Getting Closer....

Well, we are just about ready...8 more days and counting. Today is Thursday, May 7, 2009 and Stig is in Belgium working, he has been gone for almost two weeks now. Stig is coming home tomorrow afternoon so that he can help get our house packed up and we can all fly to Belgium together. I feel that it is important for all of us to go together since this is a life changing event for our entire family. I want the girls to feel secure with what is happening and for our first trip over to be a family experience that we share together. We will be leaving next Friday, May 15, 2009. Stig has a really great surprise for the girls...he was able to get our tickets upgraded and we are all flying business class! Wow, that will be so great, but now we are all going to be spoiled and it will be hard to go back to flying coach after that! But of course I am not going to turn it down.

Everyone seems to be doing pretty well with the move although I think we are sad about leaving our friends and family. Just trying not to focus on what we are leaving but what we are going to. Elena's soccer coach was trying to be sweet and nice at practice last week telling all of the girls that Elena was moving and would not be back for next season and to make sure that they all said good-bye to her. Although his intentions were good, the result was that Elena cried all the way home from practice. She said that she thought she was over being sad and that she knew this was really happening and it was time to quit bit upset about it, but every time she thinks she is done with crying something else triggers her. Well, I had to agree with that and say that is exactly how I am feeling too. In fact, I cried when the family that bought our van drove off! How crazy is that? Crying over a van! That van was just a symbol of all the changes that we are going through. I just had a couple of tears and then I was over it. Adriana is the one who has not said anything negative about our move she has just insisted that she is fine and has "no worries". I knew she was just bottling up her feelings, but I just couldn't seem to get her to open up. I found a little note that she had written to Ciarra, it said "I can't believe we are moving again". It was hard to tell if she meant that in an excited way or if she was upset. Finally, last night after much tugging and pulling I got her to open up. She was feeling sad about leaving her friend Bekah Anderson that she plays outside with everyday. It has been raining here for several days and so they have not been able to go outside. She said, "I only have a few more days with Bekah and it is raining and I am not going to see her". So I called Bekah's mom and she said to send Adriana over to chat with Bekah for bit while she fixed dinner. That seemed to do wonders, Adriana came home all smiles and was quite pleasant the rest of the evening.

It is hard to say what Isabella is thinking about all of this since she is only 4. She doesn't quite understand exactly what is happening. She doesn't seem to understand that we are taking all of our things with us. Although, when I tried to explain she said "like the big truck that moved us from our old house in Andiana"? (Yes, she says Andiana instead of Indiana - she said she likes to say it that way.) I can't believe she really remembers that, she was only 2-1/2! So I guess she "gets" it a little, but she keeps talking about her next birthday party and who she will invite, etc., etc.. I went to tuck her into bed the other night and she had some things lined up at the end of her bed, a backpack, doll suitcase, basket, coloring books, just a bunch of "stuff". I said, "what's all this", she said, "that's what I am taking to Belgium". Too cute! Guess she decided to pack her own things.

Overall, I think we are all doing very well and at this point we are just ready to take that big leap across the pond!