Freundschaft

This month has been trying. Well, last month, since it's February already. Dave and I both have had work weeks from hell, we're juggling childcare and Teddy's been aggressive and mean toward AJ (more on that in another post). However, there have definitely been bright spots. One of those was my conversation this weekend with my friend from Germany, Marianne.

Marianne reached out to me via e-mail in 2019 after finding this blog when her daughter was diagnosed with CDG-PIGN. We instantly connected, sending e-mails across the ocean, learning about each other's lives and sharing our struggles and triumphs. Last year, we had planned to meet when my mom and I went to Germany and Spain. Unfortunately, that trip was cancelled as it was planned the week the United States went into lockdown.

The one positive that came out of those plans, though, was that Marianne introduced me to an app called WhatsApp that allowed us to text one another. We had planned to use it to connect when we arrived in Germany, but instead we've used it the past year to text one another, send pictures and whatnot. After two international zoom meetings in January, Marianne and I decided to schedule a "date" to video call one another through WhatsApp.

So this weekend, we spent more than an hour chatting with her excellent English (and my non-existent German despite 125 days of Duolingo practice). AJ got to give her a tour of the LEGO room, and Teddy stole my phone multiple times to smash his face to the screen and hold the phone up to his ear. It was so wonderful to actually connect that way and was the first of hopefully many actual conversations.

As a child, I always dreamed of international pen pals (back when you wrote actual letters). Now, thanks to my rare son, I have friends around the world. Those connections make our world smaller and make our days brighter. They share our burdens and our joys.