On the Move: Fora de Portugal

After living in Portugal for close to a year, we finally left the country for the first time since arriving. Our company hosts a conference in Germany for people who have completed close to a year on the field. So, the last week of February we packed up lots and lots of supplies (gone are the days of traveling light since there's a baby in the family!) and boarded a plane. A few short hours later (and one apple juice spill on the nice Belgium guy sitting beside us--boy, can Eliana move quick!), we landed in Frankfurt.

We spent 5 days with colleagues--debriefing on a year oversees, speaking and worshipping in English, and attending strategy/planning sessions. We had no idea what to expect going into this conference and honestly thought it might be like an Oprah Winfrey show with people crying emotionally over their experiences--the good and bad--and culture shock. But, instead, it was a WONDERFUL few days. We really enjoyed seeing people we went to training with in Richmond as well as meeting new people. We got a lot out of the strategy sessions and came back with a bunch of new ideas we're excited to try to implement.

The conference ended on our anniversary, which was a Friday. So we took advantage of being where we were and rented a car for the weekend. Luxembourg City was less than 2 hours away, so we spent a day there before driving to Brussels, Belgium to spend two wonderful days eating Belgium waffles and chocolates and site seeing...and did I mention the waffles?!? It's worth a trip there just for them!

Europe amazes me--the variety of many languages and cultures as well as the storied and deep history they have here in such close proximity. We loved our time away.

But more than that...something clicked as we were headed home. We switched back to speaking Portuguese in the Frankfurt airport. And when we landed in Portugal and jumped in a cab to head back to our apartment, we started smiling and loosening up--even Eliana was babbling happily as she got close to home. We truly felt like we were home. We aren't tourists here....this is our home and we love it. It's nice to explore other places in Europe and speak in English again for a bit (and French for Jonathan during our weekend getaway), but there's no place quite like Lisbon. Even when I struggle with the language at times, I'm never frustrated with this place. How can I be? It's home.