Home Sweet Home

July rolled around very quickly and before we knew it we were bracing ourselves for the harrowing journey back to the US. There are no direct flights from the US to Hamburg (unfortunately) so we flew to Frankfurt first. This is a short flight and things started off smoothly. However, Calvin decided to become a flight risk the moment we landed in Frankfurt and were in the Passport Border Control line. He took off running under all the ropes. B had all our bags and I had Kenna strapped to me in the carrier. It was difficult to duck under the ropes in the line with a baby strapped to me and Cal has gotten fast. I chased him what felt like a mile down a hallway, past another line of people in a different passport control queue that was super long. He managed to slip by all these people and run right through the customs booths! A guard had to get out of his booth and chase Cal down because I couldn't just go through. So yes, hundreds of strangers watched me chase down my two year old boy and fail. To say it was mortifying was an understatement. He had never done that before so we were not expecting it and because I was chasing him, he laughed the whole time and thought it was a game.

I was sweating profusely at this point and basically had to drag Cal all the way back to our customs line past all these people who just witnessed him make a break for it. I can laugh now but at the time I was seething and already totally exhausted. The airports in Europe don't always make it easy on parents, a lot of them involve stairs once you go through your gate, bus rides after that to your plane and then stairs up the plane to get on. These are all things we had to endure at Frankfurt before getting seated. Thank goodness for a wonderful woman who was on our flight who helped us carry our luggage down so I could carry Kenna and help Calvin down. She was actually from Chicago and heading home as well. Not one German person watching us struggle offered to help which honestly was not very surprising. It has been my experience that you should be able to manage on your own and strangers don't often offer help even when you desperately need it. In America people are especially nice to pregnant women and mom's with children. The amount of smiles and just genuine niceness you get was really nice to experience. They hold open doors and give up their seats, etc. Even when I was noticeably pregnant in Germany we would be on the bus or train and noticed not one person would offer to move so I could sit down when the seats were full. People do not smile at you or hold open doors, pregnant or not. That's not to say that Germans are mean spirited, on the flip side they don't want or expect your help either.

We managed the 9 hour flight from Franfurt ok. The kids didn't sleep for more than an hour total which really sucked for B and I. It gives you no downtime to relax and you are just constantly trying to entertain small children in their seats. Exhausting is an understatement. I long for the days when they will watch a whole movie! Kenna started to get a bit feverish toward the end of the flight and she definitely cried for a solid 20 minutes but for a 9 hour flight I chalk that up as a win. I could tell she wasn't feeling well coupled with the fact she was overtired it was a bad combination. I have never felt such despair as the moment we got off the plane and made it to the Customs area and saw that line. It was thousands of people long and snaked all the way around the airport in what felt like over a mile long line that looped back and forth. Again, not one person offered to let us go and Kenna basically cried the entire time we were in line. At this point there was nothing we could do but just get through it. Thankfully the line moved much quicker than we thought it would and it only took us a bit over an hour to get through it.

We still had to go to baggage claim to get our bags (we were staying for a month after all so there was a lot of stuff needed) and thankfully when we arrived our planes bags were already circling. Unthankfully, not one of our three checked bags were on the carousel. My bag, the most important and expensive bag was nowhere to be found. We searched and searched and finally talked to a gate agent. They pointed us to the line for missing bags and I about fainted. We would have been at the airport for hours. Kenna was still crying at this point and Bergs talked to another employee to see what we should do. They told us to wait in line but that we could leave and call regarding our bags so that is what we did. We had to get these kids home and in bed. Over the course of the month long stay we spent about 15 hours+ on hold or talking to customer service regarding our missing bags. A few days after arriving we received two of our three bags. Spoiler alert: I never got MY bag (*See note above about it being the most expensive and important bag) the entire month I spent in Chicago. That is a story for another day.

It was wonderful seeing my mom who picked us up from the airport. She could tell we were so drained so she sat in back with the crying children and tried to soothe and entertain them for the 45 minute car ride home. My brother Ryan and his wife Ari brought us Portillo's (If you know you know...SO GOOD!) for dinner and we finally settled in for the long night and few days of trying to get over jet lag with the kiddos. It was so amazing seeing my brothers and sisters in law, nieces and nephews, etc. I loved that everyone got to meet my daughter, finally at 9 months old! Everything evened out and we attended a party at Ryan and Ari's for the 4th of July. We celebrated the actual 4th of July at my mom's and our family came over along with B's parents. The kids saw fireworks for the first time and that concluded our first weekend home in America. We then traveled to Oak Park to stay with B's parents for a bit. This was relaxing and fun for the kids. We took lots of walks, went to many parks and just tried to stay cool in the hot weather. I got to see my best friend Lauren and get my hair done at the same time. We had a huge barbeque at Berg's best friends parents house and it was so fun to get together with all our friends who now all have kids of their own. Our families have all grown and changed so much and its so cool to see everyone as moms and dads now! We had such a blast and a few too many cocktails but it was all worth it in the end. The day before we left to go back to Cary to spend some more time with my family two of my girlfriends from Atlanta flew in to Chicago to see me. I got to meet them for a girls night out and we had such a blast. We got incredible drinks at The Aviary and then went and had dinner at Aba on their gorgeous patio downtown. The food was amazing but the company was even better and I was so thrilled they made that trip for me. We ended up meeting them again downtown the next day so they could see Calvin and meet Kenna for the first time. This was so fun as well and then we said goodbye to them as they made their way back home.

We then headed back to Cary to spend our last week with my family and were supposed to be going to Galena for a small family vacation but Covid had other plans. Bergs had been feeling ill for awhile but kept testing negative. He eventually went to an urgent care and took a PCR test. Unfortunately, that turned out to be positive. I shortly followed with symptoms and we were out for the count each for about 24 hours. The kids got it as well but thankfully their cases seemed pretty mild overall and within a few days they were back to their normal selves with lots of energy. Regardless, we had to cancel going to Galena with the rest of the family and my mom celebrated her birthday at home with my sick family and some sushi we ordered. We made the best of it but to have our last 10 days of the trip stuck inside, not really able to hang with my brothers was really sad and frustrating. We saw everyone outside on last time before we left for home and it was bittersweet. I wanted more time with everyone but at the same time was dying to get back home to Germany and get my kids back on a routine. The flight back wasn't as bad. The layover in Frankfurt was 5 hours as our flight time got changed a few days before. That was tough entertaining Cal for that long but there was a golf cart parked by where we were sitting that he played on for like 2 hours happily. He still talks about it to this day and asks to go to the airport to play on the car. Kids...they are so crazy.

We made it back and it took a bit for the kids to adjust to going back to kita. Calvin's sleep also was severely damaged by the trip home and hasn't been the same since so we are still struggling with that. All in all it was a good trip home but not one we are willing to repeat so we will not be home again until we move back in 2023! Oh and I did finally get my bag back...a courier dropped it off at our front door on August 17th, out of the blue with no warning. Everything was in it and I still got reimbursed for a big chunk of items and clothing I had to purchase while in America. Moral of the story is, pack light if you can because losing your bag is more of a headache than it is worth! There were not as many pictures from this trip as I thought there would be. When we were with our friends and other adults we were so engaged in conversation and catching up that taking photos just fell to the wayside. Anywhoo...what I have I will add below.