I have to make a quick apology… this post has been written for quite a while now (actually an entire month), but we were a little busy… actually very busy. I promise I will be better with posting from now on!
We are officially back in Chicago; our trip around the world is over…
After 238 days of traveling in 14 different countries on a trip around the world with a family of 6, we touched down in the familiar O’Hare airport on Monday, April 30. I ask myself now, what was going through my head? Quite frankly, nothing at all. I don’t really think my mind could wrap itself around the fact that I was coming home. In the days counting down it was so surreal; the way one counts down to Christmas or anything else anticipated… Can I believe it? Everything has gone by so fast, but yet, every day, every place seemed like it was yesterday. A very long yesterday. When the anticipated, the beginning or the end, is actually happening, you have no idea what to think… I think we were all a little numb, probably from exhaustion.
Having fun at the block party!
But anyhow, we have arrived. We were thrown back into school – seeing my friends and teachers was so interesting. Walking those same halls I have for 8 years now is the same it always was. Everything is the same – the same rooms, posters, people. I thought it would feel like I never left. But I think I was wrong – I’ve changed a lot and having been gone so long I appreciate and marvel at everything that is so normal and every second I have with the people I’ve missed for so long. A part of me still thinks I’m leaving tomorrow. Although this feeling sounds funny, it really doesn’t when you are sleeping 4 kids to a tiny room on mattresses, as if we were still traveling.
Mama and her girlfriends!
Back with friends!
Now that we are back and moved into our 2-bedroom basement apartment (without dishwasher or beds), the next step of this trip is staring us in the face. Although our trip around the world is over, our trip of a lifetime is not. From the start of this trip, we knew we weren’t going to stay in Chicago long-term, so we have to find our next place in the world. We do have our eyes on a certain city… Now comes the job part, the school part, the apartment part, the over-seas moving container, and selling everything electronic part. We’ve already had yelling matches over what to do with our beloved vacuum cleaner…
We are back to normal, or closer to it than we were before – jet-lag is long gone and we’ve weeded out the photos into somewhat presentable slideshows. We’ve already started the next portion… I guess life never slows down.
Audrey turns 11!
Back in our own car…
Josephine learns to ride her bike!
One World, 4 Girls 