My first official week in France was cold and rainy. That was okay, because David had left me a mountain of belongings to unpack and put away. I seriously don't think that I left the apartment during those first 5 days.
At the end of that week we were invited to the 4th of July celebration at the American General Consul's house. We went. I think that I had conversations with about 8 new people in the 2+ hours that we were there. All were nice, I haven't seen any of them in the past 12 months.
We just attended this year's 4th of July "BBQ" while our Akron family was here last Saturday. What a difference. I was introducing our family to not only the General Consul and his wife (Evan and Mary Rose), who knew us by name, but to our friends and their families. Mike and Cheryl met and had conversations with more people at this party than I did last year. Probably the best surprise during the event was seeing the 3 teachers from North Carolina that we met last year. They come to Strasbourg for the summer every year and teach English. It was nice reconnecting with them.
Most of you who know (and love) my brother-in-law, Michael, will be pleased to know that we were not asked to LEAVE the event. He didn't create any terrible scenes, he managed to get through the day without offending anyone (that I know of) and his day was made complete by taking this "selfie" in the Consul's bathroom….
Our home has always been open to anyone who needed a place to sleep for a night, or even to stay in for a few months. We've had the occasional "vacationer" pass through, but let's face it, we've never really lived in a "tourist" location before. Not many people clamoring to come to Indianapolis and no one has ever required a tour guide for their stay.
Living in Strasbourg has changed that quite a bit. I just did the math as I was writing this blog. We've had 20 different people stay with us in the past year. 10 within the last 4 weeks!! I have come to learn my "host" lesson the hard way. I cannot set the agenda for someone else's vacation….I do that for MY family, but it doesn't work for others. Some visitors want to see everything and others just want to see one thing and spend the rest of the day at a cafe or shopping. (Thank you Marcie and Lisa for being my guinea pigs and lovingly clueing me in on that lesson!) Meet our guests:
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| Harvard Din and Tonic men…Kevin and Justin |
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| Luann and Kara Eiginger - Jacksonville Florida Youth group |
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| Jaclyn Barker - Ben's fiancé then, wife at press time :) |
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| The Moreno family |
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| Our Akron family |
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| Mary and Hannah |
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| Our BFFs Marcie and Lisa…our guinea pigs :) |
and these two arrive on Monday….
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| Janna and her friend (whom I haven't met in person yet!) |
I am quite surprised by the number of people who actually look at my blog. I truly only post so that my friends and family can feel connected to us and so that, in 20 years when I'm older and grayer, without any functioning memory, I can relive this awesome experience.
Along that line, I am SO VERY HAPPY when I log onto a social media platform and see that one of my kids has posted a photo or made a comment. It makes my day and allows me to feel a connection to their life away from me. At 50, I'm still my Mom's daughter, David is still his parent's son and I know that they love seeing the photos that we post and reading this blog. This assignment has taught me that as much as I love getting a call or text from MY kids, our parents STILL feel the same way when they pick up the phone and their "child" is on the other end of the line.
If you are blessed enough to have parents on this side of Heaven, don't take them for granted. Reach out and touch someone you love today. Happy 4th of July America! We will miss celebrating our Independence WITH you today, but will do our best to sing our National Anthem at an Americans in Alsace function tonight. (During the French-Germany World Cup game….should prove interesting!!)
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