Thankful for rmy people, showing up.

Hello from Berlin. We are working on settling in and getting used to the time change. We are 8 hours ahead of Fort Collins. It is 7:38 AM on Monday here and 11:38 PM on Sunday in Fort Collins. Time difference makes it challenging to communicate with friends, but not really. THANK you What's App. Jeff and I were talking about what it would have been like to do this years back, when the communication would have been through snail mail (although I do love mail) we would have to wait weeks to communicate back and forth. I  love being able to video call. I think this has become a common thing with COVID going on. I laugh when I think I worked for the same company, from home, for 19 years and in the past 3 months is the time they want to see me on video calls. It is weird being somewhere where you really don't know anyone. In Fort Collins, in the morning I would sit on the front porch with my friend Lindsey to have coffee and we would wave and  know the neighbors that came out. We don't know the neighbors yet, but we will.

I am missing my people. I reflect on all it took to get us here and I am humbled and blessed by those that showed up over and over again. From the countless hours of taking our 2900 SF house down to 180 SF storage to final clean the day we left, they showed up. When I had a garage, basement and first floor filled with garage sale stuff and was so overwhelmed that all I wanted to do was work in my flower bed. They showed up. We thought we would price and quickly realized we could not make a decision, even together. Called a decision maker and the pricing would begin. There would be no plan to gather, but soon several would be there. When I didn't know where to start one of my tribe stepped up to take charge. I love them!

The nights often would end with a crew of kids somewhere in the house and us finally taking a break , with wine of course, on the back patio.  It wasn't always the full crew of us. They came when I needed them most, sometimes one , sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes four, sometimes five, sometimes six, sometimes seven. I am blessed. I always knew it. Funny how you notice and realize it more when they are not just a 5-20 min drive away.

There was the painting. I am not talking showing up for 2 hours, but 7+ to prep and mask and other friends showing up the next day for 7+ to paint. Thank you, forever grateful.  I sit here now and think of all that was done and accomplished to get us here and there is no way we could have done it without you all. I know I posted photos of this one already.  Then there was the cleaning.  Again overwhelming. I often would just look around at these ladies and cry, then I would stop, then I would cry again. They showed up.

Thank you, Thank you Thank you. 

Thank you to my tribe of Colorado women, who make me think, who make me laugh, who make me cry, who make me shake my head 😍😍. God is good! I love you all to pieces. Thanks for showing up, even when I would get short, or say insensitive things.  I miss you all terribly. I am so thankful you are in my life, though be it through What's App. I can't not wait to see you here in Berlin.