The Journey Home

All of the planning and preparation paid off with a fairly smooth process of packing. We had to sort out items to pack in a suitcase for each of us, items to go in an air shipment back to Texas, a sea shipment that takes longer, items that stayed in the house, items to give away that would not work in Texas, the rental furniture to be picked up, it was a lot of sorting. 

The kids had some strong reactions once we got to game time with the move. The most upset they got was the evening after the house was cleaned out. We stopped by to get a few last things. We saw our neighbors and got to say goodbye one last time. The kids walked room to room in the house crying and melancholy. We also made another stop at the neighborhood park which was also upsetting that evening. 

One night at the Freising airport hotel and we were off to the airport. The Kellers made a special trip to the airport to tell us goodbye. 

The first flight to Philadelphia was great. We were in the middle section of the seating towards the back, but in an area where there were only three seats across so we did not have to sit next to anyone. There was a short layover in Philly and we had to get our bags checked again for the final flights. We made it to Dallas with no problems and the last flight to Lubbock was showing to be on time. We still do not know exactly what happened but there was no plane and no crew for that flight. I think it ended up taking them four or five hours to finally get us on the way.

 I think it was one or two in the morning before we finally made it. Close to 24 hours of travel and awake for even longer. We still had a big crew at the airport in the middle of the night gathered to welcome us back to the America.

Both me and the kids adjusted very quickly to the time change. Going to bed that late/early helped I think. We were up the next morning ready to swim and enjoy time with the family. Katherine finally got to try out her mermaid tail that she had wanted for a year.

It did not take us long to catch up on fast food cravings like Chick-Fil-a, PeiWei, Whataburger, etc. Some of the OKC crew drove to Lubbock to welcome us home too. We had a good time bowling, indoor mini golf, and laser tag.

I was personally really excited to make it back home during the 4th of July. We skipped out on the big shows and opted for setting off our own thanks to my BILs brother's property outside of the city. The kids had never done this before and loved setting off their own. The rest of the folks there put on a big show for us too. It was a great evening and so fun to celebrate America.

More swimming, Tex-Mex food, mani-pedi's, it was all just too much to take in at once. Dad took us to a steak house for dinner, which is something that I was missing. Good old American beef.

After a few days of fun and adjusting in Lubbock we drove with the family to the Dallas area to watch Josh play in a tournament at Dallas Baptist. The first evening was a beautiful night at a really great field. We also got to see the fireworks after the Ranger game from our hotel in Arlington.

Through all of this party and catching up we had been missing one important piece. Cindy was stuck in Germany finishing up work. She was staying near the Kellers and they took care of her each night after work with dinner and company, especially with Sebastiaan. She also got the big welcoming committee at the airport

More Tex-Mex before the Lubbock group had to head back. We still did not have our house so we went to the movies the next day. We finally got to leave Arlington and made it to a hotel in Allen close to our neighborhood. We stayed four more nights there before we could move in to our house. 

During that time we did manage to connect with some friends and get Cindy a car. It came over on a different boat, but we did end up with that Bavarian car in the end.

It was a really long journey to get back here, but finally.....FINALLY we have our house back. We are so thankful that our temporary tenants took such great care of the house and the people we paid to take care of the lawn and the pool also did their part.

We now have our luggage, air shipment, and local storage which is the bulk of our stuff. We still have our sea shipment from Germany yet to arrive. The main items there would be our mattresses. Right now we all have temporary sleeping solutions and we are ready to have our beds.

Even after the long day of moving in we still managed to fire up the grill and get some swimming in. 

At this point it has been over a week since the trucks were here. We have managed to get most of the boxes unloaded although not much stuff has been put up. It has been an endless agenda of getting stuff set up again and making sure all of those monthly costs are sighed up for again. Cindy started work last week and is figuring out her new position. We have taken some time to hang out with our great neighbors across the street and reconnect with other friends. It will still be several weeks before anything will feel settled As for my vehicle I test drove just about every SUV out there and ended up with another one of those Bavarian made cars, the X5 also white. I don't have a job yet but I can pretend when I am driving around town in style. 

The expat experience has resulted in some changes in thought process for us. I don't know how long it will last and we might just settle back in to what we knew prior to leaving. I hope that is not true. There are a lot of differences in the day to day life of an American/Texan and a Bavarian as you might expect. I am more conscious of how wasteful we are and I hope I will remember that in my daily routine. I am not on a mission to change everyone around me or judge them, but just do what I have learned over the past two years for our family. I think I will enjoy the place the I call home even more. We loved our house and missed it while we were gone. Now that we are back I have never appreciated what we have so much. We certainly miss our friends, the Kellers. but I am so happy to have relationships here that already existed that we can plug back in to again. Katherine has already spent several nights away from our house with friends, she is headed back to her gymnastics classes, and is wanting to try soccer again with her team that is still together. Baseball is on a break but David's team is still intact and doing well. Cindy and I do have a mission to not over commit ourselves or our children. It is already hard and we are still in the summer break. 

I am thankful for getting to see the history in Europe first hand. As someone who had little to no interest before I now love to learn everything I can. I find myself digging for more information about various subjects and most importantly have so much more appreciation for all of the sacrifices that have been made for me and my fellow Americans. Appreciation is the right word, I was raised to have respect for our troops and veterans and I always knew a little bit about America's role in history. I had an appreciation for it too, just not as much as I have now. 

I can't say that I miss any specific thing in Germany. We got to travel so much and see so many things that I was about traveled out and have no interest to go anywhere anytime soon. The weather was nice there and it has been HOT in Texas, but I don't miss it. Getting to swim everyday and in the evenings is fun for me and the kids. Getting to walk into an air conditioned building and feeling the relief of the cold air is a good thing. I don't miss the interaction with people when I am not sure if they understand English or not. That is probably my biggest disappointment in myself, not trying harder to learn German. It might have made life easier had I followed through with my intentions. Having said that, the customer service of working people in Texas is so great to have back. I find myself being more friendly to employees of these businesses just because I am so glad to see a smile and hear English. 

I think Cindy's thoughts on some of these subjects is a little different than mine and I think she misses it more. She is also glad to be home overall. I have started my job search and hope to be employed again soon. In the mean time I have to go sign up for more monthly services and expenses.

Thanks to all of our family in friends for staying tuned in to our blog. Knowing there was an audience out there helped me stay committed to updating it. We now have four large books worth of documentation of our two years in Europe. I will post one more video in a couple of days that is a tribute and summary of our time abroad.