In case anyone reading this has been living under a rock for the past twelve months, last year was a rough one, for everybody. The cancellation of Dan’s and my Spring Break trip to Cancun with his friends was just the beginning of a weird, frustrating, sad and lonely time for pretty much every human on the planet. While Mike, the kids and I stayed physically healthy and safe in our home, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially for this social mom. But many people struggled so much more… financially, mentally, physically. It seemed like nothing would ever be the same again.

So, it’s probably not surprising that I honestly wondered in my quieter, more anxious-filled moments of the last year if I would ever get back to the Aloha State again. But with the Christmas season came hope, in the form of a vaccine, and Mike and I were both super fortunate to get ours early on. The new year also opened up an opportunity for Dan to spend a few months living on Oahu with other UCLA freshmen and he, the risk-taker that he is, jumped at the chance. Before we could barely blink, I was dropping him off at the airport trying not to cry from the mix of excitement and sadness I felt. By Groundhog Day, my awesome hubby was practically forcing me to look on line at flights and VRBOs for this week, knowing what a waste it would be to let our son just spend 3 months on Oahu without one visit.

He’s definitely the reason I am currently sitting in a metal tube soaring across the Pacific, just a couple hours from landing in Honolulu and more importantly, hugging my boy for the first time in 78 days. But who’s counting?