff arrived was just over a week ago on a Monday.  Bryce left for Berlin early that Saturday.  So, I've been pretty busy trying to unpack the last boxes, organize, and finish ALL the laundry.   Every single clothing item/linen felt slightly damp coming out of the boxes.  Maybe it was 6 weeks on a ship?  Well, we went through an entire box of Tide pretty quick.  The nice thing is, I'm tired now because I've been laying on our couch at night watching too many Downton Abbey episodes in the evening rather than being tired because the kids aren't sleeping.  (And that is SO different :-)

It has been really nice being back.  We are back at our old church, which we love and missed.  Bryce is back in his Thursday morning prayer group with some guys and I'm back in my mom's group every other week.  In many ways, it's been so strange, almost like we never left or it was a dream (not that every part of living there was dreamy in that sense, because let me remind you, there were hard things we dealt with while there).  I remember friends that were pregnant here or just had a baby and now there are new babies (toddlers!).  We've been back to the library story time that we used to attend, getting pizza and groceries where we used to, and walking to the same park that we always took Maddie to when she was Carter's age.

It's just bittersweet.  I've been in contact with my friends in Switzerland and miss them, especially a few girl friends that I gained (and I pray those are lifelong friendships!).  On top of that, life is just so different here.  It seemed so much slower there.  We didn't drive our car much.  It wasn't weird or questioned at all when we only owned one car.  Everything was less.  We had so much less (of everything-even fridge space) and we were fine.  Here, bigger is better and everything is more.  And why would you ever want to ride your bike to the grocery store?  Why not get two cars?  Not that we don't appreciate some of that "bigger is better" because how nice is it to just buy 2 gallons of milk once a week rather than 8 liters a week (going to the store every other day to restock)?!  Maybe it was a slower paced life because we had less friends and less in our schedule.  Is that good?  Is that bad?  I don't know.  I do know it's nice to have a few really good friends close by.  I now know how important it is to me to prioritize my 24 hours in every day because these hours go by fast.  So since getting back into a routine, I really think about what I schedule in to our days and weeks.  Of course, talking about what we miss, I can't fail to mention those Swiss mountains that took our breath away, the teeny Swiss towns that seemed too quaint to be real, and those cities that had so much history and character.  I really really really miss those and still can't believe we were just a short drive away from it all.

So, I miss it.  A lot.  But it's also a blessing to be back.  Depending on the moment you catch me, I lean towards one a little more than the other.

If you've made it to here, thanks for reading and thanks even more for caring about us.  ((Big hug to you))