Once our stuff was shipped and with our rental furniture…
We tried to stay somewhat busy since it wasn't too terribly fun hanging out in our bare house. One day when Adeline woke up to go to school, we told her that we would drive her to school that day. We had a little plan and instead of driving her to school, we drove straight to Phantasialand to play for the day. Phantasialand is a german version of Disneyland, but smaller. The kids were so excited! It was fun to hang out together for the day and experience the excitement our kids had for all the rides and characters. What a fun day!
During our last days and weeks in Germany, I tried hard to soak up every single second of it. We went to the ice cream shop about every day before it closed and then said goodbye forever to the sweet owners that knew my kids by name. We went to the market and soaked in the atmosphere and the best produce, bread, eggs, fish, etc. I took the kids to bagels and beans, which was a fun hangout with all our American friends after we did our Thursday shopping. We went to our favorite German parks and let our kids play their hearts out. We also tried to spend as much time with our friends that we had become to love so much and were our family for the last three years. It was truly bittersweet. There were so many things that I was excited about moving back to the States, but so many things that I was going to miss in Germany and the Netherlands. After all, this was a place 2 of my kids were born and pretty much all of my kids could remember. It was home to them.
Shopping in Aachen
Market days…
Fun with friends…
For the last 10 days, we stayed in a guest house. It was fully furnished and really comfortable to live in for our journey in transition. They have bedding, phones, internet, TV…. it's pretty cush. The only problem was that a lot of people and dogs circulate through these places. I hadn't given Chloe any flea medication for a long time (since we never bring her anywhere) and she got fleas!!! I was so frustrated. I spent lots of days de-fleeing the house, Chloe and doing lots and lots of laundry at the base Landromat because there was too much to wash. I'm pretty sure the yard was infested with fleas, so there wasn't much I could do. Once we got rid of them on Chloe and treated her, at least the fleas couldn't live on her and we tried to take her other places to go to the bathroom besides the back yard. No fun to deal with that!
Meika went missing at the guest house…
Anders slept in this little pop up bassinet or kind of wherever for our 3 months transition…
Our last couple days there were really hard for me. I hated saying goodbye to my friends and to the places that I had become my new "normal". Driving around from village to village, I tried to take the scenery and culture in as much as I could because it is something I never want to forget. I made me think of our first couple weeks when we moved to Germany. Every time we drove somewhere, it seemed so weird. It wasn't bad, just different and so foreign. The people, the language, the villages, the countryside, etc. I don't know how many time we said to each other, "Isn't weird that we live here?" Well, it became somewhat normal and it was hard to leave.
Goodbye house that I brought two new babies home to!
Adeline wrote this to one of their little friends…
Two nights before we left, we spent time with our Dutch friends Vera and Neils and their two boys. I love this family so much. They are the most humble and sincere people I possibly have ever met. She is pregnant with her 3rd and I wish so badly that I could be there to met her newest addition when he/she arrives. I hope that we can go back and see them some day or that they can come to the States to visit us!
We met so many wonderful families at church. It was so hard to say goodbye to all them as well!!
Mrs. S!
Our travels to get back to the States was nothing short of an adventure. We had to take a taxi to Belgium and stay in the tiniest hotel rooms with all 6 of us plus Chloe…. PLUS our mounds of luggage. It was ridiculous. We had our bags piled wherever they would fit. The next mourning we flew out of Brussels into Frankfurt. We only had a one hour layover and of course our flight was delayed. Not only was it delayed, but the plane practically dropped us off in the middle of the runway and a bus took us back to the terminal and dropped us off miles from our new terminal/gate. We checked out stroller because we didn't want to have to deal with waiting for it, putting it together, etc. We didn't want to take a chance in missing our connection. So here we were, the 3 girls running as fast as their legs could take them, me holding Anders in his carseat and Abe and I trying to carry all our carry ons and my super heavy camera bag. I am not sure how this happened, but when the military booked our tickets, they didn't put ANY of us together. We had to wait for a bit so they could try to get us sitting by our kids. I ended up sitting my Anders by myself and Abe with the three girls. The kids were good the entire 10 hour plane ride and I was so thankful for that. There were so many tender mercies that day. When we left Belgium to get on that first flight, the shuttle driver helped us get our luggage all the way to the ticket counter and refused to take any sort of tip. We had 3 huge carts full, plus the double stroller. There was an older couple from Ireland that insisted on helping us with the 2nd cart and then Abe pushed the 3rd cart, while I pushed the double stroller and carried more bags. It was ridiculous.
We took up the entire luggage area in the shuttle!
By the time we got to Denver, waiting in customs for 2 hours and took our mega taxi to Colorado Springs to our hotel, it was about 3 or 4 in the morning Germany time. We were all spent, but it felt good to be on American soil and starting a new chapter in our life!
