Tomorrow it's time for me to leave for Sweden to visit family and friends.
It's always with mixed feelings, it will of course be wonderful to spend time with family and friends, there will even be a little nice to crave for everyone here at Barnhem - and yet it always feels a little tough days prior leave.
There is no way that I do not think they will manage without me at Barnhem, I know for a fact that they will, without any problems. It's not that I do not manage without them for a month, I do, but still ... ..I suspect it is called separation anxiety.
I leave a tranquil harmonious home, with lovely, safe and reasonably well-behaved kids, fantastic staff and strong volunteers. I leave a home that is nearly completed renovated and which I believe is completely finished when I come back. I leave a home where daily life will plod on in its usual genial pace.
I will, for the first time, have company on my trip home. Hannah and I have booked the same flight to Sweden, it turned out - so the trip will be much more fun than usual. Fun for me but not for Barnhem. Hannah is here for the second time and if had I been able to choose I had chosen for her to stay for Barnhem's sake, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that she "makes an Emil".
I'm really looking forward to what I travel to - to have time with as many as possible of all the dear friends in Sweden. The opportunity to meet as many as possible of all of you who make it possible for us to run Barnhem. And just being in what once was my home, and largely still is, even if my first home now is with my children in Phuket in Thailand.
This year, the trip to Sweden in addition will be a little bit different and that is what I look most forward to - this year I will get the chance to show Wow my Sweden for the first time.
Wow, who I've been sitting next to and worked side by side with for over 10 years. Fantastic Wow, who takes care of everything around Barnhem and who gives all her energy and love to our children. Wow, who also has managed to work with two Westerners who may not always understand everything so well. Wow, who along with the rest of the staff, and our children have taught me and Hans so much about our new country, on how to do things differently than in Sweden and that it actually can work just as well and many times better.
With hindsight, I have, and Hans have been very lucky - we've grown up in an amazing country surrounded by wonderful people to continue our adult lives in another equally amazing, though completely different country with at least as wonderful people.
So it is with pride that I will show Wow my Sweden and it is with as much pride that I look forward to presenting Wow for everyone in Sweden.
Wow is coming to Sweden to participate at An Evening for Happy Child on Thursday 24/8, so hopefully we'll see you there.
Sussi
