A Full Year of Wanderings: It All Works Out

Happy New Year!

We like each other. Dijon, France

2016 was great. I am looking forward to yet another year. Yay! 

Now:
Tomorrow is my birthday.
I'll officially be 32 years old.
One year ago I was sitting in a tiny little house in a unfamiliar, new country where I could barely say "excuse me" (important when your regular travel partners are 18 months and 3, and also when you have gas) and I had all of Europe sitting before me. 
I set a goal to, throughout the next year, have 31 adventures for my 31 years of life, and blog about each one. 

Ohhhhh wow. How naive I was. In all reality, my life was so FULL of adventures that I couldn't even keep track of them all. 

While going through all of our hundreds - possibly thousands - of photos from this past year, I became somewhat awestruck, just amazed really at all the cool stuff we've been privileged/blessed to do. Looking back at it all in one big chunk was insane - IT BLEW MY MINNNND. 
We've managed to set foot in 7 different countries, explore 25+ different cities (so hard to count??), travel by train, car, and plane, and take a bazillion different bathroom breaks along the way. We've seen ancient and not so ancient history. We've enjoyed different cultures, food, and languages, and also been a bit humiliated by each on of them at times. We've felt like solid, rock-star adventurer-road-warriors and also have been served many, many servings of humble-pie. I could go on, but let me just share a few...A VERY FEW...photos of some of these adventures:
*I have lots more to say after the photos* 

Castles in Luxembourg

Roman Ampitheater in Orange, France

Boat Tour in Amsterdam

Windmills in The Netherlands

Castle Exploration, Germany

Tower of London

Big Ben and a Couple-uh-Goofballs

Family Hike, Lancaster, England

Berlin Wall

Family Hike, Freiberg, Germany

Happy Kids, Trier, Germany

Roman City Gate, Trier, Germany

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

I could go on and on and ON with the photos, but I'll stop there for now. I'll soon have a separate post of the year in review with photos because they're so much fun for me to look at...

But anyways...

Some adventures were as you saw above - trips and visits, seeing new things, trying new foods. Others were local adventures, like discovering paths through the woods not far from our house, or playing along the Rhine.

But I've got to be honest: other times the adventures involved stepping out of my comfort zone in my everyday life pursuits and just going for it. I am talking about calling insurance companies, figuring out the culture of a German Kindergarten, scheduling car repairs, I mean, even developing a social life at all was an adventure in and of itself. 

Through all of this I ended up adopting this unofficial-but-now-official motto of "one hard thing a day".

When I felt like there was just no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I wanted to do something, I would buckle down and say to myself "I can do at least one hard thing a day" (which seems totally reasonable, right??) and then go for it.

I'll be honest. It wasn't/isn't always easy. For example:
I hated the idea of trying to schedule an oil change over the phone. And then trying. And failing miserably.
I practically had an anxiety attack the first time that I had a 3-hour play-date with a German friend and her child who spoke NO English whatsoever.
I often feel the weight of judgmental eyes when picking Bridger up from school 5 minutes late, or on cold days when I don't have him dressed like a marshmallow like all of the other children. 
Calling people on the phone in German is still intimidatingly sucky. 

But you know what?? The oil change got done, and now I can do it again, much more easily. The play-date with my German neighbor was awesome, and stretched me in a good way. And I'm to show the people at Bridger's school that foreigners can indeed be good, loving parents. Plus, the people that work at his school are sooooNICE. Awesome, kind people. I have no reason to complain at all.
And the phone calls? They're getting better!

With all of the variety of hard things, I've learned this: 

Things really do work out. 

It might take some time, but they indeed work out. And most of the time things work out just fine, and people are really nice and understanding. 
And if not? 
Even if I'm a bucket of stress from start to finish? even if I DON'T finish? even if I get off the phone and I cry because it's just so dumb that I can't figure out how to do something that used to be so simple? ...in the end it still ALWAYS works out, even if it's not in a way I originally thought. And I always end up learning something from it. It gives me courage and hope for the next hard thing, as well as perspective, and good-old-fashioned GRIT. 

So yes - "one hard thing a day" is definitely not too much to ask. I think I could even handle two at this point ;) 

ALSO - I need to say this:
In the middle of all of these adventures, I've managed to learn some German, and now feel pretty comfortable in everyday life situations. Don't get me wrong I AM FAR FROM FLUENT. But I can converse naturally with people, and understand them, and when I don't - I can fake it really well ;) 

Learning the language has indeed been an adventure :)

So now - One Year In:

How would I say I am doing? What have I learned? What's my perspective on things, as opposed to 6 months ago??
Life is fabulous. Dusseldorf is starting to feel more like home in many ways. Learning the language took time, patience, and perseverance. 
Summer was awesome for me socially, and winter is proving more challenging (again), but I feel like I have so many more tools in my belt to get through it with sanity and enjoyment as well. 
My social life is still in the works, but I DO have friends - friends that I love, and make me feel loved - and that is so important. 
My best days are the days that I actually think ahead and plan in my life. 
There are still struggles, but I am so much better prepared to handle them. I can see them for what they are, and I troubleshoot to find a solution I've gained from experience instead of just crying (like I used to) because I didn't even know what my options were. 
I feel like I have a better foundation under me, both knowledge/experience wise, as well as emotionally. 6 more months has made a HUGE difference there. 

My knowledge about myself has grown tremendously. I can honestly say now, after a year, that moving to Germany has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I know, I know...there are wars and refugees and poverty and hunger in the world. I am very aware of that. But for little old me, this has been really hard. 
BUT - but after a year, I can also say that that "hard" also means beautiful, in it's own, unique way. Experiencing hard things, I've learned, provides important, valuable perspective:
I now know what it's like to feel deeply lonely. 
I have experienced real anxiety (new for me). 
I better understand now what my basic needs are, and how I am affected when they are not met. 
I have a greater desire to reach out to others who may be struggling with what I am also experiencing. 
I have learned a LOT about myself. It's been really, really important, and also beautiful in it's own way. 

My life has grown in other ways as well:
My relationship with my spouse has grown deeper roots.
My love and understanding of my children has expanded. 
Bridger's pants he wore comfortably when we first got here are now high-waters. 
And my bald, baby girl, is now a talking, laughing, bubbly little girl with a head full of curls and AWESOME bed-head each morning. 

So we're all growing :) 

Especially my belly. Did I mention I am pregnant? Due in a little over a month? THAT'S been an adventure...stay tuned for more info on pregnancy in Germany. Wooo-IEEE!

Sorry if this is getting rambley, but if you've survived reading this far, I hope you remember that this blog is as much for me to record my life and what's important as well as inform my peeps about what's going on in my life. 

So there you have it. 

Pretty soon I'll have a link to a separate post I am making of photos and captions from some of the many adventures of 2016 (I didn't want to make this post any longer!).

The Wanderings of 2016 in Photos