What a Difference a Year can Make

It occurred to me somewhat recently that it's been about a year since this whole adventure started. Granted, there was a lot of background work that started before a year ago. But we pulled up our stakes in South Carolina and started the orientation process in NY a year ago at the end of September, so it's a mile marker.

As I look back on the pictures from a year ago, pictures in our house in South Carolina, pictures from our farewell tour, even pictures from NY, and it seems like it was a lifetime ago. I wonder if a normal year feels like that. If I were still sitting in my house in SC, still working the same job, still hanging out with the same friends, would I still feel like a year is a lifetime? I can't say. But at this point, my "old life" seems like light-years away.

The past year has been full of highs and lows. We've finally fulfilled our dream of living in Africa, but it's been a tough adjustment. In some ways it's been way tougher than we ever could've anticipated and in other ways (ways we anticipated it being hard) it has been a breeze.  But I'm super proud of where we are right now (physically and emotionally) and I'm psyched to see what we'll be doing in another year.

Taken upon our arrival in NY

Taken just a few weeks ago.