After almost 5 months of life, love, growth, fun, homesickness, sucking it up, freedom and adventures in the States…. we have put on our big girl panties, and made the decision to come home (uh.. and the masculine equivalent). That’s right folks, as I type we are spending our last night in the States. This decision came to us with as much spontaneity as it is coming to you, so I apologise for the blunt delivery and absence of frivolity.
It feels, for one of the first times in our lives (bar perhaps buying our house), that we have had to really make an adult decision. We have had to sit back and think about why we did this trip, what we wanted out of it, and whether we got it. Whether carrying on and ‘pushing through’ the last month constituted what it was about, or whether reading our family’s moods and making a decision based on our happiness and coping levels was more important. I won’t lie, it was a tough decision to make. But in Wuth fashion, we didn’t dilly-dally. So here we are.
We have spent our last week in the States in a town called Jackson, in Wyoming. It is quaint and beautiful and covered in snow. We were lucky enough to secure ourselves a gorgeous little log cabin for the week (we were upgraded – people below us complained about the noise our kids made running around our hotel room – what a win!) and we spent our time enjoying watching the snow fall, and soaking up the peaceful atmosphere of the friendly holiday town. We did nothing extreme, except try and eat as many homemade choc-chip cookies as possible, oh, and go skiing in a blizzard, which totally didn’t work! Apart from having ridiculously bad visibility, it was the steepest resort in America and the children didn’t appreciate the camber of the slopes. I didn’t appreciate the camber of the slopes when Shaun came down all nonsensical and complaining of a possible concussion after landing on his head. So we chucked in our now well chucked towel, and called that a day too. What a week of culminations.
It was also a week of new beginnings though. We began an almost 3500km drive from Wyoming to New York, by far the longest straight drive we have ever done, and the clincher… we were being chased by a winter storm. We managed to drive 9 hours and then stop off for the night in Mount Rushmore, but then had to drive 36 hours straight in order to beat the storm to New York. For all our wonderful friends and family in balmy South Africa, a winter storm warning leaves you driving through, if you can imagine it, a -10 degree ball of candy-floss. It’s like beautiful spun sugar swirling around you, kissing the windscreen and bouncing off in all directions, leaving rather drastically reduced visibility and a road that looks like a freshly iced cake. It is most certainly less than ideal as far as safety goes, but rather beautiful if you are out to enjoy the display. Needless to say we hurried ahead, laying our tracks before the approaching tempest. We beat it to New York by about 4 hours. All I can say is how did we get so lucky that we have children who will endure that kind of crazy driving length without stripping a nut?! Blessed Blessed Blessed is the only thing that comes close to describing it!
Now while I might have been in New York when I started explaining our current situation, I am now in Heathrow airport, mid way through our return voyage to Cape Town. We had a whirlwind 2 days in New York wrapping up everything, working (in Shaun’s case) and trying to fit 5 months into 4 bags (my wonderful responsibility). It was as easy as it sounds… IMPOSSIBLE!! We have about 7 bags. After dissecting the British Airways memo on ‘baggage allowance’ we managed to create a way to bring it all without having to pay in extra. This was a true feat! Couple that with a truly magnificent example of a woman who checked us in, and we got it, and us, on board, and into our surprisingly upgraded seats in Business Class on time! I wanted to run back and kiss her. We were 4 children grinning in the back row almost the whole way to London! I cannot say enough about the small gestures of kindness that take an almost depleted family to the point of excitement at the end of a long and tiring adventure. These amazing people are out there and will find you just when you think you are at your last. We are exhausted, but happy. It is a strange mix of emotions returning home. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of days pan out… we will keep you posted. Thank you all for following us on our incredible journey. It has been an honour! Love and blessings to you all! Xxx
