Coming Home

We've been back in London for a week now. It was a long (and I mean LONG) flight back to England. At the time it felt like the absolute worst flying experience yet, but now that I have had a few days to recover and look at it in comparison to the other times we have crossed the ocean in the last 10 months, I think it might of actually been the easiest trip yet.

That's not saying much taking into account the additional 3 hours we spent sitting on the tarmac in Atlanta waiting to take off, and the few hours that both girls were completely unconsolably crying. Granted, that might be a slight over exaggeration, but it sure felt like they were crying for hours.

Anyhow, I'm just glad the traveling bit is over and our little family is all under the same roof again. Although it felt really strange returning home to London after being away for six weeks.

When I first entered our flat it all felt a weird dream. It didn't feel like "home". It was as quiet and as clean as the first day we moved in. But slowly as the afternoon went by little things reminded me that we were indeed home. Little things like:

The familiar smell of chlorine when I filled the tub for the girls
My favorite bowl of yoghurt and museli
Hearing Jason sing "There's a hole in bottom of the deep blue sea" to Antalya.
Listening the laughter from the bedroom float down the short hall and into the kitchen where I was washing the dishes.
The familiar way that when it was nap time Jason quietly took Antalya to bed while I sat in the same spot where I have nursed Victoria to sleep everyday since she was just a few weeks old.
The way I quietly tiptoed through the flat so as not to wake the little ones from their sleeping slumber.
And finally as I curled up next to Jason's warm body to take a much needed nap.

And then I felt it. I was home!


And then we hit the ground running. Our niece, Laci, flew over with me and the girls to help me survive the flight (I couldn't have done it without her), and so the very next day we switched into tourist mode to show her this beautiful city. And we've been very busy. Buckingham Palace, changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Stonehenge, Windosr Palace, Whipsnade Zoo. We've got just under two weeks to see the rest of the things on our list.

The day we drove out to Stonehenge was absolutely beautiful. As we were driving I was thinking about how unpredictable life is. Thirteen years ago I learned about Stonehenge in a art history class and decided I had to visit their before I died. Now, here I am living less than two hours away and on my third visit to the mystical place.


On the drive back to London I was taken with the beauty of the scenery. Big blue sky, huge fields of golden barley, and green trees. I tried to capture it, but holding my camera out the window with the car going 75 mph down the motorway didn't quite capture what I was hoping for, but you get the idea.


With every golden field we passed it hit me more and more how much I have fallen in love with this country. It feels like home. And although I know the day will come when we have to part and return back to our homeland, for now I am happy just being here. When the day does come to say goodbye, I know part of my heart will forever stay here in England.