Newlyweds in the Netherlands

Many people have asked me what it has been like to start my marriage in a foreign country and "how I am doing with married life". I have given a lot of thought to this as I had prepared myself for a difficult adjustment period of being married. Granted, we are only almost 3 months in and definitely still in the honeymoon stage but I can speak to what my thoughts are so far. 


I think that this big move has helped ease the struggles that sometimes accompanies a new marriage. My life has taken a complete 180 in the last few months. For most newlyweds, the only major change in their life is the marriage itself. For us, we changed jobs or quit careers, we sold nearly all of our possessions, moved across the world to a different country--oh and got married. :)


I feel like we've had so many big changes in our life that marriage is just another change to adapt to. We are going through all of this newness together. All of the stress of change isn't just on the marriage and I think that helps. We know that we both only have each other over here and we are drawn closer by this. We try to look at this as an adventure. Sure, some days, I want to mow people over on my bike and other days I shout at people that I can't understand them but the majority of days are good days and I'm glad we get to have this adventure so early in our marriage. 


I think that this move will only serve to strengthen our relationship by forcing us to depend only on God and each other. If we get into an argument, I can't really grab my passport and say "see ya"! We can laugh together at some of the craziness that we encounter. I know he can relate to all the same feelings I'm having about living in a foreign country. And most importantly, this was a decision that we both made together, after much prayer and consideration, and felt that this was too good of an adventure to pass up. 


So, not only do we continue to grow in our knowledge of the Dutch language and culture, in knowledge of bike riding and hand signaling, in maneuvering furniture through tiny spaces and disassembling and reassembling furniture, but also we continue to grow in our love for each other and appreciation for this amazing adventure we are on.