Almost once a day, one of us will look up our upcoming flight to the US and declare, “we still have a flight!” As the days get closer and closer, I am getting more and more excited I have to admit. Ana’s parents (my fab in laws) fly in Monday night to be at our place while we are away to take care of our pups and plants and location for the two and a half or so weeks we are in the US.

We fly out of Berlin around 6am on Wednesday morning. Our route is a long one…Berlin to Paris to Atlanta to Portland. We get in at 5:30pm or so on Wednesday to Portland, OR. Our location. We haven’t been to Oregon for almost two years and I am feeling the nervousness mount as much as the excitement.

In two years we have weathered the pandemic life. In two years, we have met more neighbors, learned more language, grown more plants, and committed more to life in this part of the world. In two years, we have watched the family from screens, watching the nieces and nephews grow way past what we remember when we hugged them last. We all have changed and grown and adjusted to this new normal. So will it be weird? Will I feel completely different? Will it feel familiar but not quite? Will my people understand all of what I am going through and how I have changed as much as they have?

We are nervous about the Delta variant growing over there and our travel that direction. We are excited to see the ocean and eat tacos and hug family. We are nervous about leaving our pups for 2.5 weeks but excited to travel to be with family in Sunriver over labor day weekend, a new experience for Ana in Oregon. We are nervous about all of the stuff of travel…it has been a while since we have done this monumental trip…but we are so excited to see friends and a city we love.

It all comes at once. It all seems to come to the forefront each time we look up our flight once again and I look at my to do list before we go. It is both nervewracking and so exciting!

Seems to be a good descriptor of our life these days in these times and at this moment in time. We are nervous about what will be but also excited about what could be. Do you agree?