Friends
and Family,
Holiday
greetings from the South! This is likely the last year we will be
able to say that, so we’re making it count. We wanted to share with
you all (still haven’t adopted the “y’all” thing) a few
highlights from this past year as well as some of our future plans,
and mostly just say “Merry Christmas!”
Almost
nine months of the last year, Andrew was deployed to Afghanistan. He
left in November and returned in early August. So after missing
basically all the major holidays of last year, this holiday season
has been one of heightened thankfulness. We are grateful to do the
simple, normal holiday things together this year, like eating
Thanksgiving dinner, and decorating the tree, and Andrew not coming
Christmas shopping with me...Though the nine months we were apart was
very trying at times, I think we have both learned much about
perspective and about what we can endure (e.g., Andrew lived in the
desert for nine months and I mowed the lawn by myself [though
technically I think I started crying every time I had to do it...but
I was sort of hyper-emotional at the time and it was a big lawn...]).
Travels:
The Last Year without Kids
When
Andrew came home from Afghanistan, we were fortunate to both take
some time off of work. Andrew took almost a month of leave, and
though it was difficult for me, after working at Georgia Southern
University for six semesters teaching writing and literature, I
decided not to return in the fall so Andrew and I could take spend
some much needed time together. For our reunion vacation, we chose to
visit Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in two travel-packed weeks
(including a drive up the east coast from Savannah to D.C.). Deciding
to spend every second together after not being around each other for
nine months was likely not the smartest thing we have ever done
(read: I forgot how often Andrew flosses his teeth, and he forgot how
much I revolve vacation plans around lattes), but the trip was one of
those
trips
– the kind where you sort of marvel at where you are and what you
are doing and try to remember all the sensory details because you’re
not sure you’ll ever experience something like it again. We ate
Swiss chocolate, rode bikes through quaint Bavarian towns, took
trains through the Austrian countryside, rode in cable cars in the
Alps, and somehow intermixed in our non-Italy travels, Andrew managed
to eat the best lasagna of his life. We had great weather and great
food – and only a few travel delays and one bike crash, which
involved someone who apparently never learned that bikes have
different handle brakes for the front and rear tires. Who knew.
The
day we returned from our Europe trip, we drove westward from D.C. to
Ohio for a family wedding. One of Andrew’s sisters had been married
in New York in May, (in an absolutely lovely, rustic,
young-people-of-New-York kind of wedding), but Andrew was deployed
and unable to attend. So his sister Amanda’s wedding in Ohio was
the first chance we would all be together with Andrew’s family
since his return. The family all stayed in one big house we rented
for the week, and we spent many hours talking and telling stories,
completing wedding crafts, and enjoying the great gift of family.
Amanda was a beautiful bride and we capped the night with a lot of
dancing and pie eating (what a great thing to serve at a wedding).
First
Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...
About
two weeks after we returned from Ohio, I found out I was pregnant.
This wasn’t totally unexpected, but somehow that faint “plus
sign” was still a world-shifter. Suddenly, I was ordering baby
books on Amazon, and eating carrots, and trying to resist buying all
the ridiculously cute and overpriced baby clothes at GAP. On
Christmas day, I will be 17 ½ weeks, and the baby is due around the
end of May. We will find out the gender in January and plan to let
people know (so they
can buy the ridiculously cute and overpriced baby clothes at GAP).
Though we’re still unsure of a name, you can be certain we will
walk the more traditional route – no Bouquet Brussels Brown, or
Opaque Oasis Brown this year. In fact, just to be sure that our baby
will be safe from name teasing, any time I suggest a name, Andrew
tries to make fun of it or ruin it, because in his words, “this is
what all the other kids will naturally do.” That weeded out Ransom
Brown early on, which is obviously not traditional enough and Andrew
assured me would soon be known by his elementary school foes as
“Rancid” Brown.
Go
West, Young Man
As
of our plans today, 2014 will mark the end of our time in Georgia. We
have spent nearly four (pretty great) years here, and Savannah will
always be the place where I fell in love with the South. Though I
definitely won’t miss things like swarms of gnats that bite you and
100% humidity and an alarming lack of coffee shops, there is much I
am certain will be very hard to say goodbye to: our friends, our
church, our soccer team, Kroger, Spanish moss, shrimp and grits, the
ocean, and basically the fact that Andrew and I built a life together
here. We’ve spent the majority of our marriage in Georgia and this
place truly does feel like home.
However,
we knew that eventually we wanted to move back to Oregon to be nearer
to family and to return to the hippie, outdoors-way of the great
Northwest. So while starting over is always hard, we’ve had time to
mentally prepare for the great migration west. Currently, Andrew is
applying for work and we are praying and trusting God that He will
lead us to where we need to be. We pray that this time of change and
transition is one where we are reminded that God truly is good –
that he has been good to us in the past, and will continue to do so.
We trust in His plans for our lives and pray that this year is one
where we know Him more and follow him more closely, even as we walk
not sure of where we are going. He is faithful. And we are thankful.
We
pray your holiday is one of faith, hope, and love in Him...and eggnog
lattes.
The
Browns
