Dear reader,
It's been too long, but let's get back to it! No excuses, sincere apologies, and now let's jump into Adventures in California!!
But first, it's been a busy year so far and worth mentioning a few things that happened...
January 10 (Saturday) - was supposed to go on a missions trip to Haiti, but ended up staying home and being a prayer partner, due to a weird white infection in my throat. Which disappeared later!
Late January - took a weekend roadtrip to Tennesee with Kendra for Grandmay's funeral
February 6 (Friday) - flew out to California to spend a week with Vijo
February 14 (Saturday) - Vijo and I were engaged!!
Late February, March: ...Begin the wedding preparations to continue all spring and summer, including renewing passport...
March 20-21 (Friday, Saturday) - went to our church's overnight Ladies' Retreat
March 26 (Thursday) - Vijo arrived on my birthday for a week's visit :D
March 28 (Saturday) - big birthday double bash with Elisabeth and lots of friends!
month of April - sadly missed going to Germany for Mareike's wedding and meeting up with a friend visiting from Switzerland
May 1 (Friday) - Matt's and Lyndsay's wedding!
May 8 (Friday) - fly to Texas for Melinda's graduation!
May 22 (Friday) - Vijo comes for Memorial Day weekend visit! Late-night pickup in Chicago
May 23 (Saturday) - Kathryn's and Andrew's wedding!
May 26 (Tuesday) - super early drop-off for Vijo in Chicago
June 12 (Friday) - fly to California! to look for apartments
June 19-21 (Friday-Sunday) - attend the Landmark Forum
June 22 (Monday) - fly back and teach ESL that night
June 26 (Friday) - drive to Ohio!
June 27 (Saturday) - drive to PA for Esther's wedding!
June 28 (Sunday) - drive back to Indiana with Derek
July 2 (Thursday) - drive to Iowa for Jason's wedding!
July 3 (Friday) - Jason's wedding!
July 6 (Monday) - off work for special reasons
July 11 (Friday) - fly to New Jersey/ New York for confirmation in the Church of South India plus a quick weekend visit with Ben & Franci & Co. Incidentally, we bought the tickets one week before, and were originally thinking of trying to catch the confirmation happening in Toronto on July 5.
July 13 (Monday) - fly back to Indiana early in the morning, get to work just in time for a bridal shower thrown by colleagues
July 19 (Sunday) - bridal shower at church
July 21 (Tuesday) - some routine heart checks which took the afternoon
July 22 (Wednesday) - finish packing stuff in the car and leave for Des Moines! pick up Kendra and stay with friend Alina
July 23 (Thursday) - drive from Des Moines to Colorado Springs and stay with cousin Erica
July 24 (Friday) - drive to Salt Lake City and stay with friend Rebekah
July 25 (Saturday) - drive to San Jose!
July 27 (Monday) - fly home after a day of rest and loading stuff in apartment
July 30 (Thursday) - pack up everything at work and leave the Warsaw building for the last time
July 31 (Friday) - Michael drives Stacey and me to Chicago with our stuff! Meet parents and Vijo and fly to India!!
August 2 (Sunday) - arrive in India early on Sunday morning
August 3 (Monday) - wedding sari shopping!
August 6 and 7 (Thursday and Friday) - Vijo does his CSI marriage counseling
August 8 (Saturday) - Our India wedding :)
August 11 (Tuesday) - fly back to U.S.
August 12 - 14 (Wednesday - Friday) - Lots and lots of prep!!!
August 15 (Saturday) - Our U.S. wedding :) Got to church at 9am, left after 7pm... Went back to house to finish packing and order things as much as possible... waited for our friends to get back with the car... fell asleep and ate dinner... finally left after 10pm and stopped by our pastor's house to sign the marriage license... drove to our stop for the night in Merrillville and got there after midnight, barely awake.
August 16 (Sunday) - went to join St. Marks' CSI church which was on a retreat there from their usual Chicago location. Then drove to Fennville Michigan for a couple days to ourselves!
August 18 (Tuesday) - got up early to drive to the Chicago airport and caught our flight to San Jose! Finally back in our apartment. :)
August 20 (Thursday) - I started back to work
August 28 - 29 (Friday - Saturday) - I attended the ladies' retreat at C3SV
September 5 (Saturday) - left for a honeymoon in Belize. Got to meet up with Jon and Ranae in Atlanta that night.
September 11 - returned to San Jose
And since then it has been a little calmer, though with other types of excitement that I can share about later.
By the way, this is just from my perspective, and of course doesn't include the ridiculous amounts of prep, late nights, communications, etc. And it doesn't cover all that Vijo was doing... or that my family and friends were doing, particularly in the days and weeks before the U.S. wedding. We're so grateful to so many wonderful people who helped make things happen!
Ok, next up will be some live updates from San Jose!
love,
Sharon
