Holy Jet Lag. Jet Lag is defined as, “A temporary disruption of bodily rhythms caused by high-speed travel across several time zones typically in a jet aircraft,” or “a general feeling of fatigue and disorientation often experienced by travellers by jet aircraft who cross several time zones in relatively few hours.” The girls are NOT ONLY dealing with “Jet Lag” but also withdrawl from a 5-week vacation in the USA; a vacation where they slept with me every night and did not have consistent bed times.
I would not take anything back, including sleeping with them at nights because of how truly special it was at the time, BUT because of what we have experienced the last 5 nights, I will no longer be able to sleep with the girls on vacations, when Matt is travels for work, when we travel back to the USA, etc.- EVER AGAIN. It is not fair to them. I thought Elle understood that we slept together only when Matt was gone but these last 5 nights have proven that she is too young to fully comprehend this concept in its entirety. It is an understatement to say that the adjustment back to Germany has been a difficult one- a difficult one for our entire family.
We have tried EVERYTHING—and I mean EVERYTHING. We play outside during the day for fresh air and sunlight, we limit naps, we wake them up every morning at 9AM even though they are up from approximately midnight-4AM every night, we make sure they eat nutritious meals, we put into place our usual bedtime routine (i.e. bath & reading for 20 minutes), have spent HOURS talking to them about their feelings and about how being back in Germany presents its challenges but also some fun & exciting times in the future for us as a family, etc. and NOTHING has worked. The girls sleep patterns and sleep behaviors have been exhausting.
Then, not only am I feeling exhausted but I am also dealing with my own feelings regarding being back in Germany, feelings of excitement for our next travel destinations but then feeling guilty when I am not feeling sad, family who communicate to me that they are feeling extremely sad about us being gone, a possible future move in a few months, and the regular day-to-day “stressors” of living in a foreign country. Thankfully, the Lord has helped me stay calm, optimistic, and patient. I know that all storms pass…and one of my new favorite sayings is, “it is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but rather, how to dance in the rain.” I know that this too will pass and soon, we will all be back to our “German routines” and everyone will be sleeping at night again.
Probably what brings me the most sadness is that due to the accumulation of all of these various “issues” and emotions, it is often easy to lose sight of how magical and special the holiday season was in Iowa. I feel blessed to be able to go home and spend 4-5 weeks every 5-6 months with my family and dearest friends; I know friends who do not see their families this much and they live in the USA! And this is especially rare and unique to people who live abroad. But, as with all things in life, I have learned a lesson with our first trip back to the USA—the girls cannot sleep with me for over a month, or we will have to go through this all over again. And we can never again go through not only “jet lag” but separation anxiety at bedtime as well- the combination is almost deadly:). I am so sad for my little girls and their difficulty in adjusting to being back; I feel that only I am to blame for their bed time stressors. And to top it all off…I am about ready to collapse due to my own sleep deprivation!
But again, I am trying to remain positive and focus on all of the glorious holiday memories; I am trying to not focus on how our adjustment back to Germany has gone this far. Below are a few memories I am going to continually replay in my head until we head back in June.
*The girls' faces when Santa stopped by my parent's home (picture below)
*The 3 Chefs baking cookies (picture below)
*Visiting Santa’s Castle (picture below)
*Elle enjoying the ONE afternoon of snow in my parent’s backyard (picture below)
*Waiting for my Mom to come home for lunch every day
*Having lunch with my Dad at the Villager once a week
*Britta's excitement with her Dora 3-wheeler
*The girls hearing their "Fur Real Cats" meowing in wrapped boxes
*My Mom and Dad tucking the girls and I in every night
*Finding Mario, our “Elf on the Shelf” every morning (picture below)
*Britta always wanting more ice cream and cookies
*Elle learning to play “Go Fish” with my Dad and her excitement while playing Candyland
*Spending the weekend in Des Moines and going to Disney on Ice with my parents, sister and brother-in-law (pictures below)
*The girls helping my Dad make nightly fires in the living room fireplace
*Going shopping & getting my nails done with my Mom
*Hearing the girls deep and BEST laughs while playing with my Dad
*Eating dinner with my parents every night
*Elle participating in the Christmas Eve church program at the church I grew up in
*The girls having to show my parents, every night, their “dance”
*Watching movies as a family (always a Disney one:)
I could go on and on…basically it was just magical being back in the town and home I grew up in to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas 2011 for 5 straight weeks. If we lived in the USA, I would never get this amount of quality time with my family and for this, I feel blessed. I truly have the best family in the entire world—truly I do.
So, we have officially made it back to Germany. Oh, and another positive is that the flight took us less than 6 hours due to the strong winds---YOU CANNOT BEAT THAT! But still, when we arrived our bodies thought it was 3AM and not 10AM! And, we got LITTLE sleep on the plane so already—we were embarking on our fantastic sleep adjustment.
Good night…I must get to bed, because I have no idea what the night is going to bring!
Love to all.
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