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Required New Year's Post...CHECK!

Wow...so this post is coming pretty late but... this is the time of year that we all reflect on the past year... we take time to remember all the good times, vow to forget the bad, and resolve to change something for the coming year. Up until this year, I never really cared that much about New Year's...sure, it was fun to go over to someone's house and "ring" in the new year, but there wasn't much retrospective analysis.

Being that this past year was probably the most life changing year of my life has necessitated a certain amount of retrospect this time around. So here it goes.

We've gone from being "settled" in Apple Valley; enjoying our jobs, home, friends, and life to...and I'll try to hit the main points:

February - being obedient to God's call to the mission field, flying to Des Moines to meet with the recruiter
April - Committing to Vienna and putting in our notice to our school, effectively quitting our jobs
May - June selling the majority of our belongings, moving out of our home, humbling ourselves and looking to our family, friends, and church body to support us financially in our work, purchased tickets for the flight to Vienna
July - Pre Field Orientation in Houghton, NY, lots of goodbyes
Aug - Lots of hellos, moved to Vienna, started teaching, got a visa!
Sept-Dec - Too many events to name them all...road trips with soccer team to Slovakia and Hungary, organized and hosted a ska concert, coffee house evenings, too many other school events to mention, Christmas markets.

I really intended for this to be much more introspective, BUT then I came down with the chicken pox...so this will have to do.

Here's to the the big years in our lives...and the "normal" ones. They are all full of God's blessings and gifts, even in the years where it seems that nothing goes right.

Love you all!

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