I’m sitting in the dark on my hotel bed, drinking wine from
a paper cup, and thinking about how I will redistribute the weight between our
suitcases for our flight back to the U.K. tomorrow. The boys are sleeping,
hence the dark room, and I’m not far behind. It’s not like I had a physically
challenging day, but there is definitely an energy toll we pay for dealing with
STUFF.
We were originally supposed to fly out today, but the visas
were held up in New York and we had to remain in limbo. Not knowing if they
would be ready in one, two, or four days. So, more time on the phone with the
car rental place, more time booking hotels, more time cancelling and rebooking
flights, and more time trying to entertain two very active boys in a hotel
room. Those things are stressful.
I hide it well. I try not to get overly emotional or
negative, but I have my moments. Dave is confused though because he hasn’t seen
many of those moments and he’s starting to think I have a heart of stone or
something. That’s certainly not it, but I do feel like I need to hold it
together for the kids. Plus, I try not to get too upset about the things I/we
can’t control. What can we do? Just move on.
Most of our trip was really quite wonderful. The kids fell
in love with their grandparents all over again, we got to cuddle my new great
nephew, Archer, I had time for a massage and new color for my hair, we had time to reconnect with friends, and the kids
visited almost every playground in Winona. And Dave? Well, he basically worked
the whole time. While the rest of us were here on an extended vacay, he went into
work in St. Cloud. Still, reconnecting with coworkers is important and luckily,
he truly enjoys the people he works with.
We are a day behind schedule and the costs that go
along with that one day are HIGH. I really just want to put this trip and this
whole visa debacle in the past. It has been our biggest headache and I just
know it will feel good not to think about it anymore. K1 won’t be in school
illegally once he has his special stamp, and Dave won’t get questioned about
his lack of a UK bank card!
We will arrive back in England on Thursday morning (30
October) just in time to participate in the Trunk-or-Treat at school on Friday
and of course celebrate Dave’s birthday.
I’m not going to share a lot of pictures with this post. I
just don’t have that many on my phone and Dave isn’t around to share his
tonight. Stay tuned for a post of mainly just pictures.
