Waves

It's the day before we leave my parents' house, and I keep having wrong thoughts. Thoughts like, "What else do I need to buy before we go?" Nothing, Gina, because they have Target where you're going. "What do the kids need for the plane?" There IS no plane. "Do we need an extra box for all the stuff we've accumulated this summer?" Um, actually, that's true, we do. It just doesn't have to fit airline standards.

We're not accustomed to this new normal, when leaving this house doesn't mean enduring 24 hours of traveling hurtling through the air in a pressurized metal tube and landing on the other side of the ocean. Now it means enduring 24 hours in a car and ending up at "home."

On the packing and shopping side, this is a relief, even if it means my "I can pack this suitcase to within 1-2 pounds of 50 without using a scale out of sheer practice" skills will go to waste. But last night, Ethan reminded me that it's not just on the surface level that this requires some adjustment.

Right before bed, Ethan tends to evaluate how he's feeling and give me an update (he is currently vying for "most emotionally cognizant and articulate teenage boy on the planet"). Generally, he finds he's feeling some anxiety about the upcoming school year. This time he became aware that part of his anxiety stems from the fact that all this packing and preparing makes him feel like he really IS getting ready for that long haul to China, and it's sad that we aren't. I'm sad too.

Grief. It comes in waves, like you're standing at the edge of the ocean and you don't know when the water will come up and cover your toes, or when it will surprise you by washing up to your knees. You could stand there all day and not have it touch you, and then in a moment it soaks you.

But I feel like the tide is going out. The waves are smaller. We sometimes see them coming. They don't knock us down anymore, just get us a little wet.

So that's how we're feeling as we prepare again to head back. I'm off to make one more trip to Walmart. Until we get to Florida, that is.

Adventures in Our Odyssey

See what I did there? Not just Adventures IN Odyssey, but in OUR Odyssey. That's clever only to those of you whose young children are entertained by Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey series, and even then maybe only a small percentage of you. I thought of it though because it was one of the ways we passed the time in our Odyssey during the 4 day journey to our new home.

On paper, driving a total of 29 hours with two mini-vans, seven adults, two children, three dogs and a trailer sounds like a National Lampoon's vacation. In reality, it wasn't bad at all.

I'll confess, learning to navigate the interstate at reduced speeds with a larger, crazy heavy load because of the trailer was a little hairy. I wasn't even driving, but within 15 minutes I was having thoughts about turning back. I took the wheel halfway across Wisconsin. The last 45 minutes or so through Milwaukee in the dark with heavy traffic managed to squeeze some fairly inhuman squeals from me. I'd rather drive in China any day.

We went to Milwaukee to pick up two of the aforementioned adults and one of the dogs. As we looked ahead to what was a planned two more days of driving, we realized that it seemed a bit infeasible without driving 15 hours the first day and leaving our transmission somewhere in the hills of Tennessee. We decided to stretch it to three which only required finding new hotels to accomodate three dogs. It was an excellent decision.

Ethan was busy making decisions of his own. We'd told them that the whole way could not be spent staring at their 7" TV screens or iPads, so he developed a schedule which went something like, "First hour, we rest. Then we watch a movie for two hours. Then we read for an hour. Then we listen to Adventures in Odyssey . . . " We didn't realize how serious he was until he asked to put in a movie. Erik told him, "We're going to stop soon buddy," and Ethan replied, "But we have to stay on schedule!" That wasn't the only time that happened.

I have to say I'm surprised at how diverse the US geography isn't, at least the way we took. Illinois and Missouri were incredibly flat and Mississippi had some beautiful rolling hills through the woods, but for the most part if you'd told me I was in Minnesota at any given time, I wouldn't have doubted you. Our only stop of interest was Graceland, and that was because in our quest to find the cheapest gas around ($3.04!) we happened onto Elvis Presley Blvd and figured why not? So we took a picture from the fence and called it good.

I swear the minute we crossed the state line into Florida the skies cleared, like this state is hogging all the sunshine. We pulled into our house around 6:30 pm last night. Now the real adventure begins!

The View From Business Class

It has always been my dream to fly internationally in business class so that I could actually sleep on a flight. I am genetically programmed to only be able to sleep prone in dark, quiet places. I usually get to the other side of an international flight looking like a zombie.

So when Erik got upgraded to business class on our way back and offered it to me, I couldn't have been happier if I had just won the lottery. All I could think was, "I will be able to sleep!" And then I discovered that business class is so . . . much . . . more.

Maybe you know this, but business class is where they keep the nice flight attendants, the ones who joke with you and tell you their first names and offer to help you. It's where they put a tablecloth over your tray table and bring you warm mixed nuts in a bowl while you wait for your meal. It's where they offer you champagne, orange juice, or water, and you can veer off course and ask for a mimosa (I discovered this when the girl next to me did. Then I felt like I lost out a little by only getting water). It's where food looks like real food and alcohol is free as my seatmate made fairly clear (I joined her with a Bailey's at one point). But best of all, it's where the seats lay flat and that's what I did for 6 whole hours people. 12 hour flights go by quickly when you sleep for half of them.

So now here I am on the other side still wide awake at 11 pm because I just woke up at 3 pm, but that's ok. It was a great view.