A Year and Change

It's been just over a year since Ryan and I made our return to the motherland. It's a weird milestone to come to, it's like experiencing the end of our trip all over again! For the past three months, on a daily basis I could think back and wonder what I was doing on any given day. Some days I would look back through my journal, trying to relive the sights, sounds and smells of the places we'd visited, relishing the memory of the twists and turns of travel that made it an often difficult lifestyle, yet one that truly changed my life. Our lives. I will always be grateful for my insatiable wanderlust that took me and my husband to thee continents, 14 countries, and gave me memories I couldn't dream up in a million sleeps. 

I know for certain that once we returned to the U. S. that our adventures didn't stop! Around this time last year, after we'd bought our first car, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Sandy with Ryan's parents in New Jersey. That was an adventure in itself! 

We visited my family in Michigan, spent two frantic days apartment hunting in Chicago, managed to secure the apartment of my dreams, and the off we whisked ourselves to Virginia for Thanksgiving with Ryan's whole family! We returned to our heatless apartment, set up camp, and slowly but surely set up out new home. 

By the time Christmas rolled around, I remember feeling so lucky to be unpacking my Christmas decorations and putting up our tree in just the sort of place I'd imagined way back in July when I was packing all my belongings up in my New York apartment. It felt like I'd found my home.