Back to the Motherland...Day Something

I really have lost count. It has been SUCH a wonderful trip...truly amazing. I have seen things, done things, and felt things that have truly changed me. I've returned to the area of Sweden where my ancestors first heard and embraced the gospel. I've seen some of the places where they lived, worked, suffered, rejoiced, and worshipped. I saw the grave where my great great grandfather is buried. I saw the lake where my great grandmother walked when she needed peace and to feel the love and strength of her Heavenly Father. My children swung on a tire swing outside of the home where my great grandfather was raised. It has reached down deep inside me and touched my heart and soul. Changed me...I am so grateful.

I got to see my best friend from my Swedish childhood. She looked the same...same beautiful face, same smile! And she still felt very much like my friend. It was a wonderful, beautiful evening. Thank you Anja and Michael!

We travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden where I lived for 3 years as a child. I saw the house and forest and rocks that are so much a part of me. I stood on a hill and looked out over a city and a ferris wheel that I haven't seen in 31 years...and it felt like home. We hiked and climbed all over that amazing Swedish forest...we played in the water and saw a fortress and scaled rocks and looked at moss and ferns and huge trees and basked in the rare sunlight after a long Swedish winter. I walked down a set of stairs that used to take me to my best friend's house and my piano lessons and where the bush is that I used to hide behind when the BIG SWEDISH BOYS were around.

I saw the rocks where my boot got stuck and Chip was a hero and went out in the snowstorm against the BIG SWEDISH BOYS and rescued it. I saw the window where my mom and I watched him go and I thought he was the bravest brother in the world. I saw the blueberry bushes where we used to go out and pick blueberries for pancakes. It all felt so familiar.

The places we live are a part of us. The homes, the furniture, the things outside our front door...they all combine to create memories and nostalgia that are important. This was an amazing place to spend part of a childhood. It has always been magical in my mind and I have to admit that I was a little bit nervous about returning and finding that it wasn't what I had remembered. But it was...it was! How often does that happen in life. Not only was it just as magical as I remembered, but now my children can look back at a tiny moment in their childhoods and remember the same magic! To have common memories is powerful for parents and children...and to share some of that beautiful childhood with their childhood is a precious gift I will cherish.

I attended a stake conference in Gothenburg where I heard my parents deliver beautiful, touching messages in Swedish. I cried because I was so proud of them. Proud of their abilities, faith, talents, testimonies...and after the meeting I saw faces that I haven't seen in 38 years that were familiar and lovely to me. I recognized them and we hugged and stared at each other and marvelled that so much time has gone by. It was holy ground.

I returned to the school I attended for the first 3 years of my school life...The English Junior School. The physical facilities have not changed one bit. I took a picture in the stair well where I used to hide when the missionaries were late picking me up from school and the BIG SWEDISH BOYS came out of their school. I took a picture in front of the cafeteria where they would serve blood pudding every Friday. I remembered the teachers and friends and how much I loved learning to read. And then we all...my parents, my children, and my husband and I...all played on the playground for a long time because it was a beautiful day and it just felt like the right way to remember this amazing time in my life.

We went downtown and I showed my family the big Poseidan statue in the center of town and my children couldn't focus on anything except the fact that his buttocks were uneven.

We went to the island of Marstrand and had an amazing day!

We went and climbed a huge, old fortress that amazed me.

Today we drove to Helsingborg in Sweden and drove our car onto a ferry. We went to the top deck and watched Sweden at our backs and Denmark at our fronts. We drove off the ferry into Denmark and headed for Fredericksborg Castle. We got lost and had to stop to ask for directions...I got out of the car and stopped an older woman. She understood me and I understood her and when I went back to the car I actually cried because I love speaking Danish. I love Denmark and the people. This place takes up a large place in my heart. The day was WARM and the sun brilliant. We played on the beach, drove along the coast, and I showed them the first area I served in my mission. I told mission stories ALL day long...it has to have been exhausting for every person I stuck in a car with me today. But they were a wonderful audience and made the day very special for me. I love this country. I love that I was a missionary here. I leaned down to Hannah today and said, Sweet daugher, if you remember nothing else about today, I want you to remember this. Your mother loved being a missionary for Jesus Christ. And she loves this country.

Tonight we went to a restaurant with delicious beef and ice cream and had our Last Supper with my parents. They will leave tomorrow afternoon to return to Sweden and we will spend our last few days here in Copenhagen. I can't imagine saying good bye. I don't have to think about it until tomorrow.

So here I sit in the lobby of a very sleek and modern hotel in Copenhagen. It is very late and I am so tired. Hannah has had bad bowel movements today...we have gone through several pairs of underwear and then Pull Ups. She is doing so much better tonight. Matthew has had a terrible earache...we are keeping him liquored up on Tylenol and ibuprofen and he is doing good. We haven't done a load of laundry since last Thursday and you can tell. We look speckled and are starting to smell a little fragrant. I am ready to come home...my love and appreciation for my home and space in the now of my life means so much. I miss my sister and her husband and my brother and his family. I miss our home and my pillows. I can't wait to see the daffodills in our front yard. I feel so grateful that I love my current home and life as much as I have loved and appreciated all the other homes and places.

We have a few more days in Copenhagen. I plan on eating pastry and ice cream until I can't walk anymore and then I will come home and eat nothing but green vegetables for the rest of the year.

I am grateful. I feel so blessed to have been given a life filled with such fabulous family, friends, homes, experiences, cultures, languages, opportunities and magnificent beauty. I am grateful beyond words for a husband who has endured so many days of childhood and mission stories. I am so grateful for my children who have been AMAZING! The are perfect travellers and have truly thrown themselves into every experience. They walk long, long distances, look at lots of old things, eat random things at very random times, and throw themselves into every experience with gusto and enthusiasm.

I haven't had chocolate in at least 2 hours...must go find chocolate.

P.S. We have taken over 700 pictures with our digital camera. What do I do with that? Seriously...ideas?