Early this morning, Jessie and her boyfriend, Donovan left for eleven months of foreign exchange in Tübingen, Germany. Under any circumstance, this is a tough time for a mom. For Shirley, added to the difficulty is that Jess is her only borne child (although she loves Chloe and Souang as her own), and the fact that we can’t leave the Northwest to go and visit because of her need to stay in close proximity to the hospital.
This will be a great experience for Jess. And I am grateful of the technology available to help keep her close. We’ve set up a web camera and created a Skype account so that we can have video calls over the internet. Thankfully, with the aid of the internet, it’s as easy to keep in touch with someone in Germany as it is when they are away at Western Oregon University—you just don’t get to come home for the weekends.
I know the next few weeks are going to be particularly tough. Once regular communications are established and Jess and Donovan settle into their routine, I suspect that the excitement for the kids and their overseas experience will help overcome the sadness. But for now, as they wing their way across the Atlantic, there is just sadness.
1 comment:
Our hearts are with you on this one. That must be really hard for Jess, too. It will be a great experience for Jess to live in Tübingen. I wanted to go there when I was in college, but didn't have the opportunity. I minored in German in college. We actually have some German ancestry on the Phillips side. Jess's great great grandmother's name was Annie Ripplinger Mittermeyer, from Wisconsin. When her husband, Louis Mittermeyer, died from a lung ailment in Wisconsin, she and her two daughters, Verona and Addie, moved to Adams County, Washington, to be with her brothers Frank & Albert Ripplinger. In Lind, Washington, she worked for the Phillips family as a servant.
Good luck, gute gluck, and I'm glad you've got a web cam and Skype.
Love,
Cuz Barbie
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