In 9 Days

We will be home.  That feels so good.  Every time I think about it I am overwhelmed with emotions and I have to try really, really hard not to think about how quickly I know the time will pass and that I know we won't see everyone we want to see.  We are so blessed to be going at all and we will take even a minute with anyone who has it to spare.
I'm having a very hard time focusing on life here because I am so excited and eager to get home.  Things are busy here.  School, church, regular life.  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and anxious about things I've left on my mental to-do list.  I'm working on saying "No" when I want to say "Yes" and trying to remember and focus on what is really important.
This afternoon I had a special date with my five-year-old.  The two of us went to see The Nutcracker ballet in Brussels.  Months ago when I was on a date with my husband, I saw the advertisements for the ballet and immediately knew it was something she would love.  Because we have made a commitment to think more carefully about things we buy and money we spend and we had some financial issues on this side for several months, I waited until last month to actually buy the tickets.  There was not much selection and we opted for the low end rather than the high considering her age and the fact that it was a birthday gift, but she also had a very nice party and birthday presents from us as well. 
Today was a busy day and no amount of planning in the world could have kept us from feeling a little rushed as we left for the show.  After we arrived, we hiked to our top row edge of the theater seats and I spent the next several minutes assuring her that she would not fall from her seat (it was that steep!) and preventing myself from having a heatstroke (it was so hot! and we had just walked about 1 km from a parking garage).  We settled in and watched about a hour of local performers (I think).  Hannah turned to me at one point and said, "I don't think this is the Nutcracker".  She was right about that.  It was interesting, but wow, LONG!
So then an intermission where we considered waiting in a very long pushing and shoving type line for drinks, but opted instead for ice cream with a shorter and much less pushy line.  She was happy and we both cooled off a little bit before we went back up for the first part of the show.  We could only see about half of the stage, but I'm not sure she realized that.  She did want to know why we couldn't move to seats that weren't so high up and she asked lots of questions that would have probably been more annoying to people who paid more in the lower seats, but I was able to answer most of them without disturbing our neighbors.  She wanted to know if I thought the ballet was quite different from the movie because she did.  (She has Barbie's Nutcracker on DVD--and yes, it is quite different, but at least she knows the music and some of the story from that).
Because I knew we were in the balcony, we did bring our binoculars along.  Hannah held them in her lap on the way over and from the backseat said, "Mom, did you know blonde people can't see with these?"  After about a 10 minute conversation (mostly a soliloquy) about how we should not judge people by the color of their hair, skin color, etc., I realized she meant blind people and she had a point.  But still, why?
She did great.  After 3 hours of ballet, she said she was tired.  It was almost over, but we had to walk back to the garage and drive almost 40 minutes home so we left (only after paying another 80 cents to use le toilette--we also went when we got there).  We were only disturbing two people who's seats were a little worse than ours anyway.  And I apologized in French on the way out.
The car ride over and back were my favorite parts of the day.  She filled me in on all kinds of goings on at school and I learned just how frighteningly much she listens to every word some of her little friends say.  Yikes!  We sang songs at the top of our lungs and shouted about how excited we are to go home.... IN NINE DAYS!!!

(No pictures...shocking I know, but not today).