We have been back in the States for about 9 months now. They say when you move overseas it takes about 6 months to adjust, sometimes it can take up to a year. I believe that is true whether you are moving to a foreign country or moving back to your own. Things change when you're gone, people change. For better or worse, relationships change.
When we were in Germany and I thought about how my life would be when we returned to Texas, it was different than my life really is. I thought we would live near where we used to live, go to the same church we used to go to, and hang out with the same friends we used to hang out with. Thankfully, we still see some of our old friends occasionally, but we live 45 minutes to an hour away from most of them. Not only that but we have all changed some. Most of us are now parents. I returned to the States as a mom, and a stay-at-home mother at that. In Germany all of my friends who had children stayed home with their children or worked a part time job from home. Here many of my "old" friends work full time or part time away from home. Several of them are not married or do not have children. Which is fine, I love people who are in all stages and walks of life.
I am a people person. The title, stay-at-home mom is very deceiving. I honestly don't know any stay-at-home mom who really stays at home most of the time unless she has a newborn and is recovering from childbirth or has a sick child. Most stay-at-home mamas are very active, we take our children places, we volunteer in our communities, we look for fun things to do and enjoy our children. A bonus for getting out of the house is, if you're not home, nothing in your house will be destroyed and you might even come home to a clean house.
Thankfully I live in a big city so there is plenty to do and people to meet. I have joined a new church, which was very, very difficult. We love our friends from our old church. However, we no longer live on that side of town. We tried for over 3 months driving 40 minutes each way on Sunday to church before we finally realized it was too far to commute with a young child. Thankfully Blue Rock has adjusted well to our new church which is 7 minutes away where he also attends preschool. I also joined a local Mom's Club and a MOPS group.
We also bought annual zoo passes and museum passes. One thing that kind of surprised me has been that I've become better friends with some people I used to know that I wasn't as close to when we lived here before. Others whom I thought I would hang out with all the time we don't.
I'm sharing all of this to say that we are adjusting well. There are things we miss about Germany and things we are loving about being home in our country. A few things that I have noticed that have changed since we were gone are: higher prices in food, more people seem to be unemployed, and a strain in the medical field. Those are just a few things I've noticed.
There are days, however, that I really miss parts of my life in Germany. I miss the friendships, Bible studies, beauty, neighbors, and traveling. I know Blue Rock does too. I thought at 2.5 he would adjust really easily to moving but it has been hard on him. Now he's almost 3.5 and he still talks about Germany sometimes, his friends, our old his, his old room, and the parks. I felt very safe in Germany and loved how I could walk down the street to two different parks in about 2-3 minutes. But like I said, life is good, adjusting is hard, but we are doing good. I love our new house and I am enjoying getting to see old friends and meeting new ones. We have also enjoyed going to new places.
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