Getting Through Things with Gent

As many of you know this week has not been a good week for me or my family. Last Friday my Grandpa Schofield passed away. He was the greatest man on the Earth and was very close to both Ben and I. Ben looked into sending me home for the funeral services but the cheapest ticket we could find was about 1300 bucks and left on Christmas Day so I had to miss everything. Playing my violin at the funeral, taps with the 21 gun salute, and the closure that comes with seeing my grandpa for the last time the whole shebang. I've been taking it pretty hard and Ben could only do so much especially when the flu hit and we were both extremely sick the day after Christmas.

Yesterday was the breaking point, though. My dad had arranged for the funeral to be streamed live online so that Ben and I could watch it and about an hour before the funeral started Ben and I were already streaming the live feed from the chapel. Well about twenty minutes before the service started we lost the live feed. Naturally everyone at the funeral had their phones off so by the time people noticed they had a message it was over. At that moment everything hit me. Grandpa was gone, I wasn't there, and I was missing everything. It was the icing on a incredibly terrible week.

So this morning when we woke up this morning Ben and I decided that we needed to get away. I needed to get out of the house and be somewhere new and Ben desperately wanted to cheer me up so we hopped the train to Gent. Gent is the second largest city in Belgium and has been around since the 12th century. It's only 30 minutes out of Brussels so it made for a great day trip especially on a beautiful day like today. The trip wasn't the ideal European stroll we had in mind, apparently we forgot to memo Brooklyn about this being a relaxing trip, but it did help. I was able to explore a new place, we saw some pretty amazing buildings, and I got to spend focusing on my little family and this great blessing we have of living in Europe. I owe it all to the man who stole my heart nearly five years ago. Thanks Ben for taking care of me during this rough week. I couldn't have handled this without you. I love you!

This was a quiet little corner we found while wandering around the city. It was peaceful there. 

St. Bavo's Cathedral: Literally the most
Beautiful Cathedral I've ever been in.

The Castle of the Counts!

St. Nicholas Church (we thought it was fitting for Christmas time)

St. Michael's Bridge

Brooklyn's only smile while in Gent.

Ben entering the Castle of the Counts 

Brooklyn reminding Ben whose in charge!

"That's right mom, I've got him right where I want him."