Like we never skipped a beat

Thankfully this trip to Paderborn was much less eventful than the last one. No volcano eruptions, no swindling my way on to a packed plane and no train rides across a couple different countries. I did however leave my house at 4 am to catch a 6 am flight. I arrived in Dallas to sit on the runway for 30 mins because our gate wasn't ready and then our flight taking off was a few minutes late because they were cleaning the plane. I thought that was a funny excuse to be late for takeoff. Also, when we were just about to take off they decided to shut down the runway temporarily for God knows what reason. Thankfully that was only about 30 minutes. I just kept thinking to myself, this is nothing compared to the last trip and as long as I land in Frankfurt and find Nik, life will be grand. Dosing in and out of sleep the entire time, I felt like time was slowing down instead of speeding up until my arrival. My flight ended up being just about an hour late and I touched down in Frankfurt 9.5 hrs later (8:20 am Frankfurt time).

I couldn't help but feel the butterflies in my stomach with anticipation and excitement. It has been over 70 days since Nik and I have seen each other and I couldn't help but think, "What if things have changed? What if we have grown apart?" We have talked everyday and things have been great, but of course I still had the wondering thoughts. I waited for my bag, thankfully it came, then walked to the exit where I was hoping I would find Nik just outside. Sure enough I turned the corner and there he was with a huge smile and looking incredibly handsome. We hugged and kissed and didn't let go for a really long time. I felt like the entire crowd of people waiting for their friends and family were watching us but I didn't care. It was great to see him and I instantly knew nothing had changed.

Nik didn't get much sleep either. He had to leave his house by 4 am borrowing his roommates car to make it to the airport on time. On our way out of the airport we each got coffees and spent the entire ride having the wonderful conversations that we always have. It was so refreshing to know even though we are 6000 miles away, we have been able to keep our relationship strong.

We will be in Paderborn until Monday, then we head off on our adventure of a lifetime.