Not just visitors

Three weeks ago, we packed all our personal belongings into a storage closet in our apartment in Beirut, Lebanon, said good bye to friends, took a taxi to the airport, and traveled via Rome to Boston with five suitcases, four kids and a lot of expectations.

We spent 10 days in Massachusetts with friends; chatting, playing, eating, enjoying, going to church, the farm, catching up. It had been four years since we last visited, and during this time, between the two families, we had increased in size by three babies. Our visit there was intense, busy, awesome, and over too soon.

Then we flew our five suitcases and our four children, plus a car seat we picked up in Boston, via Detroit to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where mom & dad picked us up at the airport.

We spent the first week buying a car, insurance and catching up with administrative business.

We spent the second week in a kind of jet lagged state (it finally hit us, I think), unable to establish good sleeping or eating habits, going swimming, buying way too much stuff, and hanging out.

Now, here we are, halfway through our visit with family, but not halfway through our stay, because this time – for the first time since the beginning of this family – we are not just visiting: we are here in the US to live for a whole year; to walk the streets like normal Americans, do American things and buy American stuff.

Are you ready to hear about our adventures?