Rebecca left for Vienna on 17 February. Aaron and I dropped her off at the airport in the morning and waited and watched until she cleared security then gave our last blown kisses goodbye. For the next 19 days the kids and I managed on our own. There may have been a few more pizzas than usual, but I think things were as normal as could be, given that one of the parents was gone.
We had frequent, sometimes daily, video calls with Rebecca so were able to stay in touch very well. Rebecca and I also emailed extensively, keeping up with what she was doing and asking for me to pack certain things she'd forgotten. The calls were often when we were having breakfast and I was getting the kids ready for school and it was mid-afternoon in Vienna. I know the kids knew Rebecca was away, and that we'd be joining her, but I don't really know if they had a deep understanding of what was going on.
I spent those couple of weeks wrapping up my work, which involved finishing a large project. I was officially on leave starting 1 March. I was also trying to finish all the little projects I could around the house and get things in order for closing it up for four months. I wanted to leave the house in perfect condition, so when we returned in July it would be exactly what we were looking for: home; ready to receive us and welcome us.
As usual, I left too many things to the end, though to be fair, it's hard to have an absolutely clean house when you leave as so many things need to be done concurrently (laundry, dishes, sweeping, finishing packing, etc.) that it's hard to juggle it all.
The over-riding thought I had during the time when Rebecca was gone was that, "This is real!" and that we'd all be reunited soon. It was a time I was very much looking forward to, though I was quite anxious about actually being there and needing to speak the language and adjust to the customs.
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