Home

It may be a bit beside the point to say at this point, but we are home.

We arrived back in Texas on Wednesday, January 13; Katie started her new school on Wednesday January 20; we moved back into our house on Sunday January 31. The air shipment came on Tuesday February 2. The sea shipment came on Wednesday February 17. So the first several weeks were a bit of a blur :-)

People keep asking me if we are settled in. I usually answer "not completely". I think this is the wrong thing to say because it always produces a strong surprised reaction. :-) It is true that physically we have long been settled in: you can only find a handful of boxes left unpacked around the house. Katie has thrived in her new class. Jason is well into the new job and reconnected with IBM USA. I have most of the big to-dos checked off my list.

But mentally, emotionally... that is definitely going to take some more time.

We are so so glad to be back in Texas - life is so easy here and we know what to do and what to expect. We know the language :-) and the nuance in every conversation. We have loved reconnecting with our family and friends. We enjoy the sense of permanence that this life holds for us.

And we are glad for more trivial things as well :-): Laundry doesn't take me more than 1 day a week. My weekly grocery run takes 45 minutes instead of 2+ hours. We can run the water downstairs to wash dishes AND upstairs for Katie to take a bath - at the same time!! We have all our worldly possessions back together under 1 roof and the logistics are simpler once again.

But we miss life in Spain too. We miss our friends very much. Life was foreign there, but we got used to it. And - though I won't say this too loudly - we grew to like some things better.

So now our task is to sort out these two sides of ourselves. To take the best of our life here and the best of our life there and meld them into something good and cohesive. We don't want to just go back to business as normal. That would be easier. But we were given an amazing opportunity to see life in a different way. We want to put into practice some of the things we saw and learned these past 2 years. We want to live differently here because we lived there.

What an experience it was. What a gift we were given. We are thankful we got to go. And we are thankful we are home.