Fairfields in Germany: After...

It's July. We've been home well over a month. The dust is settling. The boxes all arrived. The suitcases have been unpacked and stored. The house feels like ours again. There were hiccups, but nothing insurmountable. I have moments when I get "taken back" and miss the smells, the sounds, the life we built in Munich. It was too short. I can't wait to go back...

Exciting things happened after our return: ME got her learner's permit. MK graduated from Eastern Mennonite High School. The younger girls have been to summer camp. ME went on the EMS Discovery 2019 trip. I sang in the Shenadoah Valley Bach Festival. MK and I went to Juniata College orientation weekend. Life keeps trucking along, but we'll always treasure the nine months we made München our home. The friendships will continue thanks to social media and digital communication! Trips to visit are already in the works. MK plans to study her junior year abroad in Germany. ME wants to apply for the Congress-Bundestag exchange program for a gap year. HR plans to spend a summer with friends in Bonn and München. GE is binge-watching all the One Piece DVD's we've collected (I think we're up to box 14??) now that she can understand all the German! So, the connections remain and we'll cherish the memories.

Thank you to all the friends we made, to those of you who wrote to us, prayed for us, and liked my posts or photos. I'm still not quite "at home" at home, but maybe I never will be. Experiences like this change us. I wouldn't be who I am or have made the choices I have if my parents hadn't moved me to Germany when I was 10. I wouldn't change it for the world. I hope my girls remember this past year the same way. I hope they've gained more than they lost. I hope the independence, the language, the exposure to another way and pace of life will remain with them always. And I hope they go back. Again and again. As often as they can. I certainly will.

Dinner out at a Japanese steakhouse after MK's senior presentation.

Final performance with the 2019 Touring Choir

EMS Class of 2019

Special thanks to this wonderful counselor who was MK's "2nd mom" after her aunt (who she lived with this year). DK was a shoulder to cry on, a comforting presence at school when MK was stressed, and always had an open door and listening ear.