Well our trip was a success. Small Sun was a magnificent trooper. He didn't cry on any of the flights, even though we were traveling for a total of about 12-15 hours each way. Poor guy was coming down with something before we left and by the time we landed he was SICK. Then, poor me, I caught it from him. We spent the whole week wheezing and coughing and crying because our throats hurt so badly. However, when you have only one week in which to see all of your family and friends you there's not much to do but power through. Even being sick he charmed the family (he was meeting most of them for the first time) and that was really the point of the trip.
We rented a car and drove all over the place visiting great grandmas, aunts and uncles, The Captain's mom and dad, and our beloved friends. It was so good to be back. After just a week our link with America felt so thin and we were ready to fly home, home being somewhere else other than small-city Tennessee. It's odd - we don't want to move back to Holland but being there reminds us of all that we value and love that we're not experiencing in our current life. We spent some time with American friends in Amsterdam. They've been there for ten years and are getting ready to move, with their two small children, to Belgium to "get out of the city" for awhile. They were very enthusiastic about our desire to move to Australia and kept saying "do it, now's a great time, go for it".
Upon returning home and attending my doctor's appointment I heard the strong and steady "woosh woosh" of our baby's heartbeat. With it descended a powerful nesting instinct. Since we can't apply for visas while I'm pregnant our current plan is to wait until this fall to make THE DECISION. Do we stay here and buy a bigger house, or do accelerate our efforts to move to Sydney? Right now my nesting instinct is blind. It wants to do to this house all the projects we have in mind. It wants to buy every bigger house in the neighborhood and get settled before the baby gets here. It wants to hurry up and move to Australia so I can get that house settled...before the baby gets here. We've been waiting and waiting, for legitimate reasons, to move and right now I just want to do it. Ideally to Sydney, but soon. When I lie on my back at night (for short periods of time!) I feel like the baby is sitting cross legged on my stomach, pushing its head against my skin. It's telling me - "hey, this space is too small for us, we need to find a bigger one." Culturally, this space is to small.
Well I'm up writing all of this under the influence of jet lag. My brother Austin is expecting his baby girl any day now. My parents are globetrotting and keep calling us from their cellphone in Israel. The world we love and are connected to is so big, and we're living in such a small part of it. Anyway, Small Sun is responding to the time change with the desire to get out of his crib...at least it's 7 instead of yesterday's 5:45 am. Please forgive any blathering that has taken place here, I'm just trying to sort myself out. And yea, even though there weren't any sea storms, the trip was great.
Welcome home! I don't remember the Sydney plan... how long has that been cooking?
Posted by: cloudscome | 06 June 2006 at 03:37 PM