Getting here was special torture. A 32-hour itinerary, spanning 3 planes, 4 countries, and a scant few hours of sleep. The kids were brave, but their little bodies could not agree on when they should each be sleeping, so one of them was *always* awake… which meant either Jen or I (or both😟) was *always* awake.

“Whine, whine, whine! All foreign service families do this sort of thing,” I suppose… except I’m going to KEEP whining, because our kids all had diarrhea. Like, over and over “I need to go potty!” in the airplane bathroom diarrhea.

I can’t reflect on it any more than that. It was one of the most miserable chunks of time of my entire life.

And yet, as I write this, all is well. The kids are in bed in our grandiose new home, tired after their first day of school, which they LOVED, and can hardly wait to go back to in the morning. Jen and I are going to set aside the piles of paperwork we’re still working through, to finish the 2nd half of the movie we started streaming last night, via decent internet, on a comfy couch that was waiting for us when we got here. We’re all full of the most delectable fresh bread and cheese from a cute cafe that we can see from our front porch, and cake brought to us by new friends.

When the sun comes up to light kids’ bedroom, they will open the luxurious curtains to look out on a herd of wild horses upon the hills behind our house.

WILD.

FREAKING.

HORSES.

OUT THE WINDOW.

WE CAN SEE THEM. WITH OUR EYEBALLS. FROM OUR BEDS.

We haven’t yet hiked up the hills to the horses to get stampeded or nuzzled or trampled or adopted into the herd or whatever wild freaking horses do. They’re post-Soviet horses, which I’m not as familiar with. Based on how peacefully they graze, I’m cautiously optimistic that it will go well when we finally do get up there.

What’s the house like?

Palatial.

What’s the job like?

Rad.

What’s the country like?

It rocks.

Like, what’s it all LIKE!?

I’m busy and overwhelmed, so the only other thing worth saying is that we’ll be ever grateful for the exceedingly kind welcome we’ve been shown.

TTYL