25 years old, 377 days married, 373 days abroad

     These past couple of weeks have been significant for me, as the title indicates. I have celebrated my 25^th birthday, my first anniversary and it has been 1 year and 9 days since we have left Canada.

As well as this, I have been so incredibly busy with many, many good things. This has included celebrating these special events, meeting with old and news friends from Austria, and visits from both old and new friends from Canada! Plus working 7-day weeks between all of this!

     So I haven’t had much time to reflect on the milestones that I’ve reached in my life. I’d like to. The blog is a good place for some reflecting, but maybe I won’t reflect really until we’re back in Canada (which, by the way, is happening soon**), because the whole year has been a whirlwind. What I do know now, though, is that it has been a good year. The year has shaped me in so many ways. These two big adventures; of being married, of living abroad; have played such a role into making me into who I am at 25 years old. In countless ways my character, my faith and my relationships have been challenged and strengthened this past year. I am proud of what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished. I am so thankful for Harry and his constant companionship, his loyalty, his patience, his tenderness, his cooking and our shared love for the outdoors. We’ve face many up and downs this past year while being abroad. Our new life together has simultaneously, and incredulously, shown us both our flaws and faults, and revealed our strengths.
    

     And now as we look towards packing up our lives in Austria and picking up some of the pieces, and starting new, in Canada, we are looking forward to and planning for what will be a new adventure. As we are starting now to financially, mentally and material-ly gear up for this transition, I can say with certainty that it won’t be easy leaving Innsbruck. The closer it gets, the more I see all the things I love about this city, its surroundings and this country- and how much my heart has latched on to things here. But in writing that, I realize that the growth that we experienced in coming here, will certainly happen all over again as we transition back home. Until then, though, we still have some time. And we will be making the most of the time, using all our afternoons, and evenings and days off to enjoy the city, the mountains, our friends and to finally do all the things we’ve been talking about doing throughout this past year.

**We are starting our transition back to Canada in November! We’ll be leaving Innsbruck at beginning of November, travelling for 5-6 weeks, and flying back at the beginning of December! 

- Christi

A sunny river-side birthday picnic.

A lovely visit from Harry's university friend and his wife. Thanks for saying hi as you head back home, all the best to you!

A grand reunion of long time buddies and wives! So nice to visit, show you Innsbruck and hang out all together- it happens far too little, and I am very much looking forward to the next get together!

Update from last blog: we succeeded on Frau Hitt!