SIX Months!

I tried to find a cool picture
of us with something
"German" in the background
but really this picture sums up a lot
what we have learned and have
grown to appreciate while here. 

On Tuesday we celebrated  our "six months." It really is hard to believe we arrived 6 months ago from Seattle.  On one hand we are still so new here that it seems we've just arrived and on the other hand it feels like years since we left home.
It is hard now to even remember those first feelings and emotions.  Everything was so new and overwhelming and foreign. We were exhausted from the travel and even more exhausted from the 6 months leading up to our departure.  The most vivid memory I have of that time is after getting a brief tour of the house we would call home Marty and I each plopped into an uncomfortable chair in the living room and looked at each other despairingly and both said with our eyes more than our mouths, "what in the world did we just do?"  The kids, I remember very well, were giggling and playing upstairs.  At least they weren't questioning our decision.
But now here we are.  Six months in and things really couldn't be going better.  Sure, we still deal with lifes ups and downs just like we did in Seattle.  Things are not perfect but good, very very good. We have come a long way in the previous 26 weeks.  The kids are now very well established in school.  They both have made several very strong friendships and their social life is solid.  They are growing and exceeding expectations at school and are thriving in all ways academic. 

Josie and Benjamin in front of
their school, JFK. 

They seem to have matured tenfold since our arrival and I could not be more proud of them for coming along, willingly and happily on our crazy journey.  They have not once asked to go home. I honestly feel so thankful about this nearly every day.  So many of my friends here who arrived around when we did say that their kids ask frequently and often to
"go home."  They have embraced this adventure like champs and still remain curious and eager to do and see new things.
Marty and I are both doing very well too.  Marty's work on the radio continues to go smoothly.  We still marvel at this technology.  He gets to ham it up with his on air partner and producers who are also good friends.  So, he feels somewhat connected to Seattle friends, definitely more than I do.  His video production company is still doing great, in large part because of his awesome assistant, Erin, who is doing a spectacular job at holding down the fort and she has a way of keeping everything going smoothly.
I am finding my way here.  I've made a few really good friends. I'm not nearly as stressed at the grocery store.  I am learning some German, yet realize there is still so far to go.  The kids always have a lunch or snack packed for them every day, they nearly always have their library books in their bags on library day as well as permission slips, and I am starting to volunteer more at school. I have new eyes and a new heart for refugees and immigrants.  I have a bigger perspective of the world and am daily amazed at how similar and yet different we all are, as humans.
What we have learned during our 6 months is invaluable and it is difficult to even put it into words.  What I can put into words is how much closer and united we are as a family.  We spend significantly more time together than we did in Seattle.  Our family life and time together is of a much higher quality than it ever had been before.  I don't know if that would wear off with time here but since everything was so new and none of us had friends at first we really stuck together.  We were each other's everything.  And I know that probably isn't healthy in the long run but given that we are all fiercely independent it was a good way to reset as a family and Marty and I as a couple and really come together and KNOW we are and will always be there for each other. That we have each others backs.
In many ways it feels like we have climbed a mountain.  Maybe we aren't even at the top yet but it has been a lot of learning and a lot of work and a lot of rethinking of things we thought we knew - about one another and the world. The mountain looks pretty good from the top.  And now we get to go down, in slow and sweeping turns and see what we can discover in our next 6 months of heading down. Bring on the next 26!  We are ready.

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