Jiggety Jig!

Home! What a wonderful word! We're home. Crossing the border into Bulgaria two weeks ago was one of the most extraordinary moments I have experienced. For exactly two months and two point five weeks we were just one country away from all that is home to us. We were not allowed to go home. We could not return to our beds, our Christmasy stuff, our apartment, our routines, and most importantly, our friends and those who have become family to us in Bulgaria. Mere red tape prevented us from crossing the border.

On January 28th, that reality changed for us. We crossed the border! Life is returning to normal. Disclaimer: I, actually, do not know what a normal life might look like but for all intents and purposes, I will use the word "normal" in this post.

Bulgaria / Greece Border Crossing

We sat at the border late that Friday afternoon between Greece and Bulgaria, waiting to see if the border guards would indeed stamp our passports and send us on our way. All seemed to be in order. The guard returned our stamped passports and we were in Bulgaria!

Wow. Seeing the Bulgarian flag and hearing the guard speak Bulgarian to us were the first of many reminders that we were indeed home. Excitement grew in the car on the ride from the border to Sofia as we encountered simple, but very tangible tokens of home. A red Happy sign told us we were in Bulgaria. The snow-peaked mountains sitting in the east as we drove, the billboards of Bulgarian mobile phone operators, villages through which the highway took us . . . all reminders that we were going HOME!

Two weeks later and life is slowly falling into a rhythm. The kids are back at school. After recovering from a bout of illness, overnight visa travel back to Greece, and a school road trip for John and Luke to a basketball tournament in Budapest.

We are excited about what's ahead. We are thrilled to see the kids bounce right back into their social circles and school - and into basketball! We are thankful for friends here who have taken care of us physically and emotionally. We are thankful for family and friends at home in the US and abroad who have done the same, without whom we could not be here at all. We are thankful to be here, where - good or bad - all of our senses are met with a warm greeting of Welcome Home.


Now . . . back to work!