some thoughts

 

I know this amazing woman who is going through some really trying times right now, and I've been thinking a lot about her and how strong she has always been. She's always so open about her trials, hoping that maybe her experiences can help someone else, which is so different from me. I am an extremely private person and have a really hard time opening up to people and really saying how I feel. I'm an expert at putting on a brave face and just pretending like I'm okay, when in reality, I am anything but okay. So, this amazing woman that I know, has inspired me. I think it will do me a lot of good to write some things down, and if I'm lucky, maybe I can help someone else out in the process.

Marriage is hard. And it takes a lot of work. I knew that going in, and everyone tells you that before you get married, but I don't know that I actually KNEW that until recently. Dan and I have always been a dream team, no bragging, just the truth. We don't fight, we don't really disagree on much, and most of the time we just have a lot of fun because our sense of humor and temperaments are so similar. But, since we've been here, I feel like our relationship has been put through the ringer. From the minute we got off the plane in Osan, Dan has been pulled in a million different directions and has been busy, busy, busy. Which means that our little family has been coming in second. They didn't give him a week to in process like they were supposed to, but instead immediately threw him into work and told him to just get it done. How was he supposed to get those things done if he's not in the system, has never done any of this Army administrative stuff before, and there's no one around to tell him how to do it?

It's been rough. For the first 2 months or so, Dan would come home and just be silent and cranky all evening until we went to bed because he was so stressed from work. I tried hard to be understanding and supportive, but there's only so much a person can take before they snap. So, one day I finally snapped. I was mean and belligerent, and he was cranky and stressed, so our house was not a happy one.

We would still try and go on dates every weekend, but you could tell that we weren't really enjoying ourselves. Sometimes Dan would say some flippant comment about something that would seriously hurt my feelings, because I was being overly sensitive, and then I wouldn't talk to him the rest of the evening. Super mature, I know.

We never sat down and talked about anything, but instead we were passive aggressive and mostly just ignored one another. I don't know why I let this go on for so long, but I guess I was being prideful and wanted him to admit that it was his fault that we were so unhappy. There was even some talk of me taking the kids and going to live with my mom for a little while, until things slowed down a bit for him.

But one day while I was cleaning the house and the kids were napping, my best friend called me and I started to just vent and cry and rage at her until I was empty inside. And through all the ranting, she was super supportive and listened to what I had to say, and even backed me up on a lot of things, but at the end of the conversation she gave me some sound advice. She told me to just start doing nice things for him all the time. If he's so bothered by the dishes not being done, even though I felt like he should do them since I cook and take care of HIS children, she told me to just do them. Maybe I was right in feeling the way I did, but wouldn't it be better if I just did the dishes so he would be happy?

At the time, I was thinking there was no way I was going to do that because I was right. I was right, dangit, so he should have to be the one to do nice things for me, but after giving it a lot of thought, and praying a lot about us, I decided she was right. I started doing the dishes, and making him breakfast, and driving up to his work to bring him lunch. I would buy him kit kats at the store or make chocolate chip cookies for no reason, and the difference in everyone's attitude was palpable.

Dan and I started talking, really talking, to each other again. We started to actually enjoy our dates again instead of just going to dinner and coming home. After a while, Dan started doing nice things for me in return. Like, letting me go to lunch with a girlfriend for most of Saturday afternoon.

One night, we finally sat down and discussed what's going on. He told me how stressed he's been, and I told him how lonely I felt, and I cried a lot, and then we went to bed.

Things certainly aren't perfect or anything, and sometimes I still get very frustrated with him because I feel like he should be doing more to help me, but I am trying to be more selfless and more service oriented. Doing service for someone really does increase your love for that person, and in turn, it makes you a better person. People were always telling me that, and preaching this exact thing, but when you experience it first-hand, it makes it very real.

I heard this song on the radio the other day and decided this is exactly how I feel about Dan now. So, I sent him the lyrics via email.

It's not a walk in the park
To love each other.
But when our fingers interlock,
Can't deny, can't deny you're worth it

Cause after all this time.
I'm still into you

This post is all about food

 So, Korean food is delicious. Did you know? Yes, some of the older generation still eats dog. And, yes, sometimes they do eat chicken anus (yuck), but most of the food here is absolutely to die for. We've been out to eat several times at many different places, and each time we've been pleasantly surprised. Surprised because we can't read Korean and most menus don't have pictures, so we play menu roulette. Mmmmm.

On one of our dates, we stumbled upon this place and decided to go in because they had some English on their sign and the menu had pictures. This place served chicken galbi, which is the rib meat from a chicken.

In the middle of the table is this giant burner, and they turn in on for you and then put a big round thing around it, so you can't burn yourself.

Then, they put all the stuff in the pot for you

And cut up all the meat and cook it right in from of you

After they're done, they walk away and you have this giant thing in the middle of the table full of yummy goodness. They give you leaves and things on the side, so you take your chopsticks, grab some grub, put it in the leaf and eat it

LOVED IT

 Another place we went, really was a surprise because the menu looked like this:

 Luckily, I ended up with bibimbop and Dan ended up with something similar. Yum yum yum.

Some of my favorite things, so far, would be bibimbop, kimbop, dumplings, kimchi (believe it or not), and this pork cutlet thing. We've also had a cold noodle soup that was yummy, and anything at Paris baguette is delicious. The one time we finally got to get some Korean bbq, it too was extremely tasty.

bibimbop--- Rice and veggies mixed together with a spicy red paste and an egg

kimpop--- kind of like sushi. Rice and assorted things wrapped in seaweed

kimchi--- the Korean staple food. It's like fermented cabbage and things in a spicy red paste

You should come visit us. The food alone is worth the trip. For real.

The week without my phone

 A couple of weeks ago, my phone dropped out of the stroller at the playground and then someone took it. It was literally only 5 minutes between the time I dropped it and when I went out to look for it, but someone had already snagged it. Stupid teenagers. So, I had to have my friend Aimee drive me around all over the place getting the paperwork I needed to be able to file the insurance paperwork to get a new phone. Talk about a huge headache. If we were in the states, this really wouldn't be a big deal, but everything here is harder because they do things differently and because everything is in Korean. In case you were wondering, I don't speak Korean, so the whole thing was just a big mess.

To be able to file an insurance claim here, you have to go to a local police department and file a report that your phone is stolen, then they'll give you a paper which you take back to the phone store, and then they fax the paperwork. All of this doesn't sound so bad until you remember that I don't have a car, I don't speak Korean, and police stations don't look like police stations here. Not to mention, there's obviously no sign out front that says police station, since we are in Korea. But, Aimee was super patient and drove me and my kids around, and we did eventually find a police station. 

After my phone came in, they shipped it to a store downtown instead of the px, so I had to get directions in Korean from the lady at the px to give to my taxi driver. Luckily he knew exactly what her writing meant and took me straight to the store. Yay! Really fast, I have to explain something. Shopping and stores here are a lot different than in the states. There aren't really malls or strip malls. Every street is lined with shops. Every single one. And all the shops are small and covered in pictures and writing on the outside. My service provider here is kt olleh, and there's a kt store about every 4 stores, especially downtown. So, the fact that he found the right one right away is pretty amazing. 

The guy in the store spoke English and was super helpful, so I got my phone no problem. Getting home was kind of an adventure though. I couldn't call a taxi because when I tried they didn't understand me, so I couldn't explain where I was. Dang. So, I found a taxi that was just sitting on the street and got a ride in that one. I told him camp George and he took me straight to camp walker. And since I don't speak Korean, I couldn't tell him it was a different place, so I just got out. I was hoping to just get a different taxi once I got on base, but the wait was like 40 min, and the bus wouldn't come again for another 45 min, so I just walked. It's probably like 2 miles or so. Not bad at all. I was wearing flip flops, so that was kind of a hindrance, but overall it was fine. So, that's the story of how I got my phone. 

Going without a phone while living overseas was kind of terrifying actually. I was afraid to go anywhere outside my house because I didn't want to get lost and not be able to call someone. Not to mention, I was completely out of touch with my family and friends back home. It was a really rough week, but I got my new phone and I watch it like a hawk, so hopefully this won't happen again. Here are some pictures.

she does this all the time now. Cracks me up

What we've been up to

Hello friends,

Since my last update we've been doing some fun things, so ill share with you. 

I was able to go to a small market last week with Abbi and her kids, and it was so much fun. It was basically just an alley and all up and down the alley there were vendors selling stuff. There were lots of produce stands, but there were also a lot of other things like whole pigs, soup, fried fish and veggies, desserts, and gimpob. I didn't try any of the desserts, but I hope to eventually. Abbi told me they're made of some kind of rice flour or something and a lot of them are filled with a bean paste. Sounds weird, I know. Apparently they don't really do sweet things here, so even the desserts aren't all that sweet. However, if Koreans try to mimic American food, it usually turns out sweet. Like pizza, for example. They put different things on their pizzas here than we do, like sweet potatoes. Abbi says the sweet potato pizza is really good, but it's sweet, so that'll be interesting to try. Also, she said if you order a corn dog they'll ask you if you want sugar on it. What? I've also seen pizza crust made with green tea. Actually, pretty much everything is made with green tea cause I've seen ice cream and coffee as well. 

All of the food at the market smelled and looked delicious, so I had to be careful not to spend too much. I did get myself some gimpop, and it was delicious. Gimpop is basically the Korean version if sushi. It's veggies wrapped in rice and then wrapped in seaweed. Don't knock it till you've tried it cause its super yummy. 

It was really fun to buy fresh produce from the vendors because its cheaper and it lasts longer than the stuff at the commissary. Plus, what a cool experience!

Live octopus for sale

That lady is chopping up a pig

Fresh produce. You buy the whole basket.

Some other fun things I was able to do recently was go eat at neat places. I went with some girls from the relief society to a Japanese restaurant downtown to celebrate one of their birthdays. It was a lot of fun, and it was fun to be invited! We had only been here a few days and they were already including me in things. 

Downtown daegu 

Relief society girls at dinner

Eenja taught me how to use chopsticks correctly. I'm still not great at it

This is Eenja. It was her birthday

I ordered this pork dish that came in a pot with a kind of soup or something. It was yummy.

Walking back to eenja's apartment

So, last Sunday was my birthday, and it was kind if sad to celebrate all the way over here without my family and friends around, but Dan tried his hardest to make it special. On Saturday, Dan made me breakfast in bed and then got both the kids ready so I could just relax. Then we hit the streets of daegu hoping to find a Korean BBQ place to eat at for lunch, but we had absolutely no luck. We walked around for at least an hour and never found one, so we called it a day and just ate at this place right outside the gate of camp George called BBQ chicken. Super Korean, right? It was just wings in different sauces, but we were starving by then and it was pretty good. That night Dan made dinner and gave me some of my presents, which was a lot of different kinds of chocolate and the movie, oz. So, after the kids were in bed, we relaxed and watched a movie with an accompaniment of Godiva chocolate. Not too shabby. 

On Sunday, we had taught senior primary because everyone was sick or out of town. That was an interesting experience because the entire primary was like 8 kids, so our senior primary class was 3 kids total. After church evie took a nap and we relaxed for a while and then Dan made dinner again. Steak and potatoes. I think he thinks that's my favorite meal? Or that's all he knows how to make, because that's what I get every holiday that he cooks. Cute boy. Don't get me wrong, I do love steak. After dinner we had "cake" and blew out the "candles", which evie was excited about. 

The cake was actually an ice cream pie from the frozen isle, and the candles were actually strawberry sticks that Dan found. Not candles at all actually. Do not light them on fire. That would be gross.

After "blowing out the candles". She was so proud of herself.

Mr Emmett. This was just a cute picture. No back story at all

After my birthday was the 4th of July, and this is one of my very favorite holidays because we always made it a big deal growing up. So, I tried to make it as fun and patriotic as possible, but it didn't really turn out all that great. Oh well. Maybe next year. 

After Evie's nap, we went to camp walker to check out the festivities they had there, but there wasn't a whole lot for a little girl like evie to do. It mostly catered to older kids and adults. However, there was a bubbles show, and we thought evie would love that for sure, but she actually wasn't a huge fan. I think the guy doing the show freaked her out. Oh well. I thought it was neat. 

Red, white, and blue the best we could. Waiting to get on the bus to take us over to camp walker.

Evie liked standing in the back and waiting for the bubbles to come to her, rather than stand in the front and actually watch the show.

On Friday this week, some of the girls and the missionaries from the branch took me out to lunch for my birthday. Our lunch adventure is actually a pretty funny story. We met at eenja's house because she lives downtown, and then we would walk to the restaurant from there. It was a good plan, except that it was pointing rain outside. All day long. We walked out of her apartment to a torrential downpour, but instead of turning around and just ordering in, we decided to trudge on. About 2 minutes into our walk, I was soaked up to my ankles. By the time we finally made it to the restaurant I was soaked head to toe. I had an umbrella, but it was raining so much that even the umbrella was soaked and couldn't hold off water anymore. The entire street was a huge puddle, so i seriously looked like I had gone swimming in my clothes. But the good news is, once we got to the Korean BBQ place, it was closed, so we had to wander around some more until we found a restaurant that was open. The restaurant was a traditional Korean food restaurant, and that was totally okay by me. Luckily, the sister missionaries and Eenja all speak Korean, so they ordered for us and told us what to do. The food was delicious, but pretty spicy. 

This is what they call a "hot pot", which is just a pot that stays hot. Well named. Like, piping hot. The whole time. But, I was freezing and drenched, so something hot and spicy was perfect. It was rice, veggies, and beef, with a bunch of other stuff, all mixed together. Yum.

I went to the bathroom before we ordered to try and dry off a little, and this is the sign that was on the door for the men's bathroom. Hilarious.

Random picture of me waiting for the bus today. I high tailed it over to the bus stop and wanted to show Dan how close I was to missing it. Pretty darn close.

Today we, yet again, wanted to try and get some Korean BBQ, but failed, again. All of the places were closed until 6 because it was a Saturday. Bummer. So, we walked around until we found a place that was open, and I remembered my friend Abby saying that this place had really good gimpop, so we went there. I think the place was called Kim pasa. The ladies there didn't speak any English, and we don't speak any Korean, and the menus didn't have pictures, so we just put up 2 fingers and said gimpop. Luckily, this is what we got. It was different than the stuff I got at the market, but still just as yummy. I'm addicted. 

Gimpop

Dan trying to use chopsticks. We both forgot how as soon as we got here. I think it's the intimidation of it all.

Evie actually kind of liked it. She was a bigger fan of the soup though. She didn't eat very much, so when we got home I made her Mac n cheese. Go USA.

Those are all of our adventures so far. I'll try to remember to keep updating this. Love you all. 

First week in Korea

Our first week here has been kind of a whirlwind experience. It's a completely different culture, language, and time zone, so it's been a little hard adjusting to all of that. It's not just the Korean culture that we've had to adjust to either, but the army culture as well. We've been in the army for 2 years, but we've never lived on base and most definitely never lived overseas, so everything is new and different here. That's not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, it'll just take some time to get used to. Here's what's been happening since we left Seoul.

We left Seoul on friday and took a bullet train down to daegu, which was just about the best day of evie's life. She was so excited to go on a choo choo train and cried when we had to get off. The veterinary unit in Seoul  sent two soldiers with cars to help get us and all of our stuff to the train station, thank goodness, because we had a lot of stuff. One of the soldiers was a katusa. 

The katusa are a branch of the army here that are Korean soldiers. They have to go through some pretty rigorous testing about the English language and stuff to become one, so it's pretty prestigious. They aren't American citizens, they're more like a companion, for lack of a better word, to the army. So they work alongside our soldiers and help out in a big big way. Apparently, Koreans in the Korean army strive to be katusa because its much easier than being in the rock army (not sure if that's spelled right), which is the Korean army. 

So anyways. One of the soldiers was katusa and he made sure we got on the right train since we don't speak or read Korean. These trains aren't really built to haul people with a lot of stuff, so it took a while to cram all of our suitcases, stroller, and car seats in the overhead thing. Pretty funny. The poor people who came in after us didn't know where to put their briefcases cause I swear we took up the whole compartment with our stuff. 

Going on the train was our first real experience with Korea and the culture here, and I was pretty intimidated. Koreans don't talk when they're on public transportation, so you can imagine my embarrassment when evie and Emmett were both being kind of loud. Oh well. Hopefully they knew we were American and didn't get too offended.

  Luckily, the announcements for stops were in Korean and English, so we found the right stop and got off in time. The veterinary unit  here had another 2 soldiers meet him at the station in daegu to help us unload, which was super helpful because the train only stays in the station for a couple minutes and we had a lot of stuff, like I said already. 

After we got into the cars, the nice soldier drove us around from base to base and to the px and commissary so that we could get a place to live, cell phones, and the bare necessities, like sheets, towels,and toilet paper. These nice guys drove us around all day long helping us get stuff done, bless their hearts. They also took us over to the vtf (veterinary treatment facility) so we could meet everyone and Dan could see where he will be working. That place was so so nice. I think Dan is going to love it there, especially considering that the last place he was at was just a double wide trailer acting as a vtf. The captain that Dan is taking over for has been super helpful and super nice, and I think that's been good for Dan because it gives him a bit of a leg up in running the clinic after she's   gone. 

The people at the vtf are incredible. I seriously cannot say enough about how kind and generous they have been already in the short time that we have been here. Mrs Farley, the receptionist, took me around on Saturday to the px and commissary and helped me get a lot of things to make our apartment more homey, like a rug and a shower curtain. She was also the one who called around and had someone bring us a pack n play and some blankets. The guy who brought those to us also lives in camp George and is one of dan's soldiers. He's also super nice. 

After I was done running errands with Shanise, we were invited to go have lunch with captain waclowick, which is the cpt Dan is taking over for, and her husband. Let me tell you, it was incredible to finally have a home cooked meal that wasn't from a restaurant or fast food place. Incredible. They told us all the fun things they were able to do while they were here and gave us lots of advice about traveling and what to see. We couldn't be more excited to get out and do some of the things they mentioned. 

Saturday night we just sort of relaxed and spent most of the evening trying to figure out where the church building was and how to get to it. While we were in Seoul, Dan met a major who was a veterinarian and also happened to be lds, so on Saturday he gave him a call and asked him where and when the branch met, and he gave Dan the branch president's number. So, we were able to talk to him and after a lot of confusion on our part, one of the guys in the branch presidency came and picked us up. So nice. 

The branch here is incredible and incredibly tiny. I think there were 30 people there on Sunday, counting our family of 4. So, we can't hide in the back like we usually do and we will probably be giving lots of talks. That'll be good for us too, I think. In relief society, there were 5 of us and they told me that was actually a big number, and that just made me laugh. It'll take some getting used to, to be in a branch so small, because I'm crazy shy and not at all outspoken, so ill have to get over that I guess. After church we were going to walk with another family down to the subway so they cod show us how to do it, but its kind of a long walk and we didn't have a stroller or anything for the kiddies, so another nice person gave us a ride home instead. Her name is Abbi and she lives a couple buildings over from us. She has a son in nursery with evie and they love  each other already. 

On Sunday night, brother and sister Jenkins invited us over for dinner. He's the one who gave us a ride to church. We were just about to go outside and wait for him to pick us up, when Dan got a call and had to go into work. In Korea they do readiness tests,or something, where they will periodically make everyone come in and check that all the units are whole and ready in case North Korea decides to do something stupid. I understand the logic behind the drills, but we were super disappointed that Dan couldn't come to dinner with us. 

So, me and the kids flew solo to dinner. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and have evie play with some new friends. What a nice family. 

On Monday, Abbi invited me and the kids over to play, so we went over there and evie And Eli were able to play together for a little bit, and then we all got ready to leave because Abbi was going to show us this cool Korean store that was like a 20 min walk from here. We met up with some other moms, one of which is my neighbor who also happens to be lds! What are the odds? Her name is Aimee and she has 5 kids, the youngest of whole is also in nursery with evie. I'm so excited to have so many lds families around here, and especially excited to have a family one door down from us. 

We were almost out the gate when Dan called and said he was going to come pick us up and take us to do some administrative things, so I didn't get to go to the cool Korean store. Oh well. maybe next time. So, we went and got registered, visa-ed, and finger printed. Even Emmett had to have his photo taken so that when they pull up our names his picture is in there. Something that's been a huge struggle since we've been here has been shopping because we don't have a rations card.

They do ration control here, so you can't buy anything from the px or commissary without one, so since we don't have one, we haven't been able to do any big grocery shopping yet. When Shanise took me around on Saturday, she just used hers so that I could get a few things. Nicest girl. 

And that's one of the things Dan had to get for us on Monday while we were in processing, was our rations card. He will go pick that up today, so we will be able to go grocery shopping soon. Yay! 

After we were done with all that in processing, we went to lunch, and then the nice soldier who was driving Dan around took us to the kt olleh building off post to help us get Internet. Nicest man. He's the one who gave us a pack n play and blankets. So they signed us up and had a guy come out the afternoon to install it. 

Getting our Internet installed was kind of a fiasco because he couldn't get on base without me signing him in, but I was the only one at home with 2 children, one of whom was napping. Dan called and told me to go out to the gate and sign him in or he would leave, so I did. I put Emmett down, hoping he would go to sleep, and booked it down to the gate before he left. Worst mother ever. When we got back to the apartment, Emmett and evie were both crying. Awesome. Emmett never went to sleep and probably woke evie up by crying so much. Poor babies. I did finally get them both back to sleep, which was lucky because I had to go back out with him to sign him out. Phew. What a workout. 

On Monday afternoon we went down and played at one of the play areas here on base with Abbi and her kids. Evie could not be more ecstatic about  all of the playgrounds here. Heaven. While we were playing, Aimee, from the branch who lives one door down, called and told me she was bringing dinner over. I guess word got out that we don't have a ratio card and therefore have no groceries. We were so thankful to have something to eat, so that was so so nice of her. 

After dinner, another lady from the branch, Jen, called me and wanted to make sure we were all doing okay and offered to take me to the commissary the next day so I can buy some things. So, hopefully I will be doing some grocery shopping soon.

Everyone we've met so far has been just amazing. They're all so kind and generous and we feel so lucky to be on the receiving end of it. Our experience so far with dan's unit and our branch here in daegu has been outstanding. Today Abbi is going to take me to some of the street vendors off base that sell fruits and vegetables! I'm so excited! Dan took some won out of the ATM, so I'm all set. After Evie's nap, Jen is going to take me to the commissary, so it should be a really fun day. Hope this update was long enough for you.;) 

This is won, their money system here. 

My boy

I was reading through some of my old blog posts and reading my cousin's blog, when I realized I've been seriously neglectful of writing about Emmett. I wrote a post about every month of Evie's life until she was 1, but I haven't posted about my lil man at all. Huge oversight. In all the craziness that moving to Korea has created, I've neglected to write about him, and since this is basically my journal, here it goes.

Our (not so) little Emmett is now 3 months old, and time really has flown by with him. In his short life he has been moved from Virginia to Wichita, Wichita to Provo, and then Provo to Seattle and Korea. He has been carted from place to place and has never complained.

He is huge, but not exactly chubby. He has big cheeks that I can never seem to stop kissing and is in the 70-90 percentile for just about everything. 

Our Emmett is a dream baby, and I mean that he is straight out of my dreams. He loves when you talk to him and tries his hardest to talk back by making the cutest coos and grunts. He is the sweetest and most content baby I have ever met and I feel like I won the lottery because he chose me to be his mother.

Before we moved to Korea, he would sleep a solid 9-10 hours every night, which was amazing. Since we've been here, though, he hasn't been sleeping well at all and I feel bad that I get so frustrated with him at 3 am because he is still so happy and content, but all I want is for him to be asleep.

He loves to stand up or be sitting up, but can't do either by himself yet (obviously), so he expects you to hold him upright all day long. He doesn't like being laid down on his back for happy awake time, so don't even try it.

Emmett is constantly smiling and giggling at everyone. The other day, the cleaning lady walked by Dan and Emmett and he wouldn't stop smiling at her. He seriously wins everyone over as soon as they meet him. He thinks his sister is the greatest thing on planet earth. If she is anywhere near him or if he can hear her voice at all, he gets the biggest grin on his face and looks around for her.

I like to think that he is a momma's boy and that I am his favorite, but I'm the one who feeds him, so that could be why. He squirms harder and smiles bigger when he hears me, so I figure that means he likes me best.

He has black hair and dark blue eyes that are just gorgeous and I hope more than anything that he keeps them. Where did he get dark blue eyes, I don't know, but I swear he's mine.

He still has pretty bad cradle cap, but we are working on it.

After having Evie, he has been a breath of fresh air. I real angel. That isn't to say that Evie is hard or that she's a bad kid, because nothing could be further from the truth, but she was really colicy. I would have nightmares all the time before Emmett was born that he was colicy too, and I just didn't know what to do. Luckily, he is a very mellow and content little dude.

Oh Emmett. We love you so much. Words cannot express how much joy you have brought into our lives. I was so afraid of having you and moving overseas right after, but you've just been amazing. I cannot imagine my life without you now. I love everything about you, beautiful boy, and I can't wait to watch you grow up, but not too quickly I hope.