One Last Big Trip

Our family loves to travel. It was supposed to be a part of us, the life of a foreign service officer. However the kids' diagnosis shattered that dream and a civil service family we became. As much as I like to fantasize about life abroad, I know that given the needs of our family, we could never have done it. And finally, after living in northern Virginia for 9 years, it feels like home.

We have never given us our yen for traveling though. As Waverly became more compromised, our journeys got smaller. However we wanted to take advantage of Oliver's relative health and booked a trip to Berlin. We have very dear friends who live there, so we took them up on their offer and decided to visit.

The weeks before we filled with anxiety. Oliver has been going through some changes and all of a sudden the thought of traveling so far away felt irresponsible. I worried about how he would be on such a long flight. Would he be able to easily adjust to the time change. How accessible were our destinations going to actually be for him.

The idea that this was going to be his "last big trip" kept playing over and over again in my head. I didn't want to go anymore. That label felt constricting and suffocating. Last big trip.

We packed our bags, face timed with our friends and took a deep breath. Sanfilippo be damned, we were going on an adventure.

Here are a few pictures. You can tell we had a fantastic time! We visited both Berlin and Prague. Oliver was a fantastic little traveler. Berlin was incredibly accessible, Prague a bit less so. We ate well, drank well and walked many miles each day.

I came home ready to plan our next adventure. No way is that going to be Oliver's last one.