Benjamin came out of the tub, just now, walked up to me sitting at the computer and asked, “What are you doing?”  “I’m writing my blog.”  (He has some sense of what that means — most days I write after he’s in bed, but some days, like today, I write when he’s in the tub and he gets to see me writing when he comes out.)

After nearly six months of religiously daily blog entries, I’ve struggled against writer’s block, I’ve struggled with figuring out which stories to share, where to draw the line at “too much information” and I’ve struggled with divulging some difficult times, in order to make this an honest description of this experience and not an overly optimistic, “everything is great all the time” tale.

I want this to be more than a journal — I try to avoid writing a log or a diary (“today we did this, then this, then this, ate this, went to bed”).  I want to capture the ups and the downs — not just of the huge adventure of moving a family of four, with two very small kids, to Europe — but the struggles and joys which make up daily life.

My hope is that writing this lets everyone at home share our journey with us.  I want everyone to know that this IS possible — travel with children, even moving abroad, isn’t as daunting or insurmountable as it seems.  My children are adaptable, enthusiastic travel companions, and I know their worldview, and mine, is forever broadened for having had this experience.  We miss everyone at home, and this adventure, sometimes, is incredibly hard.  But, we’re writing an exciting chapter in our lives, and for me, sharing it is an important part of the experience.