Kim
This is the question everyone I talk to has asked, so I thought I would start off here. Overall, it has been amazing! I’m not going to lie, we are so lucky to have this opportunity, but not only that–we were brave enough to take it. I had talked a big talk leading up to our departure, but the day before heading to the airport, I freaked out! What was I thinking? I am not the homeschool type of mom! And we’re doing this during a pandemic when nothing is certain. Days before we left, the EU put the US on their “red list” meaning they really don’t want us to come as tourists. There was a lot of confusion as to whether or not Harrison, being too young for the vaccine, would have to quarantine in Germany for the first five days of our trip. In that case, should we skip staying in Germany and go straight to Italy? My friend who lives in Germany told me not to tell immigration my plans of traveling to homeschool and maybe talk up the pilot thing in case they gave me trouble. I lost sleep over this–about a week’s worth.
We were finally in Los Angeles waiting for our flight when I realized I didn’t have the correct forms downloaded, and the lady at the lounge was not helpful at all. I had received an email back from Germany saying they received my form, but I didn’t get the correct response email I needed to show upon arrival. As I filled out the questionnaire for the second time, the list of approved reasons for travel had me second-guessing myself once more. The list included things like: I have joint custody with a German and need to see my child or I am a healthcare worker coming to help with Covid or I am a scientist coming to work on cancer research…none of these applied to our situation, so I chose “other”. The lovely flight over was interrupted by one constant thought in the back of my head–what if they don’t let us in? I got to the counter at immigrations ready to be sent back to the US. The agent asked me where I was going. I told him Wiesbaden and he asked if I was in the military. I told them no, but I was visiting my friend who was, which was totally true, by the way. He told us to have fun and stamped our passports. Just like that, we were in! No questions or quarantines, he just let us in.
All this is to say, we all spend so much of our life worrying and losing sleep over things that never happen. I’m not usually a worrier, but I had been thinking nonstop about the bad “what-ifs” surrounding this trip. I was second-guessing all the planning and kismet surrounding this adventure from its inception. I am so glad I didn’t let the worry and what-ifs stop us from being here. So in this long answer to the initial question, it is going great! We took a leap out of our comfort zones and sometimes that is exactly what we all need in life.
Overseaing Harrison 