Home Sweet Home

This will be my last blog entry.  Josh and I flew home from Seattle yesterday, so our kidney adventure is over -- I hope! -- and it's time for us to start planning for the next one...

Friday was our last full day in Seattle.  It was gray and rainy, so we weren't as eager to get out and see the sights.  We spent some time re-packing our suitcases and preparing for the trip home, and then ventured out in the late afternoon.  We stopped by the Leschi Marina to check out Ken's sailboat, the Grauer Geist (that's 'Gray Ghost', in German).

After that, we stopped at the University Village shopping center to run a few errands and pick up dessert for dinner at Ben's house.  Laska's 14th birthday is Tuesday, and they hadn't really had a chance to plan anything in between dealing with the kidney transplant and her high school applications, so we thought we'd celebrate while we were still in town.  We bought a cake, ice cream, candles, and a card, and enclosed some cash to put towards a new bathing suit and other necessities for her upcoming trip to South Africa with her friend Sophia's family.  (Lucky girl!)

We had a nice dinner at Ben's with Priscilla and Ken, and of course, everyone was happy to have cake and ice cream for dessert.

Josh, Larissa, Laada, Ben, Priscilla, Ken, Laska (the birthday girl)

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after spending three weeks in Seattle, but we were ready to come home by the time we left on Saturday morning.  I tried to pack as much as possible into our suitcases so we wouldn't have much to carry on the plane, since Josh isn't supposed to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for the next month or so.  We used our stash of frequent-flyer miles to get first class seats on the way home, which made the trip much more pleasant and comfortable than it would have been otherwise.  I was a little nervous about flying through Chicago, which is notorious for weather-related delays and cancellations, but everything went very smoothly.  In fact, both flights left on time and arrived early.

We landed at National airport a little after 11 pm last night, and were picked up by our friend Patrick, who helped me get our bags into the house.  Josh didn't have any problems on the trip home, and I think we both slept pretty soundly.  We didn't wake up until the phone rang at 10 am. 

Josh still has several weeks of recovery ahead of him, but as long as he takes it easy, he should be mostly back to his old self by the time we move to London at the end of March.  We've got a lot to do over the next couple months, but we're looking forward to our next big adventure -- which should be a lot more fun than the last one.

Thanks again for all your support!