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.

People vs Tasks

Well... today we fly home. Jason writing. I woke up at just before 4am today and couldn't sleep. Many things on my mind, but the theme that keeps coming back is how thankful I am for my amazing (and beautiful, but that's a different post :-) wife, Becca.

As I was laying in bed, I was thinking back a few years about when a great friend of mine was moving from Dallas to the East Coast. He had a to-do list as long as my arm... but kept taking time out of his days to visit friends and genuinely hang out to say a proper goodbye. I spent a full Saturday with him and this was stressing me out! I'm wired to get my tasks done and THEN relax and see people. He is wired the other way... and I know it created some long days/nights for him as he worked to get the tasks done too.

All this brings me to Becca. Yesterday, we were picking Katie up from school together and saying some goodbyes to the school staff, etc. Given the Holidays, there are some friends Becca hasn't had the chance to see and say goodbye with. One of her dear, dear Italian friends Roberta came through the door and all the sadness of leaving without time left for a visit just came bursting out. Becca started crying and so did Roberta and it was a sweet and beautiful moment of them expressing how they'd wished they could've spent time together prior to leaving, will miss one another, etc etc. Such a sweet and sad moment.

I'm thankful to glad to share with you that there are few on Bec's list that didn't enjoy her time in these past weeks. In the midst of a complex and crazy foreign move, Bec made time for people. Just like my friend Brian... she drank the cafe con leche (we'll miss it!) ... shared the tapas/vino and kept people as a top priority. This resulted in a few long days and late nights finishing those lists... but it was very clearly worth it.

Well done Bec. You finished well. I love you... along with so many others here in Spain.

P.S. I could write 3 or 4 or 5 posts on the amazing Becca and how she's managed the logistics of this move. In the midst of ending/starting jobs (and saying a few goodbye's of my own) I've only helped a little here... Bec has done the lion's share of the work and done it WELL. The complexity is almost impossible to describe...