Friday, July 26, 2013

A return to blogging...

Goodness, it has been a very long time since I have blogged...

So much has happened since. 

Let's do a quick catch-up post and see if I can get back into the swing of writing...I can't really catch up on everything, so I'll just hit the major highlights:

Shinhae Reagan Ryals was born in March 2013...our third beautiful baby girl!  :)  She weighed in at 7 lbs 13 oz.  We are thrilled that she joined our family!
Here she is at 13 days old, and photos were taken by the lovely +Victoria Burgamy.

Another major life change for me was that I left my job.  It was causing me quite a bit of stress right at the end before I had Shinhae, but I did love the job...I was sad to leave.  Although frustrating, it gave me quite a bit of job satisfaction...the little successes and the folks I worked closely with made it worthwhile. 

The third major life change was our move from Korea to Germany!  Who knew we would pick up our whole family and move to another foreign country after nine long years of being in Korea?  We had known it was always a possibility, but didn't know we would actually get the chance to go so suddenly.  Very exciting...and intimidating...

Not knowing the language or the culture, moving from a huge city to a tiny ~8,000 population town, working mom to stay-at-home mom, two kids to three kids...YIKES.  It was all overwhelming...exciting and highly anxiety-inducing.  I am losing my hair in clumps.  Could I do this without having a breakdown? 

Well, we have now been in Germany for two weeks.  I think I'm going to make it.  Our house is still not quite unpacked yet...but we are slowly getting there.  We are still waiting for some furniture to arrive and I am still getting accustomed to living in a HOUSE instead of an apartment...cleaning is a little intimidating.  BUT...it is SO incredibly wonderful to have a back yard and a garage and a quiet neighborhood where I can take the girls walking at any time of day...oh, and the refreshingly clean air...and the sparkling moon and stars...

It's not all fun and games (YET), but I think with a little help and some time, we will get this house to where I want it and I will be the happiest woman alive living in a beautifully rural German town. 

Both girls start school (German Kindergarten) in September, so I will get some time alone with the baby (hooray!) and will get to settle into some sort of routine.  The hours are strange, but I think I will like it...12:30 to 5:30 Monday through Friday.  Strange, but I'll take it!  No rushing out the door in the morning...only a snack to pack for them for mid-afternoon.  They get home in time for dinner, a little play, bath and bedtime!  And I get to keep them during the morning, which is when they are the sweetest and happiest anyway...hopefully it works out that way.  Another bonus is that it is less than a mile from our house, so we can walk to school and back.  Looking forward to getting started.

Pretty much everything in town is walking distance...but driving around is really easy, too.  Plenty of parking, not too hard to get around.  The town is small, but has pretty much everything one could need.  We've selected the pediatrician/family doctor and she has (thus far) been great.  The language barrier will make it a little tricky, but it seems manageable.  She speaks some English as does a couple of the nurses there.  One oddity of living in a small town is that for immunization shots, you have to get a prescription from the doc, take it to the pharmacy, then pick it up and keep it in your fridge until it's your kid's appointment day and take it with you for them to administer the shot.  They have an excellent ice cream shop (of course, this was an important excursion) and German restaurant.  They even have a Chinese restaurant (which I haven't tried yet, but am planning on checking it out soon).  Much more exploring needs to be done, but all in all, I'm getting comfortable with the town.  Forgot to mention that I also enjoy the weekly farmer's market (yes, there is only one farmer).  That is our every Wednesday excursion with the girls.

Ack, one of the girls are up and need me to come lie with them.  I guess photos will have to follow later...

To a new beginning!

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