This past week has been chockfull! Brynja and Bjartur Bo moved in with us last Sunday and there hasn't been a spare moment since! Of course I enjoyed all the together time, hehe, but Brynja was clearly feeling stressed, trying to juggle the baby and his needs with packing up and clearing out their apartment for the new tenants, along with the hundred and one other errands that accompany moving from one country to another! Hinrik's family and ours all pitched in and the tasks were handled, but I think that Brynja is going to be sooo tired when she finally arrives in Vilnius! Hopefully, she'll get a chance to catch up on lost sleep! And then it will all seem like a rather nasty dream once their little family is together again. :) When we discussed it, she referred to it as starting a new chapter and was looking forward to it. :)

Andri drove them to the airport this morning and helped check in all the luggage. Brynja was using a stand-by ticket so it was a toss-up as to whether she and the baby would get on the flight or not, but they did. :) And, supposedly, she is landing in Amsterdam right about now. Next up is a 7 hour delay before they can fly on.

Seven hours is a LONG wait, but when one is alone with a mountain of luggage and a baby.. Well, I think she will be grateful that she does have such an enormous amount of time to work with for she has to somehow cart all that luggage over to the next check-in point and none of us knows how far away that might be. She has the baby snuggler and a tabletop chair that she can use if noone offers to help. I will be peeved, shocked and disgusted if noone offers! But if that IS the case, it will be to the shame of all those who ignore her plight! However, at the same time, I know how very independent and resourceful our daughter is, so I know the task will be managed, no matter how difficult.

Hinrik called just after 7 this morning to find out what was going on. I think he had just arrived back in Vilnius himself - he sounded tired on the phone, but the connection was great! I could hear him very clearly. :)

Today I intend to just relax, regroup my energy, and wait to hear that the family has been reunited in Lithuania.

Yesterday was a red-letter day in more ways than one. Brynja and Bjartur Bo brought us some lovely pink roses, currently residing on the coffee table. I took a picture of them. :) And.. LORA CALLED! :) She talked with all of us. :) It was a relief to just hear her voice and listen to her chatter! Reminded me of conversations we've held when she was home.

She is back living in her little shack, but she cleaned it thoroughly and the rainy season seems to have ended for now, so she is not having any more breathing problems. I could tell by her voice that she was feeling better - a relief!

She had just finished a final essay for one class (the one for which the textbook had been recently stolen) and was about to start an essay for the other. She told me that luckily she had just made notes from the book before it was stolen, so was able to write the essay regardless. She kept saying how lucky she was and from her descriptions, and from a somewhat skewed perspective, it was true. :) When a decision of "what to do or what to take with" was on the line, her decision of the moment resulted in something not getting stolen (like her camera or cash).

There seems to be a real epidemic of thievery over there!! Lora, however, just accept it as part of the natural order of life. She even described (theoretically) the system used for targeting (or not) certain cars when they were parked and however-so-briefly abandoned, for example at a gas station.

She told me that she will miss the friends she has made there and the beautiful landscape and is not looking forward to coming back to cold weather! I told her to think about coming back to Christmas instead and she didn't seem to find that as depressing. ;)

I shall be glad when she comes back (one more month). She's been gone a goodly while now. I miss her. Plus, having 3 of our 4 kids out of the country at the same time is just a bit much!! (I am SO SPOILED!)

Drat! I just remembered that I forgot to ask what to do with Brynnie's and Hinrik's mail! Well, it will provide a good excuse for contacting them soon. hehe How bittersweet, to feel blessed and bereft simultaneously!

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