Well many of you might be receiving our Christmas Card about now...so we thought we would make a special post for those that might be checking out our blog for the first time.
To fully get caught up on this adventure that started for us about a year ago, you should read the many posts from the year telling of our great fun and adventures. We have called this an adventure from the start because it is the best way to describe it. Adventures are fun, exciting, exhilarating, surprising, unexpected, scary, frightening...sometimes you can't believe you are on this journey...other times you want to get off...other times you want it to go on forever.
To be honest as we reflect back on the experience, we say we entered into this with realistic expectations about how hard it would be and it has been as hard as we expected. The number of changes one goes through with an adventure like this are staggering. As adults we all say we are good with change and typically are...but it feels like we reached our limit when landing in another country and every piece of your life seemed to change.
Different food, currency, people, driving, directions, work, school, traditions, culture, etc. You name it - it was different. We often thought if one were to simply take this type of an experience on and only have to learn to live in a different land that would be a full time job...going to school in a different land where the system is so different is a full-time job...getting used to a new international role and the demands of a new business is a full-time job...but we had to do it all.
The first three months we all secretly wondered if we were going to make it...the next 6 months we started to feel like we might just figure it out...and now almost 1 year in we are getting "settled in" as they say around here and would honestly be disappointed if it were to end too soon.
We have enjoyed learning about new cultures and getting to travel to places we never imagined. We have visited London, Edinburgh Scotland, Toured Ireland, Paris, Barcelona Spain, and Mallorca Spain as a family. We are looking forward to spending our Christmas break in the Canary Islands off of Africa - close to Morocco.
My job has kept me on the road nearly 2 months of the year traveling to Australia, Japan, Europe, the Middle east and the US on many occasions.
God has kept us healthy, safe, and protected and he hasn't given us more than we could handle...although we have felt we were pushed to our limits on more than one occasion.
As the holiday seasons approach one starts to get a bit homesick and we have rule that we have to turn the radio or TV anytime we hear "I'll be Home for Christmas". I even looked over to find Kel tearing up a bit when we were watching "Elf" the other night...so we expect this time of year to be tough to be away from the ones you love, but we are excited to make it our own.
While we do love our family, friends, and church family back home and miss them more than we imagined...we have embraced the opportunity to have a lot of family time and have to rely on each other in more ways then one that has brought the crew even closer together.
God has blessed our marriage for 20 years and blessed us with 3 kids that are uniquely and wonderfully made.
We hope you find perfect joy this holiday season and find time to enjoy being close to those that mean so much. Our savior was born this time of year...in a land not too far away from us. We are grateful for that gift most of all this time of year.
Bookmark our blog to see the future escapades as we continue this "Royal Adventure"
With Love....Dave, Kelly, Chloe, Dawson and Sadie
To fully get caught up on this adventure that started for us about a year ago, you should read the many posts from the year telling of our great fun and adventures. We have called this an adventure from the start because it is the best way to describe it. Adventures are fun, exciting, exhilarating, surprising, unexpected, scary, frightening...sometimes you can't believe you are on this journey...other times you want to get off...other times you want it to go on forever.
To be honest as we reflect back on the experience, we say we entered into this with realistic expectations about how hard it would be and it has been as hard as we expected. The number of changes one goes through with an adventure like this are staggering. As adults we all say we are good with change and typically are...but it feels like we reached our limit when landing in another country and every piece of your life seemed to change.
Different food, currency, people, driving, directions, work, school, traditions, culture, etc. You name it - it was different. We often thought if one were to simply take this type of an experience on and only have to learn to live in a different land that would be a full time job...going to school in a different land where the system is so different is a full-time job...getting used to a new international role and the demands of a new business is a full-time job...but we had to do it all.
The first three months we all secretly wondered if we were going to make it...the next 6 months we started to feel like we might just figure it out...and now almost 1 year in we are getting "settled in" as they say around here and would honestly be disappointed if it were to end too soon.
We have enjoyed learning about new cultures and getting to travel to places we never imagined. We have visited London, Edinburgh Scotland, Toured Ireland, Paris, Barcelona Spain, and Mallorca Spain as a family. We are looking forward to spending our Christmas break in the Canary Islands off of Africa - close to Morocco.
My job has kept me on the road nearly 2 months of the year traveling to Australia, Japan, Europe, the Middle east and the US on many occasions.
God has kept us healthy, safe, and protected and he hasn't given us more than we could handle...although we have felt we were pushed to our limits on more than one occasion.
As the holiday seasons approach one starts to get a bit homesick and we have rule that we have to turn the radio or TV anytime we hear "I'll be Home for Christmas". I even looked over to find Kel tearing up a bit when we were watching "Elf" the other night...so we expect this time of year to be tough to be away from the ones you love, but we are excited to make it our own.
While we do love our family, friends, and church family back home and miss them more than we imagined...we have embraced the opportunity to have a lot of family time and have to rely on each other in more ways then one that has brought the crew even closer together.
God has blessed our marriage for 20 years and blessed us with 3 kids that are uniquely and wonderfully made.
We hope you find perfect joy this holiday season and find time to enjoy being close to those that mean so much. Our savior was born this time of year...in a land not too far away from us. We are grateful for that gift most of all this time of year.
Bookmark our blog to see the future escapades as we continue this "Royal Adventure"
With Love....Dave, Kelly, Chloe, Dawson and Sadie
Merry almost Christmas and congrats on almost a year under your belts. You guys have done a great job and finding there is an upside of living away from family - a little of your own family time. Who knows, maybe you'll start a new tradition. Camels at Christmas can work, right?
ReplyDeleteLove you guys,
Aunt Di