The Past 4 Days.

Over the past 4 days, life in Berlin has turned really, really happy.

It started with my mom's visit on Thursday. We had 2 incredible days and I am very grateful that we got to spend them together. Hopefully, she will come back soon, because it didn't feel nearly enough time to get a chance to talk about every topic that we should have covered.

Let me tell you. Over the past 5 years, I haven't been able to see my parents and brothers very often. For one reason or the other, in between, there was a stretch of 3.5 years when it was impossible for me to go and seen them and vice versa. It was difficult.

We skyped every day and while I am really thankful for this kind of technology, it doesn't replace anything. It doesn't let you be there for birthdays, births, weddings, special events, illnesses, stressful times, deaths ... you name it and it happened during those years. This is just what comes with living in different countries and even if this required some strength to adjust, I am still very, very lucky. My in-laws are a wonderful and loving family, who welcomed me as their daughter from day one (who does that?!) and through the countless video calls with my family, my parents and I are much closer now than we have ever been before.

Even Prince Charles can't deny how awesome video chats are.
Source

What I am trying to say is, if you hear me whine a lot about being far away from people I love, I am complaining on a very high level, because when it comes down to it, everyone in our family stays as close as possible - no matter how many miles are in between.

Above all this, Nick and I are in the same place and when it comes down to it, nothing else matters.
Speaking of which, he is back home. He arrived this morning. We did it!!!

Lucy is probably the happiest of all of us. She had to deal with a truly insane sleeping schedule, my w(h)ining, the long walks, the almost daily deep cleaning of the apartment, and getting me to pull it together ...

That was her. Every day. It was rough.
Source

- but it's all over now.

So I am going to have a happy wine from one of the previous sad wine bottles and call it a day a major victory that we survived the last 5 weeks of heavy traveling.

Tomorrow, I will have more to tell you, because I went on my first attempt to run.

Happy Monday, everyone!