A visit from home...

My nephew and his wife came to visit us for 4 days at the end of their 2 week vacation and it was wonderful. I'm so touched that they drove to Frankfurt from Milan and gave up some of their time alone together to see us and our new home. It made me feel happier to be here, more in touch with my family, and made everything seem more real to me.

I was proud to show off our house here and happy that they seemed to really like it. We enjoyed taking them around Frankfurt and the Taunus region, even though we didn't do anything too exciting. We had a couple of very good dinners out, a nice birthday brunch for my niece and some fun time together watching movies and playing games. It was a lot of fun.

But, more than that, it was great for me to get a feel of family again, here in Frankfurt. My family is very close and very important to me. Even though we haven't lived near any of them for 15 years, I'm in constant contact through email and phone calls. The 6 hour time difference here makes phone calls much harder and email has that unreal feel to it at times, so I was so happy to see my nephew and his wife, be able to talk to them face-to-face, laugh with them, and show them the life we're making for ourselves here.

I had no idea how important this visit would be to me. As excited as I was to see them before they arrived, I didn't realize what a boost it would be to me emotionally to have them here, even for only 4 days. I think it's more important than I realized to keep in touch w/loved ones back home, regardless of how difficult it might be to do so. As much as I understand how important it is blend in here and make friends, both myself and for my children, I was struck by how happy their visit made me and how important it is to talk to and visit with people who are important to me.

Their visit was on the tail end of dd#1's long weekend trip back to Chicagoland and reinforced for me that it's important for her to be able to see her friends, even if it's expensive for us. We were expecting her two best friends to visit over the Thanksgiving break, but when we found out that one girl wouldn't be able to come, I emailed dd#1's boyfriend's mother and offered to pay half of his airfare if he would come for Thanksgiving. This way, not only could dd#1 see her boyfriend and he see Germany, but also her other friend would still be able to come, since she would not be traveling alone. DD#1 was thrilled, of course, but I'm happy to know that she's able to stay in touch with her best friends and see them with some regularity.

While I had originally thought that we'd all benefit by concentrating on acclimating ourselves here and not working as hard on finding ways to see people back home, just emailing and calling them, I've decided that, at least right now, the emotional boost of seeing people we love is worth the extra effort and expense involved in making it happen. So, I guess we'll keep sending dd#1 back to Chicagoland, we'll all drive there over the summer so dds#2&3 can also see their friends, we'll go back to NY over Christmas to see the family and rearrange our schedules however necessary to accomodate any and all visitors. But I also think I'll invest in a camera for my computer so we can get connected to skype and see the people we talk to. There's nothing like laughing together and seeing the people you talk to, at least now and then.