Adjusting

The past few months I have learned something about myself that I was not always fully aware of. That is: I thrive off of people. I love hosting people. I love having people to my house and showering them with love. I love to cook for them, and bake for them. I love to host parties. Generally, I just thrive off of being surrounded by people that I love. 

 After Matt and I got married, we moved away from our families, which we are very close to. We moved to the northern suburbs of Chicago. We lived on campus at Matt's school and we made amazing lifelong friends. After moving in, we pretty quickly became friends with 3 other couples. We hung out all the time. We were family. 

 We were an oreo for halloween one year all to get free burritos at Chipotle

 We had the best theme parties! 2 Christmas' in a row we rocked it!

We just generally always had a great time. It was wonderful having these friends. 

 When we got involved in our church we made really good friends as well. We got involved in a small group and we were very close to those in our small group. 

We moved to Chicago knowing that we were going to be for only a short time. Less than 2 years in fact. 

Matt graduated in May and we relocated to Grand Rapids, MI for him to start his PhD program in the fall. God blessed us once again with a great neighbor. We have been so thankful that she introduced us to all of her friends and has gotten us involved. I still have not really had any of them over to my place and have only had our neighbor upstairs for dinner once. 

Basically, I have been feeling kind of bummed out lately and have not been able to pinpoint what exactly it is. When we were in Chicago, I was so excited to move up here and start fresh. New location, new job, new house(apartment), starting fresh. I loved Chicago, but I was ready to move on for some reason. I love it here so far. I love my new job (something I could not say in Chicago), I love our new place (also something I could not say in Chicago), I love the friends we've made so far! 

It feels like we are settling in here. However, I feel different. I don't feel that excitement and that friendship we had in Chicago. Matt and I are trying to get involved in the church we decided on. I know that in time we will grow closer to our friends we've made here and I already feel that happening, and I know once we get involved in our church here things will also fall into place. We will be here 5 years probably and I know eventually it will feel like "home" and like we felt in Chicago. This is just how I feel right now... Time changes things.