Written by Mary - 10/29/20 - Wrapping up this Voyage

We’re on our way home and it all seems quite bittersweet! We didn’t move as much as the original gap year plan but we sure moved around a lot. 12 houses in 62 days. We learned our kids are capable of far more than we thought! Using restrooms they wouldn't dream of stepping foot into, Handling 17 hour travel days like champs, waking as early as 4am and then forcing mid day naps to regulate. They’ve learned how to self teach portions of school they missed and catch up on school work under the gun. They've learned to entertain themselves with out toys. Coasters, trash and recyclables became quick entertainment! They’ve also learned to communicate with verbal language and handle less boundaries than Americans are used to when it comes to touching them or speaking at them. When the girls and I arrived at our hotel air balloon destination at 5:30am, the van doors flew open and a balloon employee grabbed Rosie (fully picked her up) and carried her across a field (I was running behind to catch) and placed her in the balloon. He was just trying to help. I think I was more frantic than Rosie. Once when we were tasting wine at a vineyard a man pulled his motorcycle over, walked up and squeezed Rosie's cheeks and talked to her for a few minutes in Croatian. Our first day In Dubrovnik, a very elderly man walked up and blessed Mikey chanting over him touching the top of his head repeatedly. Mikey still refers to his short lived fine as a celebrity in Istanbul With fondness although he never cared for being picked up without permission! All of these instances they rolled with and although they couldn't underderstand it, they respected it. As we enter the US with spiking covid cases and virtual school, we're thankful to be home, but mostly thankful we took advantage of the guven time overseas!