One year ago...

We headed home from Germany one year ago (exactly in 7 hours, but I don't plan to get up in the middle of the night to celebrate).  Katey remembers watching TV on the plane and being excited about coming home.  Laurel remembers sleeping in the airport after being up for 20+ hours.  Matthew remembers being ready to come home.  Carter remembers having fun watching TV and playing with his toys on the plane and having his nerf gun confiscated in security!  The kids all enjoyed the flight and are ready to go again anytime!  It seems like just yesterday.  It makes me realize how quick the time passed for people here even though it felt to us like we were gone a really long time!  I also am more aware of what we did.  We went on 13 trips outside the city- two long train rides outside of Bavaria - one all the way to the Baltic Sea.  This fall we went camping in LBL.  Quite the change.  We have enjoyed being home and lots of things have happened this fall that would have been very difficult to handle from a continent away so its good that things worked out they way they have.  We are truly blessed and are very thankful for the opportunities we have had and for the memories of our trip.  We love that they are now aware of life outside the USA and have an appreciation for other cultures.  All of us want to go back, but two of our children want to go back to Germany, to the same apartment, because they love that we all slept in one room and that we got to spend lots of time together.  It makes me a happy Momma to know that being together is what they value the most.  Not sure how that would work with a group of teenagers, but we'd all still like to do it all again someday!  A new adventure, a new day, more memories....