Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

The end of this month marks the 14th anniversary of my first time in Russia.  I was to spend 5 months in Muscatine’s Sister City, Kislovodsk, with two of my U.S. friends.  We each lived with separate families and we attempted to attend school.  We were 15, and we did NOT speak the language.  “Na poloo, byez moloko”  The trip had its ups and downs, but by the time we were to come home the people and places had taken such a place in my heart that I simply had to return.  So I went back for a month and a half the next summer,   and then again, after graduating from high school.  I took a year to travel before going to college.  It was in those 10 months that I finally started to really learn the language (with lots of help)!  “Veter po moru gulayet EE karablik podganyayet On bejit cebye volnah Na razdooti parusah”  –Pushkin  By the end of that trip I felt like I was leaving home again, only, this time I was leaving “home” to go…home.    And I knew that the future was completely uncertain and I did not know when I’d be able to go back again.  It was a really hard time for me.  Of course, as soon as I got back to Iowa I was reunited with my own family and friends and I started college right away and got a job.  Life continued and I was happy.  I told my friends and “family” in Russia that I’d plan to return for a visit in 1998.  When 1998 finally came around I was in no shape to travel–I was pregnant with Jacob.  So, I’ve graduated, married, had four adorable children, and a home of my own, but I have not been back to Russia since 1996.  And every few months I tell myself that I need to start saving and planning so that next year I can go…and every year passes and I am no closer to being able to go.  And now, that part of my life feels so long gone that it almost feels more like it was a dream.  :(  And it was such a big part of me and who I was.  So.  Yesterday I had a talk with Josh and we are planning a trip.  We still won’t be able to go for about another year and a half, but we ARE going.  The planning and saving has begun.  I am so excited.  And also, very nervous.  You know the phrase, “you can never go ‘home’ again.”  It has been a long time and many many things have changed.  I don’t remember the language well AT ALL and I’ve just never really traveled as an adult.  I am eager to finally get to share this part of my life with Josh, but nervous about that too.  What if he doesn’t get why it meant so much to me?