Texas

I don't have a lot of coherent thoughts to share, but I thought I'd update on our "status" as we have repatriated back to the United States.

The boys LOVE it here.  We were at the mall recently, buying maternity clothes for me, and the boys found a little fountain that people had thrown money into.  They wanted to make a wish.  Levi wished out loud that "we would never leave Texas."  He's pretty happy to be here, which makes us really happy, too.

We have eaten a lot of Chick-Fil-A.  Now that they have grilled nuggets, I can actually eat there (gluten intolerant)!  And I have been craving their waffle fries!  But...Levi hates it.  He won't eat anything except the applesauce.  He'll actually tell you it's his favorite restaurant, but that is only because of the playground.  After several years of trying to get him to eat chicken in every form imaginable (grilled, baked, breaded, plain, fried...), we've finally just resigned ourselves to the fact that the kid won't eat chicken.

After 4 days of being in the country, Levi and I picked up a virus my nieces were passing between themselves. Thankfully we didn't get a bad case, but my poor 5yo niece, Ava, got it so bad that it took on a life of its own and she lost 6 pounds (she only weighed 41 to begin with) and had to be hospitalized.  We're thankful she's on the mend and back to being able to play (mostly) with the boys.

On our third day of looking at houses we found one!  We are set to close on April 5, and we are so ready to be settled somewhere!!

The same day we found our house, my car broke down.  Thankfully we have a great, trustworthy mechanic friend who had it back to us the next day!

I had to quickly find a pediatric dentist that will be on our new insurance plan when a piece of Caleb's molar broke off last night.  He has a cavity that started between his molars, and now he will have to have a silver crown put on it.  He also has several more cavities between his molars, despite our brushing and flossing.  His baby teeth are big and they are incredibly close together.  On April 11, he will go in for a big morning of dental work.  Fun times.

It's been nice being 10 minutes from my sister's house, and I've been able to watch my nieces while she runs errands.  It's really great to be near family again.

In the last week I've started to feel the baby move, which is always reassuring.  I go to the doctor next Monday to see my sweet OB that delivered both of the boys.

We are doing well, despite all the craziness of the last week and a half.  It's still weird that we're here indefinitely and not for a few weeks.  I don't need to stock up on a year's worth of clothes and toiletries, which is nice, but still strange.  We live here again.  Yep, still weird.

Limbo

I have some amazing pictures of our trip to Australia and New Zealand, but they are at our "old" apartment (which Levi took to calling it yesterday before we had even spent one night away) and I am at the hotel.  The boys and I are having a leisurely morning here while Justin is meeting the movers at the apartment.  They got a lot done yesterday, and it's amazing to watch them work.  They have stuffed sheets, towels, and toys into every nook and cranny of our furniture so that everything packs up tighter, which is great because we have A LOT of stuff.

We have four more nights in Singapore before we board a plane bound for Texas with no return ticket.  It's surreal that this 6-year adventure is finally over.  Justin started working on this project when Caleb was 4 months old, and that's how far in advance we knew that moving to Singapore was a possibility.  We even planned when we got pregnant with Levi around our move so he wouldn't be a newborn when we moved overseas.  It has consumed our lives for a very long time.

In Sunday School this past week, we were talking about the move and that it would be our last time in church there.  A "new" girl was sitting beside me, and she looked at me with "the look" in her eye and said, "You don't sound excited."  "The look" is recognizable by expats...it's the look that "newbies" have in their eye when they are overwhelmed with having left their comfort zone and moved to a new country.  I told her that I was excited, but that this week in particular I was feeling the loss more than I had previously.  It was becoming real.  I also told her that it took me a whole year to feel at home here, and I remember that time well.  I would have said the same thing in her shoes because when you're new you can't imagine not being ecstatic about going back home to stay.

But after 2 years, 9 months, and 4 days, we are different people.  And we have friends here (and friends who are like family) who have helped us cope, helped us grow, and helped us truly live here.  Thankfully, many of our friends here have ties to Houston so we will be able to reconnect with them again.  But that's not the case with all our friends.  The goodbyes here are different than when we left Texas.

To our friends and family in the US...we cannot wait to see you and catch up and reconnect!  Please be patient with us, though.  You might not understand why we're sad or why/how we've changed or why we're struggling when we've moved back to a place we know and love.  That's ok.  Just love us and give us grace.  And don't be surprised if you see us in HEB and we are completely overwhelmed by the choices.  Just smile and walk away.  :-)

House hunting here we come...