Celebrations

This past Thursday Daniel and I celebrated our one year anniversary of living in East Asia!!

This is us one year ago leaving Dallas.

Part of me feels like it has been so much longer than a year! Not in a it's-been-so-hard kind of way, but i feel that just so much has happened and we feel pretty settled here that sometimes i feel like we've lived here forever. This past year was harder than we thought it would be. I would say the first 6 months here were the most difficult of our marriage. But at the same time, I believe our relationship has grown and gone deeper than ever before too.

We feel very settled here. We feel pretty comfortable getting around and using the local language. We've settled into our home and have a general routine. We've been able to travel and meet so many other people. It's been such a blessing to be here, we look forward to the many more years we hope to live here.

In another celebration news..... my sister, Sarah is pregnant!!  

She is already 13 weeks! Now there is a GREAT story to how they became pregnant :) (and yes I have permission to share it)

Sarah & Mike have 2 little boys, and have been going back and forth for the past 3 years about whether or not they wanted to grow their family more or not. They finally decided they thought they were done, and Mike had a vasectomy the last part of February (you probably see where this is going.....) 

They were told to use another form of birth control for about 6 weeks after the surgery. They didn't. They got pregnant about 2 weeks later.

The great thing is that they are both THRILLED about their little baby! I keep telling Sarah this is their miracle child, that Father clearly wanted them to have. We're all hoping for a little girl, but will clearly be happy with whatever.

When Sarah told me the news, I thought she was joking! I knew Mike had the surgery and when Sarah told me I couldn't believe it. She could hardly believe it either.

I'm so excited to be able to spend a week with her! The last time I moved overseas, she also got pregnant and told me the weekend before I left. So I already know what it's like to miss the pregnancy, birth, and several months of her babies life. But I am so excited to see her, even if just for a little bit during this pregnancy. It's going to be so much fun!

And I'm getting on a plane in just a few short hours to head to the States. It really hit me at dinner tonight that I would see my parents tomorrow. So unreal!

see you in the States!

love

laura