Motherlands

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Denmark to bring Michael's mom's ashes back to her homeland, and inter her in the family plot. The reason for the trip is sad, but I hope it will be a beautiful, meaningful journey. I am eager to meet Michael's relatives and learn about this part of his history, Asher's history. Hopefully Asher will weather the plane trip, jet lag, etc. with his usual aplomb. Arin and Hannah will be traveling with us, as well (Arin's actually been in Europe since early August, visiting his girlfriend who is studying abroad.)

We are also taking a short side trip to Barcelona, which feels like a way of honoring my mom, as well. She loved Barcelona the one time she visited, and had been wanting to take a large family vacation to Spain to explore our Spanish roots (supposedly her father's family emigrated to Russia from Spain with some time in England in between.) I am sorry we'll be there without her, but I know she'd be happy that we're going at all (even though we're not going to live out her fantasy of trying to reclaim the Bailen Castle!)

I don't know if I'll have a chance to post while we're away, but hopefully I'll have some stories and photos to share when we return on the 31st. Be well!