What's to come in the New Year?

There is a mountain trail directly outside the front door of our apartment building. Steve and Benjamin hiked to the top of the mountain where they took these photos.

It's 2009. In general we're suppose to reflect about the past as we head into the new year right? There's a word that keeps buzzing in my head. B'shert. B'shert is a Yiddish term that is used to express when something was destined to happen. For example, one would say "it's b'shert" that I met my spouse.

When I look at the past year I think so many crazy and odd things happened that placed us where we are now - in Korea. I'll give you one little example. Steve had been talking about his little plan of travel for quite some time, trying to lure me with all of the benefits; free housing and utilities, travelling overseas, new opportunities and I think some extra stuff that he made up to sound enticing. Initially I thought he was a little nuts and couldn't think of parting with our very ,very easy and comfortable life in Richmond.

When I became pregnant with Sadie, we knew that we needed a bigger car to accommodate two small children and a large dog. I was pretty intent on buying a minivan. We started looking at Craigslist ads because we knew we wanted to buy used. I found a used Toyota Sienna with low mileage on it and quickly called the the number from the ad. The woman who answered the phone had told me that even though it was a year 2000, the low mileage was because her family was living overseas for five years and they hardly drove their car. They had just bought a new truck that could haul their horses and didn't need the van anymore. That night we drove out to their horse farm in the country to check out the car.

Immediately after Steve stepped out of our car he recognized the wife's husband. They both worked at the Defense Supply Center in Richmond. The husband worked for the Army Corp of Engineers. It turned out they spent five years in Israel with their two children while he helped to build a military base there. Their minivan was shipped there but mostly sat in their garage. What a coincidence. We knew the owners, they were trustworthy people and they just returned from this huge adventure that we were thinking of embarking on. We had to buy this car. It felt b'shert.

After making our plans to come to Korea, the first thing shipped was our minivan. The same minivan that just spent five years in Israel. Kind of weird. There were other incidents quite like this that occurred. But I'm not sure if it was so much the destiny of our car or of ours.

I'm beginning to think my husband suffers from acute wanderlust along with the minivan. Shhh... don't tell the grandparents. When the seeds were planted on this idea to go overseas it started with Guam, then Italy then Germany and then Japan (it has to be wherever a US military installation is). I was studying from our library books on Japan when Steve came home from work one day and told me he had a job offer - in Korea!! At the same time I was thinking where the hell is Korea?? Interesting turn of events.

So here we are. Seven months into this adventure already. I'm not sure how all of this will unfold yet. But we do have some exciting trips planned. At the end of the month we will head to Thailand for a week's vacation. We also hope to take a trip to Okinawa, Japan in the spring. We feel really fortunate and grateful for this opportunity to live overseas and especially during this extremely fragile economy in the United States. I sort of feel like we dodged a bullet.

Sometimes you need to take risks and chances and make changes. One of my favorite books is Who Moved My Cheese?. It's all about change and what decisions you would make if you weren't afraid to make them. If anyone is having a hard time making a life decision you may want to check out this book. As simple as it is, it carries a strong message.

Happy New Year Everyone!

or should I say . . .

새해 복 많이 받으세요

(se he bok ma nee ba deu se yo)

Literally translates to "Receive a lot of new year's blessing"

can you see why it's very hard to learn Korean?????