And that’s it.  De Oma & De Opa are gone.  They left late this morning, on the way to their next stop in Holland to see my Oma, de Oma’s mother. I’m bribing Dane with my secret stash of  Yu-Gi-Oh cards to keep him smiling.  He’s in my office every 5-10 minutes remembering he’s sad Oma left.  Then I offer him a “brandnew” (ie outgrown by the big brothers, but new-to-him) Yu-Gi-Oh card and the sadness is briefly forgotten.

The last five days have flown by, and I’m filled with sadness myself.  I loved having my parents here, in the house, especially this week.  This week has been crazy.  Cole is integrating back into the American school system on post, 27 kilometers from our home.  We are out of the school bus bounds, so Cole must either take a train, local bus, or ride the parent express.  It’s been quite an adjustment, not to mention the homework, alternating schedules and a whole new world.  Plus it is my busiest work week of the year.  It was fantabulous having my parents here to help run errands, ferry kids and play with the little ones.

The little ones still have a week until school, but thanks to Oma & Opa they are already on a school schedule.  Every day this week was filled with fabulous activities (Sensapolis, their favorite park, downtown Stuttgart, lunch at Sophie’s, downtown Tübingen and shopping).  And every night they got to sleep, completely exhausted, cuddled up with de Oma.  It’s possible this was the first week of my adult life that there wasn’t a little person in my bed or standing next to me at oh-dark-thirty needing a drink.

The best news is that my mom promised to come back.  I don’t even think we’ll have to wait very long.  Sigh.  Three hours is already too long.