This week, we leave on a major trip home to the US.  We’re going to Florida to visit Dan’s parents, then to Maryland to see my family and lots of friends, then to the beach in Delaware, then back to Maryland where Dan will leave us and fly back to Austria while the boys and I will stay on for more visiting.

It’s a big trip.  The boys and I will be gone for a whole month.  A month-long vacation.  Sounds GREAT.  (I’ve never been on vacation for that long.)  I’ve been talking to Benjamin and Liam a lot about what to expect — the travel, where we’re going to go and who we’re going to see, and how long we’re going to be away.  I’ve been encouraging B to be sure to say goodbye to all of his friends at school tomorrow (his last day before we leave) because he won’t see them again until August.  (Apparently, he spent today telling the other kids “all about his trip”.)

Today, I was talking to them about how excited I am to have such a long time to spend all together — how Daddy won’t work while we’re on our trip, and how B won’t got to school — that we’ll all be together every day, for almost a whole month!  B looked at me, wide-eyed, and said, “But what about Vienna?  I’m going to miss Vienna.”

I think it was the first moment that it dawned on him that we’re actually going to be away from here the whole time.  Honestly, it’s a little shocking to me, too.  Vienna is our home, and it’s very strange to imagine that we won’t be in our house, riding the trains, walking on the streets, stopping at Starbucks, or seeing our neighbors, for an ENTIRE month.

We’ve gotten so adept at travelling that packing up and leaving for a big trip isn’t panic-inducing anymore.  That’s great, but I think an unintended consequence of preparing for this trip in relative calm is that I’m not sure any of us has really impacted on the fact that we’re going away, to another country, for a month.  Sure, it’s the country that we came from, and we’re getting to see our families that we miss so much.  But still, Vienna has become our home, and we’re going to miss it while we’re away.