Today is July 2, and instead of preparing to spend the 4th of July with us at our farm in Frankfort (KY), Matt is in Germany trying to resolve his visa situation. In the grand scale of life, this falls somewhere in between a flat tire and getting a suspicious mole removed – kind of a pain in the ass, but could be worse. It means that he’ll miss out on family and friends, and he will only have about a week in our house before we pack up the shipping containers and move to a number of temporary residences here and in Germany before we land in our new home for good. It also means that I’m fully in charge of everything here – the kids’ summer fun & friends, the construction work on our house, signing a property manager, keeping our property rentable, buying and selling goods in preparation for our move, donating carloads of things we’ve held onto for the last 20 years, working with the shipping agent, preparing our new house, obtaining insurances, obtaining rental furniture, utilities, selling and buying cars, etc. It’s a little like having a new baby or finishing up grad school – no sleep, living in the moment, doing what must be done, and hoping your friends and family can forgive you for being grouchy and self-absorbed for a few weeks.

I am happy to report, though, that there’s an awesome silver lining to all this! (besides the fact that once we land in Germany, we’re going to have a blast, of course!) And that silver lining is that there are now 100 POUNDS of American food waiting for us in Germany, thanks to Matt and his alotted four pieces of luggage:

That’s right, folks, when presented with the opportunity to take four bags’ worth of stuff to Germany as an (informal, non-P&G-sanctioned) advance shipment, Matt and I didn’t pick our favorite books, or shoes, or kitchen utensils, or clothes, or computers, or crystal, or games. When thinking about what we most want to have waiting for us in Germany – what is most likely to be unavailable there – we picked food. Food that isn’t easily found in Germany, if it can be found at all. Brown sugar and vanilla to make cookies. Syrup so the kids can have pancakes on Saturdays. Masa harina and spice mixes to make our favorite Mexican dishes. And peanut butter – 6 glorious pounds of it – because as delicious as Nutella is, it’s just not the same as Jif.

It’s not that we don’t plan to assimilate in Germany – we most certainly do intend to learn the German language, to throw out our athleisure wear, and to trade burgers and BLTs for schnitzels and spaetzle. And it’s not that we absolutely can’t get these items in Germany. I’m sure that with a 400% upcharge in a specialty market somewhere – in Berlin if not in Frankfurt – we’d be able to eventually find these items and make something close to what we’re used to at home.

But the thing is, food is home, in some ways – as much as family is home, too – and sometimes close isn’t enough. I believe – and I don’t know yet, I’ll keep you posted – that if I can still make the cookies my kids love, the birthday cakes they count on, the breakfasts that only Dad can make, then I can make the rest of this crazy experience an adventure, and not a hardship. That we can suck it up when we have to, knowing that back at home, we can still have Taco Tuesday. That when a well-meaning German Frau tells us we’ve put our Christmas tree up too early, or that our trash in the wrong spot, or that we all need to lose a few pounds, we’ll laugh later over brownies (perhaps cut in half). That I won’t have to worry about making my kids eat chunky applesauce on their pancakes instead of Log Cabin.

So, when we eventually move in to our humble German Haus, one of the first smells coming out of our little German window will be one of our favorites – Mrs. Fields’ Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies – even if we’re all still sleeping on the floor in the dark because Germans don’t believe that light fixtures or bulbs need to come with the house. And one of my first orders of business will be to figure out a rationing scheme to make all this last until Christmas – or to find a local brown sugar black market!