2012...a year in review...

For the last few years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), I have been doing a blog post with a recap of our the past year - mostly for us to remember what all we have been up to, but it's also our "family letter" of sorts for anyone else who wants to keep up with us and read about our life.

2012 was a crazy year for us. Let's just get that out there at the beginning. And we kind of knew that going into January. We had just found from Andy's job that we were most likely going to be moving overseas with his job and we started mentally preparing for that HUGE move. We didn't tell our family or friends for a few months when we found out everything for sure and got all the official paperwork. But we knew it was going to be crazy and we ended up traveling all over the world.....

{January 2012 - Baltimore, MD}

In the beginning of January, we went up to Baltimore to celebrate New Year's and a belated Christmas with my family. We had a great time with them and I took this fun Raven's themed family photo (the football onsie was to represent our coming nephew). We celebrated Andy's birthday by taking a road trip to Charleston, Savannah, and Tybee Island over the long weekend (I took a lot of photos! Here's part 1 & part 2). I kept busy with some art, sewing, and  met up with some photographer friends to take photos of some superheroes.

{January 2012 - Tybee Island, GA}

February was less busy than January. Andy was busy at work and I started babysitting a few days a week for a friend of mine. I did some more sewing, painting, and took a lot of iPhone/instagram photos to post on Fridays (here, here, here, and here). And I posted a really random Valentine's day photo of a running joke that my friends and I had been passing around for years. Andy's mother and grandmother came to visit us for a few days and we had a really nice time with them (unfortunately I didn't take any photos with them). They were our first overnight guests in our new home (we had moved to a new rental house in Fayetteville in August).

In the beginning of March, I took a quick visit up to Baltimore by myself since Andy was busy at work. I had a nice time visiting with family and friends and I did a photoshoot with my handsome little brother. I continued babysitting a few days a week and was enjoying a women's Bible study group and working out with some new friends. Our biggest news in March was that we announced that we had started the adoption process and were hoping to adopt a baby!

{March 2012 - Fayetteville, NC}

I had a photographer friend of mine take some photos of us for our adoption profile and just to get some good photos of us where I wasn't running back and forth to check the camera on the tripod. We loved the photos she took of us - she did a great job.

April was very busy - we were getting all of our adoption paperwork and clearances ready to submit...and we were starting to think about packing and moving for Andy's job. And we were busy traveling trying to visit family and friends before we moved far away. We spent Easter weekend visiting with Andy's family in Greensboro. We came home and I repacked my bags for my next trip. I flew down to Texas for a week to visit my grandmother and my good college friends. I hadn't seen my friends for a long time and we had a great time together. In April, we fit a quick trip in to Georgia to see Andy's mother and grandmother after I came back from Texas. And we were excited to hear the news from my brother about the birth of our new nephew. 

{April 2012 - Texas}

May was moving month...and not just moving across town.....we were moving overseas - to Germany! I didn't blog much about it, but the last week of April and the first week of May was an insane week of packing our lives away. We had to pack up our suitcases and make a lot of hard choices about what we would need for the first month or two before the rest of our things would arrive. Then the movers came and packed up our house in a few days. In the middle of all that, Andy was finishing up at work and I was taking the dog to the vet to make sure she could travel with us - which turned out to be an ordeal. Our first few days in Germany were an exhausting whirlwind and we were happy when I got my license to drive and we were able to buy a beater car so we could get around and learn about our new surroundings. Andy started his job at the Germany office and we started exploring Germany on the weekends.

{May 2012 - Idar-Oberstien, Germany}

In June, we were still getting used to things and finding our way around (I did a mini-instagram tour around base here) and we got lost a lot (we couldn't even find the train station!). I tried to learn a little German and more about the German culture by taking a few days of classes (we studied both in class and out "on the economy" and took a fun field trip). We were excited when our furniture and all of our things finally arrived and made our little German apartment on base more like a home.

{June 2012 - Bad Sobernheim, Germany}

Barefoot Park

We celebrated the 4th of July on base and Andy worked/I volunteered to help out for the day with the Red Cross. I started volunteering with the youth group with the Chapel on base and had fun going to Ikea and other random German shops. We took a day trip to visit Trier, Germany and really enjoyed the very historical city.

{July 2013 - Trier, Germany}

We took a really fun day trip in August - we rode the bus to Paris! I loved Paris and we both had a great time....just wished we had stayed for the weekend or something - there was so much more that I wanted to see there. I posted about what we were up to and how all of the adoption paperwork was going.

{August 2012 - Paris, France}

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by taking a long weekend trip to Belgium. We had a nice, relaxing time in Belgium and really enjoyed our time in Brugge. The rest of the month was pretty busy and I only posted a few times about more shopping and getting around in Germany and about how busy I was with the women's Bible study and youth group.

{September 2012 - Brugge, Belgium}

October hit....and I stopped blogging because life got crazy. Due to changes within the Red Cross, Andy's job ended much sooner then we expected and we had to return to the US. We both started job searching and I was so thankful to be able to secure a new job with my previous company - they interviewed me on the phone while I was still in Germany. We took a few more trips before we left - a short day trip to Luxembourg and a weekend trip to Austria while we were waiting for our final arrangements and flights. We quickly got packed up and sadly had to say goodbye to our new friends. We made it back to the US - even though our dog, Maggie busted out of her crate in the first few minutes of being on the plane and we had to take turns holding her in the busted crate for the entire. eight. plus. hour. flight. So not fun.

{October 2012 - Innisbruck, Austria}

We spent a few weeks in November with my family in Baltimore and made it through Hurricane Sandy  - thankfully Maryland was not hit very hard and we didn't even have any loss of power at my family's house. I spent time with good friends and was able to be there to meet and photograph one of my best friend's new baby girl. We bought a new (to us) car to drive down to North Carolina in time to start my new job and celebrate my birthday with Andy's family (I celebrated it early with my family and friends in Baltimore before we left too!). We enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with Andy's family and we got to meet our other new nephew who was born a few weeks before we got down to NC.

{December 2012 - Greensboro, NC}

In December, we were thankful to be able to stay with Andy's Dad and step-mother while we waited on our furniture and looked for a new home. We did get our other car back from Germany and I was busy with my new job and adjusting to the new schedule. We celebrated a nice, quiet Christmas in North Carolina and didn't travel anywhere since I didn't have any time off yet. We were able to find a new rental home at the end of the year and are looking forward to moving into it in the beginning of the new year. And then we hope to not have to move again for a while! We have enjoyed all the places we have been in the past year and getting to see so many new things....but we are hoping that 2013 is a bit more peaceful for us. Thanking God for 2012 and moving on to see what He has in store for us in 2013.

Happy New Year!