Reflections: Our First Week Home

We are home! It has been a very busy but productive first week back in Austria. Being back here feels just as good as I was expecting. There is something about being back home that gives me a sense of peace and a feeling of being settled that I have missed so much over the last 7 months.

Although we didn't have long to get over jet lag and get settled before life picked up again, we at least had a few days to run errands, sleep and get organized. Some things we accomplished included:

• Picking up Ellie's visa that I applied for back in January. All set!
• Unpacking and finding spots for everything we acquired while we were in the U.S.
• Sorting through our belonging at home and putting back all of our decor items that were moved while we were away
• Buying groceries and stocking up on basic household products, like toiletries, paper towels, etc.
• Planting our balcony garden with herbs
• Planting our community garden plot
• Getting lots of items ready for the interns, like binders of documents, cell phones and a gift basket

It was a busy busy few days, but we are all settled and back into the swing of things, with our interns here and Nate preparing for a sermon at the end of the month.

Here are a few photos from our travels and our first week back!

On the plane! We had a very smooth flight. Ellie enjoyed activities and then slept for about 4.5 hours.

We're here in Vienna! With so so many bags....

Planting and watering our balcony garden

Back at the dog park with Mozzy. We were so excited to be reunited!

Ellie decorating signs for our interns

Baby is 22 weeks! I had swollen ankles after the flight, but now things are back to normal. 

My helper planting our vegetables in our community garden plot (in a raised bed).

Visiting Schönbrunn Palace with our interns and seeing the roses.

Our interns are here!!

Nate got an immersion circulator for his birthday in March and has been so excited to try it out!

Emotional Ups and Downs

As some of you already know, I (Bethany) flew back to Vienna at the beginning of January to renew Ellie's visa. It seems a bit silly and extravagant to fly back for only 3 days just to file paperwork, but we saw no way around it. And in fact, I was pretty excited about the whole thing. I enjoy flying and the thought of travelling on my own without a toddler to entertain sounded very relaxing! I was also excited to spend time with our dog and see some friends. Sounded like a good plan.

Little did I know the trip would be one of the most physically grueling things I've done in a long time. I came down with some sort of weird virus the last day of our Florida trip. It started out as a 5-day low grade fever and then morphed into bad cold symptoms, a headache and general achiness. By the time I boarded the plan to Amsterdam, I was not feeling any better and this did not change throughout my time in Vienna. Jet lag plus sickness made for an exhausting 5 days. It was a big disappointment to me after anticipating this trip for months.

I knew going into the trip that my time there would be emotional. We miss Vienna and our home a lot. We miss our dog, our friends, our church, our routine and speaking German. We are thankful for the opportunity to be back in the States, but it no longer quite feels like home to us and it's difficult to be on the road so much. So it was difficult and emotional to go back to Vienna and get a short taste of home without being able to stay. It was hard to say goodbye to the dog again, knowing he doesn't understand why we've left him for so long. (I know he's less broken up about this than I am, but still...) It was difficult to see friends, only to say goodbye all over again.

In some ways, walking down Vienna's streets also felt oddly normal. Nothing has changed; life still goes on there as it always had. It was home, not some magical place I was visiting. The normalcy was kind of refreshing. But the whole visit also felt like some sort of other-worldly experience that wasn't actually happening.

I filed Ellie's visa paperwork, thankfully still competent enough in German to understand the office personnel. I had an appointment at her pre-school, where she starts in September, did some shopping, met up with friends, and then got back on a plane to head home. By the time I landed in Minneapolis, my head was pounding, I couldn't stop coughing and I couldn't hear out of my left ear. (The customs agent made fun of this, because I had to keep asking him to repeat himself. He thought it was funny...I didn't laugh.) Add that to having just said goodbye to my home again and I was emotional wreck. It was not a fun day.

Things have leveled out now, with the help of antibiotics, sleep and some time to process. I am very thankful, despite the difficulties, for the chance to go back and reconnect with our home city. I'm thankful Ellie got to spend extra quality time with Papa and her grandparents while I was away. I'm thankful we have a home and a dog to go back to in June, a country we've grown to love and a culture and language we've slowly begun to understand. I'm also thankful, though, that this emotional roller coaster of a trip is over and behind me. Just like the rides we rode at Disney World last week, these twists and turns left me feeling a bit jostled and thrown around. Time for a few days of normalcy before the next change happens...

We're Still Alive

Sorry for the recent blogging hiatus! Life was quite hectic in March and at the end of the month, our time was filled with getting ready for our second big trip over the ocean (read about the first here). We flew back to the States on March 31 and are staying for two weeks to celebrate Nate's brother Neil's wedding. We are so thrilled to be here celebrating with Neil and Caitlin, and it's been a really special time connecting with family.

In other news, things with our church relocation back in Vienna are going strong, and this is still a big prayer request. When Nate returns on April 14th, he will hit the ground running with this, attending meetings with the contractor and architect, coordinating volunteers and helping with the renovations himself. He will also be preaching in May, so you can pray for him as he prepares!

When Nate flies back to Vienna, Ellie and I will be staying two more weeks in the States visiting my family in CT. Ellie still flies for free (since she is under 2), so I figure this is probably the last time we can take a trip like this. We are looking forward to seeing everyone out there again! Ellie did really well on the flights here and has adjusted well to the time change. She has warmed up to Oma and Opa (Nate's parents) and has enjoyed some great one-on-one time with them on our trip. She is not walking yet, but getting closer everyday. She is now regularly standing without holding onto anything, so that's a "step in the right direction".

Just for fun, here are a few photos we took of Ellie today. Thanks for your prayers for us!

Going Back

This coming Thursday, Ellie and I (Bethany) will fly back to the U.S. for a 10-day visit to Connecticut to see my family. I'm very excited and have been preparing for weeks now...making packing lists, buying new toys for the plane (small ones!), thinking of strategies to keep her entertained, etc. I have even made little gifts for 12 of the people sitting around us on the plane, complete with candy, ear plugs and a sweet note from Ellie (pictured to the left). My hope is to endear them to us before she starts breaking down :) 

I'm excited, first and foremost, to spend quality time with my family and for them to get to see Ellie at this stage. It will be so fun to have all of the cousins together and to go trick-or-treating (ages 9 months to 13 years!). I'm also excited about being there in the fall. Connecticut is beautiful this time of year, and I can't wait to carve pumpkins, eat honey crisps apples, drink apple cider, photograph leaves and explore a corn maze. I will also have the chance to share an update at two supporting churches, which will be a really valuable opportunity to connect people with what God is doing in Austria.

However, there are a few parts of the trip that I'm nervous about. Understandably, I am nervous about flying with Ellie alone and how she will cope with being couped up on a plane for 9 hours. I'm also nervous about how she will handle jetlag and if that will put a damper on my time there. But most of all, I'm nervous and a bit curious about how I will handle being back in my home country after being gone for 2 years. Will it make me even more homesick? Will I notice things about the U.S. that bother me and become judgmental towards my home culture, idealizing our home in Vienna? Will I be overwhelmed with the amount of choices at the grocery store, paralyzed in the cereal or salad dressing aisle? I have no idea what to expect or how I can be preparing myself now for the feelings I will encounter...other than to start thinking and processing it now.

Your prayers for us are appreciated, specifically...

• For a smooth flight experience with Ellie and patient people on the plane
• For a blessed time with family
• For Nate, as he holds down the fort by himself
• For me, as I return to my home culture and process the journey we've been on for the last two years