九個月 (9 months)

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Three quarters of a year! It’s genuinely hard to believe we’re already here, this month felt completely nonexistent. Not much because of Adelyn, but rather our insane life changes of moving, packing, and preparing for big things. Though, if you … Continue reading →

On the road again

Two years of Taiwan livin’. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here that long. Time has flown while we’ve been here in a way that we never quite experienced back home. Maybe it’s the constant adventure, the laid back livin’, or the lack of Daylight Savings. Either way, it’s been fast. In fact, by the time we leave, we’ll be just five months shy of three years in this home away from home.

Prior to taking the big plunge, we spent nearly a year discussing, planning, and preparing to move here. I can honestly say that during most of that time I was equal parts stoked and sad. The adventure, the change of pace for both of us, and the unknown was incredibly exciting. But it was also terrifying and incredibly heartbreaking to leave our home and our treasured family and friends. Leaving all that we knew and loved, we feared we’d be exchanging it for something less, or something ‘okay’ at best. We knew God had made the way possible, but it was still hard to trust His complete providence and goodness in making this more than just a ‘good’ place to be. But after enduring two long emotional doubt-filled days when we first arrived, we were blown away by what greeted us soon after. And truthfully, I’m still blown away by it. Not only have we known true community, true kindness, and true selflessness through our church, our students, our neighbors, and even the strangers that have become our friends, but our closest community has even evolved together as many of us have had the chance to welcome new little ones into our lives over the last year and a half (and another on the way this summer). We have had the opportunity to love and serve and be loved and served by others. We have encountered a culture of people that are filled with kindness and hospitality. We have experienced a peace in the environment that surrounds us, even in the midst of so many trials and struggles.These people and this place have impacted us greatly and are already such an integral part of our lives and who we are. 

Which is what makes this post so hard to write.

You see, when we first discussed living here, we thought it’d be for maybe a year, then two, then two and a half, then….who knew. We expected the ease and finances of a new life to hold us down for a while as we explored and “saved” money. (ha!) I expected, or at least hoped, to enjoy living here well enough that a year or two wouldn’t be too bad. What I didn’t expect was how completely heartbroken I would be to leave. How tethered I would feel to this place. How hard I would struggle, even five months out, with the idea of saying goodbye to our friends, to our neighbors, to our guard, or even to the family we buy dumplings from. I had no idea the strength it would require of me to move forward with something new. The idea never even crossed my mind. We were so focused on getting here and being here that I never thought about what it would be like to actually leave.

But now, two years, seven countries, and one baby later, here we are, ready to uproot everything, yet again, and head out on our next adventure.

Therefore, it is with immense joy and unexplainable sadness that we announce the next stage of our journey. This August, Jon, baby, and I will be packing our bags and moving to… (*drumroll*)

Mannheim, GermanyWe will be (temporarily) moving in with my brother and sister-in-law who currently live there (technically in Viernheim) with their three children. And we are already in the process of communicating with possible employers about teaching English to adults. We’re currently preparing to move out of our current apartment to house sit for some friends for the next month before we make a three-week long trip to the States in May. When we return, we’ll have two months of subbing, relaxing, and enjoying every ounce of Kaohsiung living that we can before we leave in August, ending what will have been one of the greatest adventures we’ve had the privilege of partaking in and preparing to start the next.

When we were first starting to think about this, about moving to yet another country, away from home, away from family, away from our own personal comfort, I wondered what this would mean. What will our lives look like from here on out? What will we do in the long run? What can I hope for for our daughter?

Well, I don’t really know what our lives will look like. We talk about it. A lot. We have hopes, desires, ideas. But we don’t know. We don’t know what we’ll do in the long run. That depends on SO many factors that are completely outside of our control. And probably on so many factors that we aren’t even aware of yet.

But I know one thing. What I, what we, hope for for our daughter is that she will grow up seeing the world. Not just for great stories and fun pictures, but for an understanding of God’s creation and people. What we hope and pray for for her, and the rest of our (Lord willing) future children, is that she, they, will have an understanding, an appreciation, and an overwhelming love for every culture and every people. That she would see everyone’s differences as a blessing of a beautiful world. That she would see everything that is God-made, as well as man-made, as an exhibit of God’s beauty and grace. That she would ache for the injustice she sees and knows throughout the world. That she would see everyone around her as no different than herself. And that she would long for the hearts and souls of the people she does and does not meet to know the Lord.

I know our desires are no different than most of the other parents we know. I know we could teach and pray for this over our child whether living in Taiwan, Germany, or St. Louis. But we’re grateful for this hands on experience for her, and for us, to see the world.

And with that, we ask for prayers. We are genuinely excited for this opportunity to be in Germany, and we are thrilled to be close to family. But this truly is much harder than we would have imagined. It’s hard knowing we aren’t returning home, and it’s hard knowing we’re leaving a home that we won’t often get to return to at all. It’s hard packing and moving with a little one. It’s hard figuring out where we’ll live during June and July when we return. It’s hard trusting that God will provide all that we need when we move like He did when we came here. It’s incredibly hard. So please pray for us, for the process as we plan, pack, and prepare to leave, for the time we have left here: that it would be full and that we would be taken care of in what is still unknown about our living situation, for the physical move both now and in August, and for our hearts as we say goodbye to this beautiful country filled with amazing people.